“He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?’” – Matthew 15:3
When we read the Bible, we tend to say to ourselves, “Silly old Pharisees!” We see them as the fools, foils, and villains of so many of the events and stories in the life of Jesus. We mustn’t settle for this shallow thinking, otherwise we’ll easily wind up like them!
The Pharisees passionately loved God and the Bible (the Old Testament part, of course). They loved God so much that they built mountains of extra rules and traditions on top of God’s commandments so they would never break God’s Law. Unfortunately, in the process, they elevated their traditions above God’s heart and will. Their deep adherence to small details caused profound disobedience to God. In so doing, they became the enemies of Christ we think of in such cartoonish terms today.
As Christians, we’ve often made exactly the same mistake as the Pharisees. We quite often elevate our traditions, preferences, habits, and practices to extraordinary levels while losing sight of God’s true calling and heart. We tend to focus and fight over worship times, music styles, clothing, and even carpet colors. All the while, the spiritually lost continue to face a Christ-less eternity of suffering!
We naturally tend to elevate what we’ve always done (that’s tradition, not Scripture) over the radical following of Jesus Christ. We must always teach and obey God’s Word, but we must also regularly and critically evaluate where we’ve elevated traditions over Christ Himself, preferences over faithfulness, and form over functional obedience to the Great Commission and Great Commandment. Never dismiss the Pharisees without first asking yourself if you’ve become one of them!