Passage: Matthew 15:1-28
Points:
1. Jesus warns his listeners not to nullify the Word of God for the sake of their traditions.
2. Jesus desires heart service not just lip service.
3. What comes from our mouth reveals our heart condition and our faith.
Personalize
We often think of tradition as being a problem for others. When we are honest we discover we all have established traditions. In light of today’s passage, we see tradition as certain thoughts or ideas contrary to God’s leading. We all have traditions that encourage us or sometimes prevent us from following God’s lead in our lives. We are blessed by the success and faithfulness of those in our past. These individuals have provided us a foundation for our service and ministry today. We all have traditions and how we respond to these traditions will affect our faithfulness in the future. A problem arises when we become a follower of our traditions rather than the leading of God in our lives.
The Pharisees put their tradition (religious ideals) above the principles of God’s Word. Jesus confronts their mistaken traditions and he points out: “you nullify the Word of God for the sake of your tradition.” (v. 6) May we not nullify God’s Word for the sake of our traditions. God has called us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we love him in such a way, then nothing will rise above our devotion to him. Our heart and mouth will be unified in its message to love God both in word and deed. Let us make sure our traditions build up the body for Christ’s service and not nullify the direction God is leading.
Prayer
Lord may we be guided in life by your Word alone. We are grateful for the traditions you have placed in our past, but may we never allow such traditions keep us from wholeheartedly serving you. Lord, we commit to proclaim our full devotion both in our heart and the words we speak.
I fully agree with most of your thoughts about Mt 15:1-28. Allow me to add one thing. As a non-American but ministering together with dear believers from the US already many years I come to the following painful conclusion: It is part of our Evangelical tradition to paint the picture in black and white. Either we follow the Lord’s guidance or we follow our traditions. But, that would be an easy one to discern. The problem is more tricky. We are challenged by a foggy mix of God’s revealed guidance and good-looking traditions. Most of my brothers and sisters from the States believe certain values to be divine revelation, although they are only part of their tradition. Obviously they are not aware of that fact. Otherwise they would go and repent.
INSANE-MOG:
We can go back and forth in this topic/argument, point out scripture references, and share personal life lessons on this matter… But the fact is that god’s ways will never be man’s ways. Wether tradition or not, God is after something way more precious then traditions and or religious mandates. The heart of man is what God is most after…
And if we fail to give Him that, then all is in vein and lost…
Much love…