The Danger in Traditions

 

The Danger in Traditions

By Liz King

    Galatians 1-2

    Many have been hurt by the traditions of man and cannot separate religion from relationship with God. The spirit of religion mixed with man’s tradition can hurt and detour one’s seeking a relationship with God and those looking for something greater than themselves on their quest for truth.  We need to live a life according to the truth of the gospel, not only in churches, but also our lives. We need to break free from the concept of Jesus being a religion and a tradition and live a life in truth and freedom in Christ. I, from personal experience, can understand why  people have a hard time separating the two and the message of who Jesus is gets lost in man based religious traditions.  Hurting the people who Jesus came to save. This hurt then always gets tied to God/Jesus and they cannot separate the truth from the lie. Today, I began to study Galatians in preparation for Sunday.  Today I read Galatians 1-2.  I've read it many times but today God kept pointing small things out to me and the one theme I saw was the danger in spiritual tradition, let me rephrase tradition and put the spirit of religion.  

    How many of us have been hurt by religious tradition and the spirit of religion.  Tradition and religion are creations of man, not God. God is not religion, he is life. Remember as you read this I am not talking about people here I’m talking about a spirit of religion and tradition that influences people. There are Churches that look like religion, act like religion, and hurt the people by pushing religious tradition.  They demand people to follow the rules they have created instead of living in the freedom of Christ.  Instead of living in forgiveness, they live in fear of screwing up and that their sin will always be held against them by religious man. I’m not talking about cheap grace when I am speaking of forgiveness, meaning people intentionally sin with the attitude,”it’s ok, I’m forgiven or I’ll be forgiven” and not having a true heart of repentance. I’m meaning the forgiveness that Christ gives you because of his blood and a repentant heart that is grieved by their sin. They live life knowing that God is gracious and merciful.  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus type of forgiveness Romans 8:1.  They force an unattainable Christ or a blurred distortion of who Christ is.  It’s about the clothes you wear, how much Bible you know, how good you are, how you conform to their idea of what a good Christian is supposed to be. This is a subject very close to my heart because I am speaking from experience.  

  There has been a lot of emotional hurt and damage because of religion and the traditions of man.  It caused me to turn to witchcraft and completely rebel from God because to me God was hypocrisy not truth.  God was a bunch of unattainable rules and not life.  There was no freedom in Christ.... or so I thought.

    Religious tradition hurts rather than helps.  Some churches are man's churches and not Gods.  They make you follow their rules and traditions rather than living in the freedom of Christ and being who God made you to be.   Some people don’t fit in the religious mold. Like John the Baptist was completely outside the religious mold and he was not accepted by those in the religious tradition community. But when some doesn’t fit the traditional mold they are forced to fit the mold or ostracized if they don’t. How can a loving God love you when no one else can because you don't fit the religious tradition.   God made us exactly how he wanted us.  He is not tradition.  He is freedom!! I have learned I cannot base my love for God or God's love for me based on man's religion or tradition.  Jesus is not religion.... He is LIFE!!!  He takes the broken, misunderstood, the fallen, and restores them.  He heals us and he loves us.  God has been so good to me by showing me and teaching me who he truly is and breaking the spirit of religion that plagued me because of what I had experienced .  He has help me heal and move beyond the tradition and live in the truth and identity of who God says I am.  

    In Acts you begin to see the falling away of the truth in the gospel.  Man started inserting their beliefs and opinions breaking up the body of Christ and forgetting the truth of the gospel.  They began wandering from the truth.  Many churches now follow strict religious tradition and rules that have nothing to do with the gospel of Christ.  Some teach a false gospel that has been perverted by their feelings, desires, wants, and needs.  Some only focus on prosperity and feel-good sermons that do not admonish, instruct, or challenge us.  There is no stressing the importance of relationship and repentance in some churches.  It's just tradition. It is religion. It's not the Good News. Paul warns the church in Galatia about the danger of wandering from the truth of the gospel.  He says if anyone teaches another gospel other than the one Jesus preached, they are accursed.  I believe many churches sincerely believe they are teaching the true gospel, but it is not led by the truth of the spirit.  It is led by the corruption and feeling of human means, not by Holy Spirit means. They take verses like the one says Jesus gave a new commandment to love one another as I have loved you thinking that Jesus got rid of the law of the 10 commandments and we are supposed to just love everyone outside of what scripture says. He said earlier that he did not come to change the law but to fulfill it.  He also was talking to the disciples to love one another as he had, people don't read before and after this verse.  One thing I saw studying this I saw that Jesus in his love for his disciples rebuked them and corrected them when they we’re outside of the will of God and in the will of man. He corrected the sons of thunder; he rebuked peter because of something he said against the truth of God.  He pointed out their wrong because he loved them and wanted them to have spiritual truth.  So are we.  Paul did it with Peter. He called out Peter for joining those who were more focused on religion than truth and Peter started to wander from the truth and freedom in Christ. We too, when we see a brother or sister in Christ speaking or living outside the will of God, we are to correct them in love.  In love in spirit and in truth and doing it in love and compassion.  We are not to correct them in a spirit of religion or tradition.  We need to step out of tradition and step into truth.  

    Many Christians now and back then sought to please men rather than God. We want everyone happy and feel loved and accepted, even if it does not line up to the gospel.  This leads to a toxic spiritual bondage.  When we strive to please God rather than man it leads people to truth, life, freedom, and salvation. Galatians 1:11 reminds us that the gospel is NOT man's gospel, it's God's.  God's gospel is freeing and restores and brings hope.  Just like with the story of Paul.  He hated Jesus and killed Christians in the name of religion and tradition.  When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was change.  He was changed so much so, that when Christians heard about it, they glorified God.  When the TRUTH of God is preached and we get out of the religious traditions, God will be glorified.  Only God's truth restores someone to repentance leading to him always being glorified.  If man is being glorified, RUN.  

    So, if you have been damaged and hurt by religious tradition or being forced to conform to the rules and regulations demanded by man, break away from the lies. Get in God's word and seek the truth.  Find out who He really is.  Don't try to seek God in your own understanding, ask God to show you through his spirit and his understanding.  Human logic is flawed, self-seeking, unholy, and is based on our feelings and emotions, not God’s. So to know truth, you have to gain it from HIS UNDERSTANDING.  Christians we MUST conduct ourselves IN STEP with the gospel. Your lives are a witness and demonstration of the gospel.  Jesus did not come for the religious, he did not come for tradition. He came to break it!! He came for the outcasts, the broken, the hurting, the unseen, the emotionally vulnerable, the rejected.  Come as you are and let him do the rest.  Let him make you into what he created you for.  Let him show you that you are more than what man has made you to be.  Let him define you.  Let him speak truth into your being.  We can never get to Jesus or heaven based on our works or the good we do.  Our good does not cancel out our bad! Only Jesus blood and our belief and faith in him and who he really is cancels out our bad. No matter how much we read the bible, or go to church, it is based Soley on the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ and believing in him. Not by man's tradition that divides and makes men stumble and making you in what they see a good Christian or godly person is, making God unattainable. God looks at the condition of the heart not the appearance.  It's not how many hail marys you do. It's not about how much you help the homeless.  It's not about how well you can quote scripture.  It's not about how many bible studies or church services you go to.  It's not how much you give to the church.  It's how much you are willing to give God.  It's about knowing and living His truth, not ours. It’s the willingness to surrender our traditions, feelings, preconceived notions and expectations of what man and religion says truth is and finding out what God really says about who he is. It’s not a gospel of hate, condemnation, it’s about a loving holy God who left his kingship and glory and came to you so you could come to him! It IS about the Good News.