Commands or Traditions

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

COMMANDS OR TRADITIONS

Mark 7:1-8

7:1 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." 

NIV

There is more to this exchange or rather response of Jesus, but there is enough here and His further response has some other issues we can consider. For now, let us focus on this issue of the commands of God versus the traditions of men. When we first became Christian we were immediately instructed in the traditions of men rather than the commands of God. We speak only in a personal sense here, as we cannot know when and how everyone else started off with their journey in Christendom. We were instructed that above all else we were to refrain from dancing, smoking, drinking, movies, roller rinks, or God forbid that boys and girls should go swimming together. Of course, women should also dress appropriately, that is dresses, not pants, and men would never dream of having long hair, or woman short hair. Oh, the holiness of all that was so God-like, at least that was their thinking. However, they could have never been as wrong as when we read the bible we could not find one command of God that included any of those traditions of men they had instructed us in. Oh, we found some of the Old Testament laws, but even they did not restrict smoking, drinking, and dancing. Of course, the Old Testament said absolutely nothing about movies, roller rinks, or mixed swimming, or even what kind of clothing was acceptable and what wasn’t. Some of these traditions have fallen by the wayside, while others are still be held to.  Paul does give New Testament instructions to the Corinthians regarding woman’s long hair as their glory and should be covered when they pray and long hair on a man is a disgrace to him. However, that is only the New Testament, so many of us do not hold to that as much as we hold to our own self-made traditions. Jesus made it abundantly clear that in holding on to certain traditions of men, saying that if we are a Christian we would not do this or that, but do not hold to the actual commands of God, Jesus calls us hypocrites. That is really strong language. If we are going to be judged as to how “Good a Christian” we are by what we do not do, why are we not judged by what we are doing? Then, on the other hand, we are not free to go and do whatever we want to do as far as displeasing God, which would be sin so that His grace can abound. There are behaviors as well as attitudes that we should live out in a manner that is pleasing to God. Behaviors such as loving Him with our whole being and loving all others as we love ourselves. If we actually love others, then we would do them no harm. We would not judge them or let us say, make them feel guilty because they are not following the traditions of men we deem to have validity. We would not gossip about them either, or hold any type of ill-feelings about them, like a grudge. We would never be jealous or envious of them or feel prideful that we are better than they are, especially when it comes to those traditions we hold so dear. Then when it comes to our own lives, we would certainly not be anxious or afraid of anything, for Jesus has assured us that he has given us rest for our souls and His peace. If anything, we would live in perfect harmony within and without. Then we would be fulfilling the commands of God rather than our traditions. We could consider this ad nauseam, or at least so much it would take a book rather than some short thoughts about these words of Jesus. However, it still comes down to commands or traditions.