Vol 3 No THEO'S DEVOS
Mark 7:8 For you ignore God’s specific laws and substitute your own traditions.
I doubt if there is anything that drives me crazier than Christians who hang onto traditions as if they were doctrines. The problem is so wide spread and so problematic that most of us have no idea we are caught up in them. You can usually tell when a tradition is being touched by the ire that it causes in the people who are affected. Let me give you some very real illustrations.
There is a church where, in the front of the congregation, there is a huge Bible on display on the table where the communion elements are placed once a month. The table needed to be moved in order to put on a play around Christmas time and one of the deacons declared that the Holy Bible was being removed from the center of our church as though we had decided that it was no longer the Word of God.
And that brings up another situation. How does your church celebrate communion. Do you go forward to receive the bread and grape juice (oh or should it be wine)? Or do the ushers pass the bread and the cup? Who resides over communion? The pastor? A deacon? An elder? How often do you celebrate communion? Once a week? Once a month? If the leaders of the church decided to change the way communion was done, would it create a firestorm? All the above are traditions and are not a biblical prescriptions for communion. Any of them can be done without violating biblical text.
Here is the recipe for disaster. If you do something one time it usually won't cause a problem. If you do it twice it becomes a trend but, if you do it three times in a row, the same way, it can become a tradition that you will find very hard to change. Many will begin to think that the way you do whatever it is you do, is the way God meant for it to be done. People may forgive another church for doing it differently but not you. Oh no. It is easier than you think to raise a tradition to the level of a doctrine. We teach our people as much by the way we do things as by what we say. Church leaders should be very careful to explain that something is a tradition so the people do not get confused. We are very adamant about teaching doctrine but seem to forget the power of example.
This can be extremely important. Most Christian fathers would never think to celebrate communion with his family because he isn't ordained let alone a single Mom with her two children but there is nothing in scripture that says the one officiating communion has to be an ordained person, or even a man. It is our traditions that cause us to think that way and Jesus put his foot right on that way of thinking.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you are a believer/priest. Man or woman, young or old, a believer/priest. Please don't let the 'clergy' rob you of your position. You may not lead a church but you have those around you who need your leadership. Life will come at you and twist you mind making you think that you are not a leader, that you are simply a follower and not much of one at that. But that is just Satan trying to nullify your testimony. It is what we mentioned last week. You think that you have to be a John or Peter in order to lead someone for the Lord. But those guys were just like you. Read about Peter and then tell me that he was something special. Listen carefully: the only thing special about the people of the Bible was the impact of God in their lives. And that same God lives in you.
Traditions can be wonderful and many of them need not change but the reason some traditions can be so deadly is that they stand in the way of true biblical teaching and that always comes at a great price. Someone gets hurt. Something is sacrificed on the altar of tradition. “We never did it that way before” has stymied more church growth than any lack of funds ever has. I challenge you to look through your life and ask yourself if there is anything that you do, or don't do, simply because it has become a tradition and, if you changed the way you did it, would it help you be more effective for the Lord. Someone needs you and Satan wants to be sure that they never get what they need. The easiest way to accomplish that is to get you to think that you simply can't do it or are not supposed to do it. Fall for that and Satan wins. He has been winning way too much for my money.
May God bless you as you serve Him in new ways.
Theo
Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)
Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You
SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY
Please Read: Mark 7:1-23
QUICK QUESTION: What are some traditions in your church and which ones do you like the best?
What did the followers of Jesus do that was different from the Pharisees?
What were the Pharisees doing wrong?
How did Jesus explain the concept of 'tradition?'
What did Jesus say made a person 'unclean' and how did that differ from the teaching of the Pharisees?
What is wrong with 'substituting your own traditions?
REFLECTION: What could you do this week to demonstrate that doctrine is more important to you than some tradition?
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