Matthew 15-17; Proverbs 6:1-19
*Click here to read these passages:
“You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
~Matthew 15:6
The Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus why His
disciples broke the tradition of the elders. What had happened through the years is that these men of
religious authority had added rules for daily living to God’s law with the
intent of making sure no one unintentionally broke God’s law. But Jesus tells them it has ended up
having the opposite effect. He
said that what Isaiah prophesied was true:
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by
men.”
Jesus teaches that following all these rules and traditions was
not what mattered, what comes out of the heart is what mattered.
There was a certain point in my walk with Jesus that I had to kind
of stop and evaluate my beliefs. I
needed to know why I believed what I believed. I had to separate what was tradition in the church and what
it was that truly mattered. Not
that there has to be anything wrong with traditions, but the problem comes when
those traditions become so important that they cause dissension in the church
and they trump what God really cares about.
Looking back at that time in my life, which was when I was in
college, I think it was important for me to do this, and it brought me closer
to the Lord. It was not okay to
just rely on the traditions I had been used to … I needed to rethink things and
seek the things that were really important to God as well as what were some
traditions or rules added that weren’t as big of a deal and could actually get
in the way of the more important issues.
It is kind of like in Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus tells His
disciples to be on their guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, and they
start worrying about bread. Jesus
says, “Why are you talking about bread?
Don’t you get it?” They
were missing the point entirely and focusing on something that Jesus didn’t
intend for them to.
When we rely on tradition it can cause us to miss the point. I think it should be an ongoing
question in individuals and churches – Lord, what is it that you truly care
about? Is what we’re doing
honoring you? Is it bringing
others closer to you? Help us not
to miss the point.
No comments:
Post a Comment