Traditions and the Word of God

"So you are teaching that it is not important to do what God said. You think it is more important to follow those traditions you have, which you pass on to others. And you do many things like that." - Mark 7:13 ERV

Devotion

In our verse for today, Jesus accuses the Pharisees and teachers of the law of Moses of being more committed to their traditional interpretations of the law of Moses than to the law of Moses itself. As an example of this, Jesus pointed out that "Moses said, ‘You must respect your father and mother.' He also said, ‘Whoever says anything bad to their father or mother must be killed.' But you teach that people can say to their father or mother, ‘I have something I could use to help you, but I will not use it for you. I will give it to God.' You are telling people that they do not have to do anything for their father or mother." (Mark 7:10-12)

The Pharisees, one might say, were the religious conservatives of their day. They placed a high value on their traditions. Indeed, according to Jesus, they placed too high a value on them. The traditions became more important to them than the Word of God as given by Moses.

Jesus' critique of the Pharisees should be taken as a warning for us. Just like the Pharisees, we have traditions. We have traditional interpretations of the Word of God and traditional ways of doing things based on our traditional interpretations. There is nothing wrong with having traditions. Indeed, having traditions is unavoidable. The problem comes when we do what the Pharisees did. The problem comes when we allow pride in our traditions to supersede our commitment to the Word of God.

No Christian, of course, consciously decides that their traditions are more important than the Word of God. Instead, the problem tends to creep up on people. Often, the problem arises among people that have been raised from youth with particular traditions and they simply assume that the traditions and the Word of God are, virtually, one and the same. They simply assume that the giants of their traditions got it right, unlike the giants of all the other traditions.

The solution to the problem is not to throw out traditions in a cavalier manner. That's what religious liberals tend to do. The solution is to recognize the problem and then carefully surrender to the Word of God with a prayerful dependence upon the Spirit of God.