Before we can get into discussions of how the body of Christ was to be “organized” with Jesus as the Head and believers as the members of the body, we must first deal with tradition.
Traditions can be OF God, they can be AGAINST God, and they can be NEUTRAL, meaning neither of God nor against God.
An example of a neutral tradition in my family, is that we traditionally meet at my house for Christmas, because it is the larger of the three in the family and has an extra large dining table that can seat us all. Meeting at my house for Christmas is not OF God necessarily, nor AGAINST God, it’s a NEUTRAL tradition.
But some traditions are “against” or “contrary” to the Word of God, or “anti-biblical”. We Christians are to be especially careful to recognize traditions that were not instituted by God in the first place, and when we see that they do indeed run contrary to the Word of God, then we must dispose of them, before they lead us astray, away from the truth.
And it is sometimes as difficult for us modern people to let go of such traditions, as it was for the Jews that Jesus spoke to in the scriptures verses given below. But first, let’s look at the definition of the word Tradition according to the dictionary:
Tradition: the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice; a long-established or inherited way of thinking or acting; something that is handed down; a continuing pattern of culture beliefs or practices.
Now let’s look at what the New Testament tells us about tradition:
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiment of the world, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8
“Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” Matthew 15:1-3
“Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them. Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” Mark 7:6-9
“For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.” Galatians 1:13-14
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.” I Peter 1:18
One of the most important lessons I ever learned, when I was 24 and first came to know Jesus, is that tradition can be sacred, beautiful, comforting, and culturally uniting. I also learned that it can be dead wrong; dead as in leading us straight to hell, if we choose to follow it! More on that at a later date.
Such was the place Paul was being led to by the traditions of his fathers. According to those traditions, Paul was a model example of righteousness! Paul, by his own words, tells us how highly educated he was, not to boast of his education, but to show us that even though he was a model Jew above all Jews, top of the class so to speak, still he was being led astray by traditions; and destroying the body of Christ in the process.
So will our own traditions (of our fathers) lead us astray, and, if they are not properly disposed us, destroy the body of Christ still….even in this modern day and age.
To better understand how traditions come about, we will take a look at the traditions that the Jews at the time of Jesus held to, how they received those traditions, and what it was that made them cling to them, even to the point of excluding the commandments of God, as Jesus described. And we will see, in the process, the remarkable ways that Jesus ground those traditions right into the dust even by some specific miracles He performed; some of the things that we don’t quite understand, the Jews of that time understood perfectly clear, as they came out of their “traditions”.
Let’s start with Ezra. Ezra had a perfectly good and Godly idea of reading aloud in public the Law of Moses, the purpose being to remind, and to teach, all the people about the Law, as the breaking of the Law was the very thing that had sent them into captivity so many years before...a captivity they had just recently been released from. You see the Law was set up in such a way that with each breaking of the Law, the punishment became more severe, until the final punishment was that the entire nation of Israel was sent into bondage to some foreign nation, like Egypt or Babylon.
Seeing that already there were some amongst his people who were intermarrying against the Law, Ezra had those marriages nullified immediately and began daily readings (teachings) of the law to help avoid future mis-steps. In fact, he even instituted a “School of Scribes” who were known by the Hebrew name of “Soferim”. These were the first “bible teachers” if you will. Their job was to teach the 613 Mosaic laws (yes there are not just ten, there are 613) to the people so that all would be faithful and so that none would cause Israel to go back into captivity as a nation. This was all a very good plan.
But as most plans of men go, a generation after Ezra’s time, there came upon the scene scribes who looked at things a bit differently than the scribes of Ezra’s time. In their desperation to keep all the people law-abiding, they determined that the Law of Moses was not sufficient to do the job...in other words, the Word of God was not enough. (Sound familiar?)
So these later scribes (still Sofer'im) proposed a new set of laws, called “fence” or “hedge” laws, that would “surround” the Mosaic laws (all 613 of them, individually) in such a way that if one were to “break through" the “hedge” of the outer law, at least that might stop them or slow down their course towards breaking the inner Mosaic law.
You could describe the “hedge” laws as the fence protecting your home. We put up fences hoping to “deter” thieves from “breaking into” our homes where the important stuff is. In fact, I've seen actual green bushy hedges so dense, that no one COULD break through them! So, the scribes hoped the “hedge” laws would deter men from “breaking into” the Mosaic law.
You really can’t blame the scribes on the one hand, I mean, national slavery was a big deal for them, having been through it a few times already! Of course, they were desperate. Their first mistake, however, was in thinking the Word of God was not enough, and that they were going to have to take matters into their own hands!
The problem was increased however, when future scribes, the Tanna'im (Aramaic for "teachers"), decided the fence laws of the Sofer'im had too many holes in them. And proceeded to build fences around fences.
Thus, for example, one simple Sabbath law (one of the original ten commandments), once the Tanna'im were finished with their work, now had 1,500 secondary or “hedge” laws added to it. No wonder Jesus said:
“Woe unto you also, [ye] lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.” Luke 11:46
If only one Sabbath law had 1,500 laws attached to it, how many laws were created for the remaining 612??? That’s a tremendous burden to place on men who just wanted to be obedient to God!
So, if their first mistake was thinking the Word of God was not enough to protect them from being sent into captivity again, what was their second mistake?
We'll look a that tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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