Traditions and customs of men in general have sometimes had adverse effects on the efficacy of the word of God in the lives of some of God’s lovely children. This is proven by Jesus’ words. I am especially reminded by a STRONG remark our Lord made to religious leaders who asked him:
Matt 15:2—Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
Jesus’ response was also to throw a revealing question to them:
Matt 15 3—But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your
tradition?
WOW! It is possible to transgress God’s word by our tradition. Following this, the Lord made this astonishing observation which I think many times as creatures of habit we forget or simply refuse to consider the implicatons. He said:
Mat_15:6 … Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
We all know that God’s word or his commandments are supreme and never comes back to him void but in this instance Jesus says the religious leaders he was speaking to had made God’s word in their life of non effect because of their traditions. Our choices greatly impact the efficacy of God’s word in our lives especially what we choose to believe and the foundation upon which those choices were made—God’s word or human traditions. This is a sobering thought. Of course we have many good and moral traditions we should treasure but we also have some that have the appearance of good but are not necessarily good like what the religious leaders of Jesus day were practicing in Matt 15. These religious folks too could have enjoyed the blessing of God’s Word but their traditions kept them from it. Let us all endeavor to respect and honor the Word of God as the sole foundation and motivation for all our decision making. God bless.
