When Tradition Cancels Out God’s Command

Text: Matthew 15:1-6; Colossians 2:6-23

Throughout the Bible the word “tradition” is used in reference to loyalty to man, not to God. Webster’s Dictionary says “tradition” is, “The delivery of opinions, doctrines, practices, rites and customs from father to son, or from ancestors to posterity.”

1. Transgression by Tradition:

a. Nearly all of the opposition Jesus faced came from religious people. The lame man never opposed Christ. The beggar never opposed Christ. The blind man never opposed Christ. Rome wasn’t out to get Christ. His opposition came mostly from organized religion. The Apostle Paul faced it his whole ministry. His opposition came from the religious crowd. Satan’s greatest weapon against the spreading of the Gospel is the backslidden church. It has always been that way and it still is.

b. They asked Jesus, “Why do Thy Disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?” When they asked that they revealed their heart. Their faith was in their man-made rules and regulations rather than the Word of God. The “tradition of the elders,” had to do with the writings of the Scribes, which were held above those of the Law and the Prophets. Jesus and His disciples ignored these “traditions.” In fact, Jesus broke man’s traditions all the time. If the disciples had observed these unbiblical traditions, they would have been committing sin. That is what Christ was saying when He broke with their tradition.

2. God’s Word is the Standard:

a. Everything we do must be guided by the Word of God. It alone holds the answer. It must not be added to or taken from. It is Truth. When Truth is known, the cause of all the problems is the difference in what “God Commands,” (Vs. 4) and what “ye say” (Vs. 5). In Jeremiah 35:1-17, the message was that men are more loyal to the commandments of men than they are to the commandments of God. But God said if they would just obey Him, they would be allowed to “dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers.” God gave Judah a chance to avoid judgment, but they refused and did not repent.

b. In Verse 9, Jesus said, “But in vain do they worship me…” Nothing has changed. It’s sad to think that much of what passes for worship, all the religious activity and ceremonies and traditions, God calls vanity. The phrase, “Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” is the great sin of the modern church, just like it was in the time of Christ. What are the commandments of men? It’s anything that adds to or takes away from the Word of God, or does not “rightly divide the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

c. Just remember what Paul said in Colossians 2:6-10, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: (7) Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. (8) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (9) For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (10) And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:” Is all your faith, hope, and trust in Christ? Or, have you let man’s traditions to get you off track in your relationship with Christ causing tradition to cancel out God’s commands?