Keeping My Traditions Mark 7:9

Full well you reject the commandments of God that you may keep your own traditions.




The scribes and Pharisees watched everything that Jesus and His disciples did. They looked for anything to find fault in them. One day, they saw the disciples eat bread without first washing their hands and they were quick to take offense and they came to Jesus and asked Him, "Why would You allow Your disciples to not keep the tradition of the elders in such a manner as this?" Jesus' reply was, "full well you reject the commandments of God to keep your own traditions."

I wonder how many traditions that we have formed through the years that we too hold onto with so much conviction? It is so easy to set the Word of God aside and fix for ourselves certain things that we can hold onto and use as gauges to determine our degree of faithfulness to the Lord and pay very little attention to the rest of God's Word. There are a couple of problems with this event that point out where the fault really was.

First of all, anytime we look to find fault in others, we are failing to keep God's commandments. The pious Jews saw the disciples eat bread without first washing their hands. They would never have done such a thing, in fact, they would have made a public effort to make sure that everyone saw them wash first. They wanted everyone to know that they were careful to keep the law. God's commandments are designed to keep us n check and not as a tool to keep others in check. We are not to use His Word to judge and find fault with others. Before we begin to take the splinter out of our brother's eye, we need to get the log out of our own eye first.

The second indication that stands out is the lack of love in this passage. When our traditions are challenged, it is so easy to get defensive and to hold those traditions up and make an issue of them. Any time we find ourselves challenged, we need to make sure that our response it tempered with love for the other person. We may not like what they are saying or doing, but we must always remember to love them first. When we fail to do that, we fail to keep God's commandments ourselves and we are as guilty as the people that are challenging our position with respect to the scriptures; especially when we are the ones pointing out the offense!

Anytime we begin to find fault with others, we need to challenge ourselves to first make sure that we follow God's Word and keep His commandments. We need to make sure that our priorities are in the right place and our relationship with the Lord is where it ought to be as He would have it be. When I do that, I find out that there is always more than enough room for improvement in my own life and the need for me to straighten someone else out kind of fades into the background! It is amazing how the Holy Spirit can do His job when I live my life before others the way that God would have me live it!

When the temptation comes to criticize someone else, pray. When the temptation comes to get angry, pray. When the temptation comes in any form, pray! What a blessing prayer is indeed!