“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain they do worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Matthew 15:8-9

Each family has its own traditions for the things that are special to them, such as Christmas, birthdays, or recipes. Humans are habitual creatures. So, doing something the way it has always been done is usually equated to doing it the right way. While family or cultural traditions are often subjective or trivial, traditions we defend in our Christian walk must always be found in scripture.

In the first few verses of Matthew 15, the Pharisees ask Jesus why His disciples break the elders’ tradition of washing their hands when they eat. Jesus, as He always does, gets right to the heart of the issue. “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition,” (v.3)? You see these same Pharisees, who questioned the disciples’ disobedience of the elders’ law, were allowing their own parents to suffer need “in the name of God” because of a rule they added to the old law (v.5). Ironically, in doing so, they violated God’s command to honor one’s father and mother (v.4). Clearly, the Pharisees’ religious tradition had corrupted God’s sovereign law.

What happens when we cling to traditions that are supposedly scriptural, rather than clinging to scripture itself? Christ lays this out for us in verses 6-9. In verse 6, Jesus tells the Pharisees that for the sake of their tradition, they made “void the word of God.” By exalting manmade stipulations, we degrade God’s divinely inspired word, placing the creation’s words above the Creator’s. Judging our spiritual state by how well we follow tradition instead of God’s commands leads to empty words, separation from Christ, and worthless worship (v.8-9). Tradition can have a way of unknowingly distancing us from God and what He really wants our lives to look like.

Because the Pharisees failed to focus on the Word as the preeminent guide to salvation and godliness, their attempts to worship and honor God never made it deeper than their mouths. Christ said their hearts were far from Him, their worship was vain, and they lost the distinction between God’s commandments and man’s traditions. Believe it or not, we can very easily be trapped in the same mindset. To prevent this, we must contemplate what influences our view of right and wrong. If His word isn’t our number one source of discernment, then something is coming between Christ and our hearts. We must never mistake tradition for Truth. After all, it is the Truth that determines our eternity.

This week, ask yourself the questions below as a way of gauging the Bible’s influence in your life.

• Can I find my views of morality in the Word?

• Is my relationship with my spouse based on scripture, or on my parents’ marriage?

• Does the church I attend choose what is or isn’t in worship from reading the Word?

• Do I examine my spiritual health by making sure the “boxes are checked,” or do I study the Word in search of specific instruction from God?

• Based on the frequency and depth of my Bible study time, am I able to discern Truth from tradition?