Commandments vs. Traditions

 

July 26

Commandments vs. Traditions by John W. Ritenbaugh

For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do." Mark 7:8

Like ancient Israel, we can easily fall back into our former ways. The Israelites rejected the law of God and relied on the traditions of Gentile nations.

Elijah had to take drastic measures to prevent Baal worship from completely eradicating the worship of the true God (See I Kings 18:20-40). Some of Judah's kings spent years tearing down shrines and high places to foreign gods (II Chronicles 34:1-7).

Christ warned the Pharisees: "For laying aside the commandments of God, you hold the traditions of men."

What happens if a person, trying to establish a religion, mixes falsehood with the truth of God? Recall God's wrath when Aaron made a golden calf at the urging of the Israelites in the wilderness and proclaimed a feast to the Lord (Exodus 32:1-5.) Any false way of man flies in the face of GOD’s immutable truth.

Blending the lies of this world with the truth of God produces a mixture called syncretism (James 3:10-13). Christian religions have mixed the traditions of paganism with some of the truth of God's Word. This is no different from what Israel was doing when Amos wrote back in 760 BC.

May HE help us to hold fast to truth and to abandon from ourselves any semblance of the world’s errors that would creep in and undermine our pure faith in CHRIST.