This is quite the liberating chapter. After describing how the church has fallen in line with the rest of the world and tried to force everyone to conform and be the same. In all fairness, "the church" (the universal body of Christ) has not actually done this, but if you looked at our behavior as a body of believers, we have been guilty of doing this. It's unfair to apply guilt to the whole body, but it would be false, also, to absolve it completely of this crime.
Anyway, in this chapter McManus tells the reader that resisting this -- resisting legalism -- is not resisting God. In fact, it's fighting against those things that God would have you resist. I am sure this is liberating to many, because resisting the efforts of a church person or body can be a painful thing that nags us with the implied doubt that we are somehow resisting the authority of God. In fact, though, we are resisting something that would harm us and damage the uniqueness that God has made. Being different is not a crime. In fact, it is very beautiful.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at November 12, 2007 09:36 AM