We must beware of leaving God’s commands and holding to man’s traditions.
What would be the strangest thing one could do during our worship service? I’m not talking about sinful things, just out of the ordinary things. For example:
- What if someone comes forward and prays at the front of the church during the introductory piano playing?
- What if someone in the congregation pulls out a tambourine to play during congregational singing?
- What if someone comes in wearing their pajamas? Or a tuxedo?
- What if a child walks onto the platform and sits on the floor to listen to the preacher?
- What if someone brings a laptop on which to take notes?
In our church, these things would be shocking, because they go against our traditions. We sit quietly during the introductory piano playing. We don’t bring instruments to play in the pews. We wear nice, but informal clothes. No one sits on the platform during the sermon. And we don’t bring laptops into the service. These are some of our traditions.
Now, are traditions good or bad? Neither. Christian traditions are good if they preserve God’s commands in our lives, but bad if they replace them. Therefore we must beware of leaving God’s commands and holding to man’s traditions.
Mark 7:1-13 tells the story of a group of people who left God’s commands and held to man’s traditions.
1Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” (Mark 7:1-5)
These are the Jewish religious elite. They know their scriptures and Jewish religious traditions better than most. Noticing that Jesus’ followers are ignoring an important tradition, they point it out to him.
How will Jesus respond? If some seminary students visited our church and saw that some of our people were ignoring a popular Christian tradition, I might say something like, “Well, they have a good reason for it. Let’s talk about it.” Or, “Wow, you’re right. I’ll go talk with them.” I would most likely not say, “You hypocrites!” Yet that’s what Jesus does.
6And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-8)
He calls them hypocrites, then takes a step further, accusing them of replacing God’s commandments with man’s traditions.
9And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” (Mark 7:9-13)
And thus these people are exposed as hypocrites who replace God’s commands with man’s traditions.
How do you know if you’re a Christian hypocrite based on this passage? One word: acting.
6And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-8)
The Greek word translated ‘hypocrite’ here was an acting term, referring to one on stage pretending. The Pharisees and scribes did not wash their hands to pursue deeper holiness and enriched relationship with God. Hand washing was just a prop, helping them act holy and close to God.
This sort of hypocrisy enraged Jesus. Why? Because God wants us. He wants me. He wants you. He wants your heart. He doesn’t want your church attendance. He doesn’t want your quiet times. He wants you. Church attendance and quiet times are only good if they are ways of giving God you. If they are replacements for giving God you, they are bad.
This is nothing strange or foreign to our usual human experience. Consider a husband who, realizing that his wife likes to receive flowers, sets a reminder on his phone to purchase flowers for her every Friday. Week after week he gives her flowers, but is cold and distant toward her. He shows no desire to grow close with her, talk with her or be intimate with her. Yet every Friday: flowers. How will she feel about these flowers? Not only will they be meaningless, they will be insulting.
This is in essence what Christian hypocrisy does to our relationship with God. It insults him and results in empty worship as we leave his commands and hold to our traditions instead.
What does God command anyway?
35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40)
Going to church, having a quiet time, singing some songs—these things are easy. Loving God and people fully and completely as Jesus describes is not easy. It’s not even hard. It’s impossible! You cannot make yourself love God. You cannot make yourself love people. Though you can change your behavior, you cannot change your heart.
Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, we have Jesus. Jesus secures for us much more than a new set of traditions. He secures for us rescue from our failure to obey God and new hearts capable of obedience.
What do you do if you suspect that you’re a Christian hypocrite? Stop acting.
If your lips and your heart do not match, close the gap. Maybe you’re going to church out of tradition, but in your heart you’d rather be elsewhere. Maybe you sing the Sunday songs, but your heart feels cold toward the lyrics. Maybe you speak in Christian jargon that your heart doesn’t really believe. You must close the gap between your ‘lips’ and your heart. But how?
Since you cannot change your heart, change your lips. Start being honest. Start speaking, singing, acting in alignment with your heart. Say to God, “I want to want you, but I don’t. Please forgive me and help me.” Or, “I know I should want you, but I don’t. Please forgive me and help me.”
And here’s the really good news. He already knows, and he loves you. He knows your heart better than you do, and he loves you. When you speak honestly with him like this, he won’t be shocked. Like a father whose wayward son is finally returning home, he’ll run to embrace you.
6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11)
We must beware of leaving God’s commands and holding to man’s traditions, because God wants our hearts.
Where in your life are you pretending Christianity with a disengaged heart? Stop acting.
Where in your life do your lips and heart contradict each other? Align them through honesty.
Where in your worship is there emptiness? Fill it with God’s grace through confession and repentance, trusting in the forgiveness and love of Jesus Christ.
Discussion Starters
- Take some time to catch up together.
- Read Mark 7:1-5. What are some of our Christian traditions? Which are most central to your own walk with Christ. Share together as a group.
- Read Mark 7:6-8. List together the characteristics Jesus points out about the Pharisees and scribes.
- Still looking at Mark 7:6-8 and thinking over the traditions brought up in question 2, which ones might be contaminated by hypocrisy (acting)? Which ones are most tempting to practice as though your heart is in it, when in reality it isn’t? Which ones are, if you’re honest, vain (empty) forms of worship? Which ones are truly meaningful ways of relating to God? Which are the most genuine and full forms of worship?
- Read Mark 7:9-13. Where in the church (meaning all Christians) do you see man’s traditions replacing God’s commands? Where in our church? Where in your life?
- What is the difference between the sort of hypocritical traditionalism displayed in Mark 7, that masks our true distance from God, and spiritual disciplines that keep us close to God even when we don’t feel like it?
- If you had to select one specific step to take in response to this passage, what would it be? Why?
- What can you learn about God from this passage?
- Take some time to pray together.
Its wholistic in approach, relevant to our daily life.thanks