"You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men...You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!"What sparked the conversation? Hand washing.
Well, not hand washing for hygiene, but for ceremonial cleansing. This wasn't merely washing your hands because you went to the bathroom. It was a show the Pharisees put on that had nothing to do with God's commandments.
This verse has haunted me the last few days.
It has me thinking about traditions of men we cling to.
We are hard on the Pharisees, and rightfully so, but I'm not sure that at times they couldn't point a finger back at us.
This is especially true in America. No, we don't hold onto the same traditions the Pharisees and scribes did, but we do have our own. And, they are just as wrong.
One tradition we hold fast to is the right to happiness. We have bought into the myth that God is a loving father who wants nothing more than for us to be happy. We think being a Christian is all about butterflies, puppy dog breath, and fairy dust. We disobey God, so that we can fulfill our tradition of pursuing happiness.
Very few Christians faith costs them anything at all (especially in the Bible Belt). Honestly, you would be worse off if you weren't a Christian. I don't know about you, but I can't fathom what being a believer means to people in other parts of the world. My mind and heart can't quite comprehend what this has meant to 300 of our Christian brothers and their families this week because of ISIS.
The news makes me uncomfortable. So what do I do?
I flip the channel or click onto ESPN. After all, God just wants me to be happy...right? Forget praying for them like Paul would teach us. Let's watch Fallon or read about LeBron's latest choke.
We reject God's commandments in order to establish our own tradition. One of our traditions is the pursuit of happiness. What traditions do you see?
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