Finding your way out of the Trappings of Tradition

I want to begin this post with a few pondering questions:

1. Do you receive other people’s knowledge or information without questioning its validity? 
2. How do you think that traditions and cultures really begin?
3. Which traditions are acceptable to you and why?
4. Have you asked yourself why you think or do the things you do in your everyday life?
5. Are those things Biblically based?
6. Can you differentiate a good tradition from a bad one when it is not so obvious? 

Tradition is defined as: 1. The transmission of customs and beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way. 

1. A doctrine believed to have divine authority though not in the scriptures.

Source: Google

Culture is defined as: the total way of life of particular groups of people. It includes everything that a particular group of people thinks, does or makes— its systems, attitudes and feelings. Culture is learned and transmitted from generation to generation.

Source: Google

Let me give you a popular anecdote to help illustrate what this post is about.

One Holiday, a husband asked his wife why she cuts the ends of the ham hock when she prepares it. The wife responded that she did it because her mother does it. So the husband challenged her to find out why her mother does that too. The lady called her mother and asked her why she cut the ends of the ham hock when she prepares it. And her mother responded with, “Because my mother does it and I watched her do it many times when I was a child.” 

So the lady set out to call her grandmother and asked her the same question: “Grandma, why do you cut the ends of the ham hock when you prepare to cook it?” Her grandmother responded, “I used to do it when my cooking pan was too small and I couldn’t afford to buy a bigger one. But my pans are bigger now and I don’t need to do that anymore.”

The Bible is very explicit at warning us about following the traditions and cultures of men. It tells us to come out of those ways of thinking that do not conform to the Word of God and the ways of His Kingdom. That is why God pleads with us through His Word to renew our minds, so we do not follow the ways of the world and its traditions of men that are many times contrary to what the Bible says. Take for example Romans 12:1-2 which says,

1-2 “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” MSG

Colossians 2:8 also says, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” ESV

Many times we find ourselves not following what the Word says entirely because some parts of it interfere with our traditions and deep seated beliefs that even a bulldozer cannot help demolish without our permission. This way, disobeying the Word or commands of God due to the traditions of our culture takes more precedence than what He has to say. 

Matthew 15:3 even goes on to say, “He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” ESV

As shown in the anecdote as well as in Scripture, some people are zealously driven to follow traditions without asking themselves why they do it, where it came from, and what the Bible has to say about their belief system. In Galatians 1:14 the Apostle Paul tells us how before he encountered Jesus, he fell for this trap of being zealous for the traditions of men, he says,

“And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” ESV

It is true that there are good traditions as well as bad ones, but do we ask ourselves which traditions we should avoid because they do not conform to the Word of God and could sear our conscience when what we need to do is spend time studying the Scriptures to learn what it really has to say about the things we believe? This is how we find the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46) that causes us to forsake all other thoughts, philosophies or beliefs that come short of the truth of the Word of God because 2 Timothy 3:16 says,

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” ESV

Jesus Himself had some things to say about following traditions for the sake of appearances and disregarding what truly matters to God for us. Mark 7:1-13 says,

1 “Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the traditions of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such at the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6 And he said to them, ‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

               ‘This people honors me with their lips,

                 but their heart is far from me;

              7 in vain do they worship me,

                 teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.’

9 And he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, ‘Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’’ (that is, given to God) — 12 then you do not permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.’” ESV

The way we go about searching for truth in the Word of God should follow the example of the people of Berea. Acts 17:10-15 shows this twofold example: 

1. Search the scriptures to see if what you’re being taught is the true Word of God.
2. Fight on behalf of those who teach you true doctrine that comes from the unadulterated Word of God and help them continue to advance and discover more truth so they can pass them to you. The Scripture says, 

10 “That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. 12 As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.

13 But when some Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was teaching the word of God in Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble. 14 The believers acted at once, sending Paul on the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. 15 Those escorting Paul went with him all the way to Athens; then they returned to Berea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to hurry and join him.” NLT

I pray this post awakens you to the reality of the importance of seeking to know God and His ways so you can divide the word of truth and not be shaken due to a belief system that is full of error. What God wants is for you to know and obey Him and His ways, and not be quick to obey what turned out to be someone’s opinion, a philosophy, or an outright lie of the enemy.

To God alone be all the glory.**

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