Jesus focused on the legalism of the Pharisees. He criticized it because while their actions looked righteous, their hearts were far from God, and the lives they lived weren't ones where the Pharisees were falling in love with God and then being led deeper into love with the people around them. They were empty.
Here, Paul is writing to us and reminding us to keep Christ's death in front of our minds. That is of foremost importance -- our eternal life with Christ has already begun. We have been joined with Christ through our baptism, and spending all of our time focused on legalism doesn't bring us deeper into union with God -- it instead takes our focus away from God. So let us focus on how God loves us and also how God calls us to love one another, and may we transform society not with empty acts done out of fear but instead with acts of mercy, justice, and service, each of which is motivated by a love of God and love of God's people.
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