The Traditions of My Fathers

“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Matthew 15:2

“I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”

Galatians 1:14

Paul was head and shoulders above just about everyone else when it came to his religious zeal.

But what was it that he was extremely zealous for?

He was “...extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”

He was not extremely zealous for the things of God!

In our own lives, we sometimes can blur the distinction between the two.

We assign, as an edict from God, what is in reality a tradition of man and we follow it religiously.

Paul was very sincere in his belief but he was sincerely wrong.

Many are following tradition at the expense of obedience.

Sincerity will never turn a tradition into a truth no matter how long we follow it.

We can easily exalt our traditions over the will of God and become very jealous and very zealous for those traditions.

We see example after example of this in the Gospels as Jesus confronted the religious leaders about hand washing, healing on the Sabbath,  etc...

Paul had been even more zealous than the people who were now bringing confusion by tacking on all sorts of requirements for the new followers of Christ.

If anyone ‘valued’ their past it was Paul.

But he now understood how Christ had fulfilled the law and that there was no righteousness in keeping every ‘jot and title’ the law required let alone adding more.

Are you obediently following Christ or man?

Are there traditions you keep simply because it’s always been that way?

Have you tried to ascribed ‘credit’ to your account in heaven (at least in your own mind) for keeping these traditions?

It may be time to jettison them...