When the book of Colossians was written, one of the prevalent Greek philosophies was the idea of Epicureanism. It was the mindset of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Some believers were borrowing from this philosophy and living a “spirituality by experience.” This resulted in a lifestyle we would refer to as “license.”

License would be the opposite end of the spectrum from legalism. While legalism attempted to force believers back under the Old Testament law, license was understanding God’s grace, and then going too far and saying, “where we sin, grace abounds” (Romans 6:1).

No matter if you go from legalism to license; both are wrong. The object of grace is not to indulge the flesh. The object of grace is to walk in Jesus Christ and to serve Him out of how grateful you are for what He has done for you. Don’t use liberty as an excuse for the flesh.

Just because you have a “tingling”, it doesn’t mean that experience is from God. Likewise, the fact that you do not drink or smoke does not make you spiritual. Now you may be a spiritual person if you don’t drink or smoke, however, simply denying the flesh does not necessarily make us spiritual.

People who are trying to avoid legalism often end up in license, and those who are trying to avoid license often end up in legalism. There is a way to avoid these extremes, and we will see that tomorrow as we look at how to walk in Christ.