Dear Friends,
Have you ever considered the things that you do? Why you do them, how you learned them and who taught them to you? Jesus makes a remarkable statement in Mark 7:13 “thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
A tradition is a doctrine or injunction delivered or communicated from one to another, whether divine or human. Traditions are the sayings, ideals, and principles passed down through the generations. Jesus was speaking about those who considered the words of the elders more desirable than the words of the prophets. They were leaning to the things they had learned from others and were turning away from the Word of God. Jesus said this invalidates the Word of God. This means it was of no effect. It was without confirmation. We know according to Jeremiah 1:12 that God watches over His Word to perform it, but He doesn’t watch over our traditions. Luke 1:37 says, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Another translation says, “No Word of God’s will be impossible to come to pass.” Mark 16:20 “…the Lord worked with them confirming the Word with signs following.” The Lord watches over His Word. Not one of His Words are impossible to come to pass. He confirms His Word with signs following. He does not watch over, confirm, or empower our traditions to come to pass.
What traditions have we given ourselves to? What expressions have been passed down that we live by that is contrary to the Word of God? Are we leaning to the philosophies of men’s minds, which we consider to be wisdom, when it directly opposes the Word of God? What is our chief rule for disciplining our children? How about handling our finances? What is our manual for developing our marriage, or any other relationships? In what way do we search out happiness in our life? What are our expectations from life? Have we traditionally learned that what our family members have had to deal with, we will also, and our children? Are we looking for reasons, answers, wisdom, in the deceptiveness of this age, gaining knowledge but never coming to the knowledge of the truth? There is no power to deliver or change in traditions. We cannot disregard the Word of Truth and exchange it for a lie. How great a darkness we will be existing in, when we consider the darkness to be the light.
Mark 7:10-12 “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother.” Corban is “a gift,” “a sacrificial offering,” literally, “that which is brought near,” namely, to the altar: It is the most general term for a sacrifice of any kind. In the course of time, it became associated with an objectionable practice. Anything dedicated to the temple by pronouncing the votive word “Corban” belonged to the temple, but only ideally; actually, it might remain in the possession of him who made the vow. So, a son might be justified in not supporting his old parents simply because he designated his property or a part of it as a gift to the temple, that is, as “Corban”. There was no necessity of fulfilling his vow, yet he was actually prohibited from ever using his property for the support of his parents. Jesus singled out this queer regulation in order to demonstrate the unsound, misleading but clever, and subtle argument or reasoning of tradition and to bring out the fact of its actual hostility to the Scripture and its spirit.
When I was first saved, I did not come out from a church. I was saved off of the street, at my place of business. As a child I attended a large denominational church. The only tradition I remembered was the one that told me that if I ever attended another church I would go to hell. Of course, it was the tradition the devil bombarded me with when I had been saved and started attending “another” church. I remembered back to the number of years I attended that church as a child, and what good it may have done for me. Nothing! I then considered the one month I was saved, hearing the Word, and the changes that started taking place in my life.
There was no question, no discussion, and no doubt about where I belonged. That tradition was simply ignored as a lie of darkness. The power of it was broken and the Word continued to have authority in my life.
Jesus added that the Pharisees did many things like that. This was only one example of the premeditated selfishness of these religious leaders who set themselves above all the people and, in effect, destroyed the laws that the people attempted to keep.
Mark 3:1-6 “He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered.
They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.” These leaders of the people had ridiculous laws about the keeping of the Sabbath. Jesus clarified to these hypocritical religious leaders that God’s law, not oral tradition, was the true authority over people’s lives.
The Message translations says this of Mark 7, “Well, good for you. You get rid of God’s command, so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! You scratch out God’s Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this.” It is time to stop compromising for the purpose of convenience. We actually cause greater inconvenience in the near future because of flesh and sin. Time to put off our traditions and obey God. Where will men stop, when once they have made the Word of God give way to their tradition? At first, they madelight of God’s commandments in comparison with their traditions, but afterward made void God’s commandments, if they stood in competition with them. The Word then has no authority, no power to accomplish, and we, held captive by tradition, a doctrine taught by human reasoning and passed down to us.
Ecclesiastes 7:10 “Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.” This is all false. In former days men were wicked as they are now, and religion was unfashionable. God also is the same now as he was then; as just, as merciful, as ready to help. This does not mean that the cause of the difference between the present and the “good old times” is easily seen, but it shows that the supposition of this difference is foolish, because in truth every age has its bright and its dark sides. This division of light and shadow between the past and the present indicates a want of understanding of the signs of the times and of the ways of God. This dissatisfaction with the present times is self-deception and one-sidedness regarding the present as all dark and the past as all bright and rosy. Yet this is a great traditional way of looking at things. If this is our mind set, we have robbed God of all power in our lives to do anything in the present time. We are being held captive by our own traditions. It is time to start believing something different – the Word of Truth.
Let’s renew our minds to this Word of Truth, giving God the authority to restore our souls, becoming empowered to discipline the flesh. We must deny our own reasonings and traditions, put our flesh on the cross, get in line behind Jesus & follow Him. Let’s get out of the tradition line and get into the Truth line – the place of power, authority, and victory!!
Until next month,
May the Lord keep you and richly bless you,
Pastor Bob
