The Traditions That Rob

UV 1339/10,000 The Traditions that Rob
And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition
Matthew 15 v 6
The Pharisees tried to find fault with Jesus by saying that He and His disciples disobeyed the time-honoured traditions of the Jews. Jesus replied that they only obeyed the commandments of men and thereby disobeyed God. Jesus gave the instance of the tradition of “Corban” by which people could avoid helping their aged parents under the guise that the money was pledged to God as a gift. The rules, traditions and rituals rob a person of the redeeming power of the Word of God and causes it to be of no effect. Most traditions are vain, meaningless and costly shortcuts. Ultimately, the author of many of these ungodly traditions is the enemy of our souls-satan for He is the one who robs and destroys. The traditions grow on us like fungi and give us sops for our conscience that we are leading good and blessed lives. God does not want us to be ritual but spiritual. To be spiritual is a matter of the soul and spirit. It is deep and internal. It is real and causes deep seated change or transformation. It causes a person to enjoy the presence of the Lord and to be so blessed. When we are truly rooted in the Lord, we are always aware of His presence. The Lord is not inert and His presence will release His power in and through us. We will receive His anointing and grace. We will receive and exercise spiritual gifts like healing, discernment, deliverance, prophecy, word of knowledge and word of wisdom. Our communication will be godly. He will not let our words be in vain or to fall to the ground without effect or fruit.

Human traditions have the opposite effect on our lives. It limits our freedom and our ability to enjoy a personal relationship with God. We learn to make do with a poor substitute for spirituality and the blessings of the Lord. Instead of blessings, we will only enjoy the respect and status that human beings confer for conforming to customs. Most of the rules associated with established religion are man-made and have little to do with what pleases God. It made people feel good or look good on the outside like “white-washed sepulchres.” God does not want us to be self-pleasers or man-pleasers but God-pleasers. Such self-pleasing and man-pleasing people are like rootless trees that do not bear fruit. The ones who teach and fight to uphold these traditions are like the blind leaders of the blind. They do not know who God really is and they are not able to distinguish between truth and untruth. They lack a vision. Their passion consequently is directed at meaningless and useless priorities of their lives.
God measures us by looking at our hearts. He sees what we give priority to or set greatest store by in our lives. He sees where our heart is and where our treasure is for He knows that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be. He checks the loyalties of our heart and if we worship Him and Him alone in spirit, truth and the beauty of holiness. He is not concerned with external standards by which human beings judge but He is concerned with what is stored in our hearts. He is not concerned with the food that goes into our bodies but the words that come out of our mouths that are a reflection and outpouring of our hearts. He is concerned whether His Word has taken root in our hearts, whether the Holy Spirit dwells therein and causes the commands and promises of God to grow, mature and bear fruit of the spirit or God-like character in our lives. We need to ask ourselves what are the traditions that we are conditioned to honour from our childhood that does not please God and have it removed by the roots and cast out of our lives.

Prateep V Philip