Don’t Substitute What is Right For Traditions Sake

In review of Mark 7:13 it says, "And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

Bottom Line:

Don’t cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition.

What this means to me:

I should not cancel the Word of God in order to accommodate my own tradition, habits or customs. Nor should I teach and enforce on others others my own rules, thus rejecting what God says.

The Pharisees had added hundreds of their own rules and regulations to God's holy laws, and then they tried to force people to follow them. These men claimed to know God's will in every detail of life. However what I’m learning is that It is idolatry to claim your interpretation of God's Word is as important as God's Word itself. It is especially dangerous to set up unbiblical standards for others to follow. It is better for me to look to Christ for guidance about my behavior and let him lead others in the details of their lives.

When Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath, the Pharisees appealed to their tradition, which stated that no one could heal on the Sabbath. Well, Jesus did it anyway! Mixing spit and dirt together he laid hands on the blind man regardless of his objections, seeking the Kingdom first.

There is trouble in doing things “because we have always done it that way.” Recently I read the story of a young wife who always cut her ham in half when preparing her annual Christmas dinner.  She would first cook one half in her gourmet oven, and then the other... just like the women in her family had done before her. One day her husband asked her why she did it this way, as it took twice as long. When the young lady asked her grandmother why this was their tradition, her grandmother said, “Honey, when I was your age, I only had a pot big enough to cook one half of the ham at a time.”

I guess I should never be afraid to do something because someone tells me not to. If what I’m doing lines up with the Word of God, I should “go for it” and not let anyone slow me down.