Truth or Traditon?

SCRIPTURE: Mark 7:1-13
¹ The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and ² saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

⁵ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”

⁶ He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
⁷ They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’

⁸ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

⁹ And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ¹¹ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), ¹² then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³ Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

OBSERVATION: Jesus is rebuking the leaders of the Jewish religion and telling them that they are hypocrites who honor God with their lips but have hearts that are far from God. He also states that because their hearts are far from God they have perverted the commands of God and have substituted their own religious traditions for them. These are religious leaders Jesus is talking to! They are the ones who have studied the Old Testament since childhood. Pharisees had to memorize, word for word, the first five books of the Bible. How could these men who knew the scriptures so well turn them into religious traditions that actually changed the behavior of people into something that ended up being contrary to what the Lord commanded? Do we do the same thing in our churches today?

APPLICATION: I am afraid we also may engage in this. Have we turned salvation into a religious tradition? Is telling a person that if they raise their hand in church and pray to receive Jesus in their heart to forgive their sins such a tradition? Probably not always. But if it is accompanied by teaching that their behavior no longer matters because they are now guaranteed entry into heaven by having followed this pattern, I think maybe so. Salvation, as I read the Bible, necessarily involves transformation. We are changed from glory to glory as we learn about and obey God. Salvation begins by an act of repentance and accepting the gift of forgiveness from God but it does not end there. If our "tradition" of telling people how to get saved leads them to believe they can sin all they want and still come to church and praise God as if there is nothing wrong in their relationship with Him then we have led them into a life of hypocrisy. There may be other areas besides salvation that we need to examine to see if we have been guilty of having "let go of the commands of God" to hold on to the traditions of men.

PRAYER: Father, I look back at the way I have led some people and I feel I have misrepresented both you and your Word. I have not always understood your ways. I am still learning. Keep me from perverting your truth in any way, in my own life and in how I teach others. My heart has always been to try to be faithful in how I present your truth but I know there have been times I have failed. Forgive me for that, Lord, and help me to lead others on the narrow way instead of the wide path. May I be filled with your Spirit and function in the divine gifts you have given to us. Help me to discern any areas where I have put aside the commands of God in favor of religious rituals and traditions. In Jesus' Name, Amen.