More to Church than Moralism

Is Christianity really about rules… or have we misunderstood the gospel?

In this episode of More to Church, we take a hard look at the difference between moralism and true biblical faith. Many people have been taught—directly or indirectly—that Christianity is about behavior, performance, and “getting it right.” But that mindset often leads to burnout, frustration, and a distorted view of God.

So what’s missing?

We unpack how moralism subtly replaces the gospel in modern church culture, why it leaves people feeling stuck, and what real transformation actually looks like when faith is rooted in something deeper than rules.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re constantly falling short… or that your faith feels more like pressure than freedom, this episode will challenge and reframe how you see your relationship with God.

🔑 In This Episode:

• The difference between moralism and the gospel
• Why rule-based faith leads to burnout
• How church culture can unintentionally distort truth
• What real, lasting transformation actually looks like

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What if the thing that many of us were handed and told was Christianity really wasn't the gospel message at all, but was just moralism that was dressed up in spiritual language? Because if your faith feels more like trying harder or doing better or uh behaving correctly, avoiding certain sins, then that might not be Christianity. It might be moralism. And there's more to church than rules. Moralism says that your value comes from how well you perform. Moralism says that God's pleased when you succeed, but disappointed when you fail. Moralism says that transformation is more about behavioral modification. But the gospel doesn't start with behavior, it starts with the resurrection. It doesn't start with rule keeping, it starts with restoring life. So how did we get from a movement centered on union with Christ and and move into a system that often feels like spiritual performance management? I've sat in many rooms where the discipleship sounded more like behavior management than anything else. I've seen sermons that felt less like good news and more like self-help or self-improvement coaching with Bible verses tagged on to the end. And I've wondered, is this what Jesus meant? Because if Christianity is reduced to moralism, then two things happen. The strong become self-righteous, and the people who are struggling just quietly kind of disappear. Moralism is going to produce either pride or despair. But the gospel produces life. So in this episode, I want to talk about the difference between moralism and the gospel message and how we can confuse the two and really why there's more to church than just a list of rules. And so something we can recognize right away is that moralism is performance-based. It's performance-based spirituality. It's saying that my morals are what's going to determine where I fall and my level of spirituality. It's who my being is. And so my behavior where my behavior might not necessarily display who I am as a person because that I can fake. I can fake my behavior. But who I am in here, that's who I am as a person, my being. And so moralism really focuses so much more on that behavior and modifying that behavior than it does on who I am as a person. It focuses on obedience rather than that transforming power that the Holy Spirit promises to us. Realistically speaking, it's compliance mistaken for maturity. It really presents eternal conformity as spiritual success. And now where we can contrast that is here the gospel message, it begins with new identity. It starts with that new identity in Christ. It shows that it begins with a union in Christ. And it starts with that union in Christ before it focuses on obedience. It takes transformation which flows from life, not from a pressure that forces you into that transformation. That's conformity. That's something else. The gospel gives that transformation and it flows from the life. And interestingly enough, not from my own life, but from God's life, from Jesus. That's where I get that transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because if behavior is the starting point, then where does grace come from? You see, institutionally, when we're talking about the stability of our church system, so to speak, it's it's more controllable to use behavior because that's that can be driven through programs. It can be driven through setting up a Bible reading schedule. Say, hey, we're reading our Bible every day. We go to church twice a week, once on Sundays and once on uh some evening during the week when we have a Bible study. It it can be metrics that are measured. And that that allows for a more controlled environment. And we like control. We like being having that power of being able to uh to control the situation. And so that that culture of Christianity uh it really starts to shape into uh expectations, into this list of behaviors that now that you're a Christian, you can no longer X, Y, or Z. Now that you're a Christian, you always have to uh A, B, or C. And so it turns it into a checklist. It turns it into a realistically a law system. The crazy thing about that is that the gospel message is the the fulfillment of the law system, or Galatians tells us that the law was put into place to bring people to Christ, who is the focus of the gospel message. Christ's life is what gives us life. And that gospel message is showing us our need for a savior. It's showing us that you can't do this on your own. You can't follow this list of regulations and turn that into righteousness. Your righteousness comes from Christ. And it's through that relationship with Him that you gain that life from Jesus. And so it shapes, it conditions our life more into looking like Christ so that cultural Christianity really can shape expectation, saying, These are the things that we expect out of you, these are behaviors that we think you need to fit into, you need to conform with in order to show your dependence on this system. And that's how we measure that. And it's often fear-based preaching, saying, do this or else. Um you'll hear a lot of condemnation. I think I mentioned in one of my earlier videos about dangling us over the flames of hell. You know, when we were kids, that's what we hear all the time. It's just this fear-based preaching saying if you don't fix your behavior, then you're gonna burn forever. And a lot of the kids that I grew up with, um, they we I I would talk to them, like, yeah, I became a Christian because I didn't want to burn in hell. I'm like, wow, that's that's like the opposite of the gospel message. Yes, the gospel message saves us from eternal condemnation, but is that the driving force behind the gospel message, the turn or burn, the, you know, that hellfire and brimstone preaching? I don't believe that that's the foundational message of the gospel. It's this fear-based preaching that actually really only produces short-term compliance, because then I become the Holy Spirit. I'm the one who makes these people feel guilty for their sins. And so when they're around me, yeah, they might act a certain way or change their behavior a certain way to fit into what I think things should be. But then when they're not around me, they'll act however they want, because I'm the one who's driving that. I'm I'm controlling their behavior to make me feel comfortable when they're around. Because I have this level of expectation that they need to conform to if they're gonna be a quote unquote Christian. But here's the uncomfortable part. Because if we reduce Christianity to moralism, we actually undermine the cross. If behavior is the solution, then grace is supplemental. If morality is the goal, then Jesus is nothing but a life coach. If obedience is what earns us identity, then the gospel is really unnecessary. Because moralism doesn't need the resurrection, it just needs willpower. So what did Jesus teach if it wasn't moralism that he was preaching? I believe Jesus taught new birth. He he taught about abiding in him. He said, I'm the vine and you're the branches. If you remain in me and I remain in you, then you will produce much fruit. But apart from me, you can do nothing. He taught about empowerment through the spirit. He talked about an internal transformation that takes place from our inside. And that what that does is it it turns, it's not that obedience isn't important, but that transformation changes our motivation for obedience. Now, I'm a parent, I love it when my kids obey me. If I say, I need you to go do this or that, I would like them to go do this or that. But what I like more is when they know the things that I want and they do them without me having to tell them what to do. That's an incredible relationship. That's them understanding me as a father that's understanding the things that I expect out of them. And so they just do them. They don't wait for me to tell them what to do. As a kid, I mean, I could I could be impeccable at obeying my parents if my understanding of obedience was waiting for them to tell me exactly what to do. Now, how how wonderful would that be if I just sat there and waited for them to tell me everything that needed to be done, and then when they did it, I'd get up and do it. Oh, I'm being obedient. That's great. No, that's that's frustrating as a parent. You could see that this room is a mess. Why aren't you cleaning up your room? You know, I I mean, as a parent, I've been there. I've also been there as a kid, too, and listening to my parents say those things to me, saying, This there's so so many things that you could be doing. Why are you just sitting here? It's like because nobody told me what to do. We treat God like that. It's like I can just imagine him up there so frustrated. It's like, what are you doing? You're just sitting there not doing anything. Well, I'm obeying you. You haven't told me to do anything yet. And like, no, that's that's not the point. That's not what obedience is. It's a transformation inside of us that that tunes our heart to God's heart so that we want to do things that please him, so that we want our lives to reflect Jesus, who obeyed him even to the point of going to the cross. That's a level of obedience that Jesus, not that obedience isn't important, but it's that motivation behind the obedience. It's it's it's really the fruit of that transformation that takes place in our lives. And Jesus never separated that transformation from a relationship with his father. So there's a couple of things to take into consideration though, uh, as far as like the leadership structure. What why do leaders kind of default to this um level of moralism? First of all, it's it's it's measurable. It's easy to check off a box and say, oh, they did that, they did that, they did that. It's measurable. The other th the other part of it is it's controllable. They can, if they don't like certain things, they can change the expectations. Well, you did this and this, but we'd really like it if you did this and this as well. So it's it brings a level of control into the mix. And then it keeps things in order, too. We when we set these expectations, when we set a list of rules or regulations, then it keeps order. And and a lot of times we like things in in certain order. And we'll even blame that on Paul and say, well, Paul said if things are going to be done, they're gonna be done orderly, and you have to do this first and then this and then this and then this, and he gives this orderly structure. Well, if you read through that whole context when Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, he's he is talking about order, yes, but he's talking about order in the sense that there it takes away from the chaos. If everybody's just all constantly doing their own thing and doing whatever they want, whenever they want to do it, then it adds to chaos, it leads to chaos, it doesn't lead to orderliness. But in the realm of moralism, when we can put things in a specific order that sets the expectation that if you break that order, then you're now outside not just the confines of our structure, you're outside of God's confines, you're outside of God's structure, and then you're sinning. And really, one of the the reasons that leadership would adopt a moralistic approach to things is because it reduces risk. If I ha if I set all these expectations, then I have less of a risk of looking bad if I'm the leader and my followers are doing some crazy thing, then and I can say, hey, that's not approved by us. Um we do not uh condone this behavior, and we here's our rules and regulations that they shouldn't be participating in this kind of behavior. So that takes me off of the hook for that. Now I'm not accountable for the that behavior because um I don't have to give an account for it. And and here's part of why we as followers accept this kind of uh this kind of a system, a moralistic system, because there's clear expectations. It it feels secure when I have these clear expectations set. Then I know if I do this, this, and this, then here's get the what the outcome is going to be. Um the the rules create a structure and I feel safer in a structure. It it uh it avoids mystery, then I don't have to try to think through things. I I don't have to consider, well, should I do this or should I not do this? Should I participate in this or should I not participate in this? It takes the questions out of it. And ultimately it's gonna make me feel holy. Well, look at how good I am because I did this and I did this and I did this and I did this and I did this. I must be a pretty holy person. I must be a pretty righteous person because I did all these things and I fulfilled all these expectations. And so that makes me feel better. It makes me feel comfortable. It makes me feel like I'm obeying God because I've obeyed these leaders who set the stuff in place. Even though their motives were uh different with than the gospel message, even though their structure is different than the structure of the gospel, but I conformed to their structure, and so if I've done that, then I must be a holy person. So the consequences of this should be fairly obvious. What's gonna happen under this kind of structure is the ones who succeed at it are gonna develop pride. And the ones who are struggling with these this list of rules, they're gonna be shamed. Well, shame on them. Look, they can't even show up to church when they're supposed to show up to church. How shameful of them. And so then it's gonna develop a a reason to hide things. It's gonna it's gonna develop a hidden sin culture within this structure. Because if following the rules is what needs to be displayed to everyone else, as long as I display all that to everybody else, then I can hide whatever I want in the closet and and get away with it because nobody knows about it. Nobody's gonna know what it is that I'm struggling with. And so I keep it hidden. And that's gonna be a result of moralism, is is is really developing a hidden sin culture. Um and then another thing is it it'll develop a surface-level transformation. So I'm gonna transform my life by doing all these things that you expect me to do. That's the transformation. There's not gonna be any transformation here, there's gonna be transformation out here on this checklist. And realistically, that is what leads to burnout. We know, goodness, how many people have just gotten so burned out in the modern Christian culture because it's exhausting constantly going back to this list and saying, oh, did I do this? Did I do this? Did I do this? Especially when that side of it is that if you don't do all these things, then you're going to burn in hell, right? And so it just leads to just a life-draining environment when we constantly have to be on the lookout for all these things that are going to cast us into outer darkness forever, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. It really leads to disillusionment. What I would compare to, like the Pharisaical mindset, that self-righteousness. It's a that's a disillusion. That's saying that my actions are what produces my righteousness. And we know that's wrong. We know that doesn't fit into the gospel message anywhere. And when I go back to that gospel message, I can recognize that when my behavior becomes the center of the gospel, well then Jesus is just an accessory that I hang from my rear view mirror. He's just he's there, but he's a decoration. Um, he's there, but maybe on the sideline. It's really about me and my behavior. So just drawing this back a little bit more, we can see that there's there's gotta be more to church than just rules. There's gotta be more to church than just performance. There's gotta be more to church than just compliance. And there's gotta be more to church than just behavioral modification. Because in the gospel message, there's union, union with Christ. There's there's resurrection life that's present inside of us. There's spirit-led transformation that takes us to this next level of understanding God in the way that we treat other people, in the way that we act around them. Not just in a sense of behavioral modification, but because I know that this person is made and created in the image of God, and so that's how my compassion gets poured out on them because I recognize how much God values them. Under this system of moralism, it really destroys the intrinsic value that individuals have in God, the value that they have in Christ. He looks at us and he says, This is a person that I have created in my own image. That has so much value to him. There's so much value in that. There is literally nothing we can do or say that's gonna make God value us more than he does right now. There's nothing that I can do or say that's gonna make him value me less than he does right now, in this moment. And that intrinsic value that each one of us has in a moralist system, in a moralism culture, it that intrinsic value is just gone. It's negated. It's saying, no, that is not where your value is. Your value is in the way that you follow these rules. If you follow them well, you have more value. If you don't follow them as well, your value starts to go down. And then our spiritual relationship with God is like this over spiritualized cosmic stock market that goes up and down and up and down, all based on our performance. But that's not what's present in the gospel message. In the gospel, there's union, there's resurrection life. There's spirit-led transformation inside of us. There's grace-fueled obedience. That's that's understanding what God wants. And because His grace covers that, covers the times that we don't choose the right things, covers the times that we don't act the way we're supposed to act, then we lead us into this grace-fueled obedience. And it really leads to a community that's that's founded and formed around presence, not pressure forcing you into conformity, but just being present with one another. But that moralist system is something that people walk away from all the time. It's this extreme pressure to conform to a certain set of rules, of regulations, and people get exhausted and they walk away from that. But if what you were handed expecting that it was Christianity, but was really just moralism that was wrapped in spiritual language, maybe what you're rejecting isn't the gospel. What you're rejecting isn't Jesus. Maybe what you're rejecting is a cheap substitute for Jesus, saying, here's a moralist system that's that's based on your performance and how your life, how your willpower can change the outcome of your eternal future. That's a fake substitute for Jesus. That's a fake substitute for the gospel message. And people walk away from that all the time. And if that's what you've walked away from, I'm happy for you. But that puts us on a journey where we can then find that system that's based on the grace of God, it's based on an obedience of understanding God, understanding what his expectations are, and living our life through that. Well, that's all I have for you this week. I'm praying for you guys, and I look forward to seeing you next time.