Explore the Bible Series for August 6: Fear God, but beware legalism

Posted: 7/26/06

Explore the Bible Series for August 6

Fear God, but beware legalism

• Ecclesiastes 7:1-8:17

By James Adair

Baptist University of the Americas, San Antonio

In his Nicomachean Ethics, the great philosopher Aristotle discusses the “doctrine of the mean.” He says the excellence of a thing, be it a human or a horse, may be defined as its ability to perform its function well. Further, he says, “well” may be defined as that point midway between excess and deficiency, that is, the mean.

Aristotle’s discussion is sometimes summarized by the saying, “all things in moderation.” Many other philosophers, from Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy, to the Stoics accepted the same principle, which is sometimes expressed as “nothing to excess.”

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How universally applicable is this principle? In Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Anne asks her guardian Matthew a telling question: “Which would you rather be if you had the choice—divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good?” Clearly Anne was not one who was inclined toward moderation!

It must be acknowledged that many notable people seem to ignore the doctrine of the mean, committing themselves to extremes of one sort or another. What great accomplishments would never have been reached without commitment to extreme? What great tragedies could have been avoided?

Perhaps a more relevant question for modern Christians is whether the Christian life should be characterized by the pursuit of extremes or by moderation. The monks who forsook their normal lives and went to live in the deserts of Syria and Egypt beginning in the third century certainly were extreme in their practice, and few today, even if they acknowledge their virtuous lives, would want to follow their example.

Some extreme elements of the Radical Reformation in the 16th century took over the city of Münster, Germany, because they were convinced their radical acts would hasten the Second Coming of Christ.

Such extreme acts in the name of religion are rightly condemned today, even by people who share a common faith tradition. These and numerous other examples from church history would seem to support the principle of moderation.

Ecclesiastes 7:15-18

The condemnation of the lukewarm in Revelation 3:16 is probably a reference to the tepid water of the city of Laodicea rather than a rebuke of moderation between extreme goodness and extreme wickedness, so what other biblical texts might address the question of “living in the mean”?

Perhaps the most obvious is this somewhat enigmatic passage in Ecclesiastes. The teacher advocates his followers not be too righteous or too wise, but at the same time, they should not be too wicked or too foolish. Does he want people to strike a balance between righteousness and wickedness, between wisdom and foolishness? Is he advocating a life characterized by a few good deeds, and a few bad deeds, and so forth? No! That interpretation is inconsistent with both the immediate context and the overall thrust of the book.

What the teacher is saying is sometimes there is room for debate over what is good and what is bad, what is wise and what is foolish. The attitude to be avoided is the commitment to an extreme position without any flexibility. The idea that the only correct view of the world is the way your church views it is a dangerous point of view, according to the teacher.

It is one thing to be committed to your beliefs, but it is another to condemn all those with whom you disagree. The middle ground between these groups should center on “fearing God” (7:18) rather than legalism.

Ecclesiastes 8:14-17

One of the primary conclusions the teacher draws as a result of his investigation of life is that life isn’t always fair. Sometimes the righteous are treated as though they are wicked, and sometimes the wicked are treated as though they are righteous. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t pursue righteousness, but it does caution against the assumption that the righteous will receive tangible rewards from God. The teacher would agree with the statement that righteousness is its own reward.

How should people live their lives? Eat, drink and be merry! The teacher is not advocating a lifestyle of wanton excess (remember his advocacy of moderation), but neither does he think a life of misery and gloom is spiritually beneficial. Bad things will come to everyone in life, he says, so there is no reason to go out looking for them. Life is a gift from God, and it should be enjoyed.

The idea that the spirit is good and the flesh is bad, so prevalent in the first several Christian centuries, is based on certain strains of Greek philosophy, not on either the Old Testament or the teachings of Jesus. In fact, Jesus’ own disciples were criticized for being too free in their interpretation of the law (that is, they were too moderate). Life was made for enjoyment, and God’s people should live life to the fullest.

That will mean different things to different people, but if we will remember that a life lived in the mean precludes us from judging the reasonable choices of other people, our own enjoyment of life will increase, and so will that of people with whom we interact.

Discussion questions

• How does the principle of moderation apply to living a life of virtue? To pursuing wisdom? To getting along with other believers?

• How does the principle of moderation apply to living the Christian life in a secular world? Are there exceptions to the idea of “living in the mean”?