Tradition

Mark 7:13
And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others. (NLT)

Tradition is defined by Merriam-Webster as meaning an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom). As we have observed many churches over the years, we have seen many different traditions. Three stand out to me as I write this.

The first is the way the minister and the congregation are dressed. Some leaders are in fancy garments; robes for the choir members and a very ornate one for the preacher. Even the congregation is dressed in their "Sunday best" as their parents and their parent before them taught. The woman in dresses and the men with suits and ties.

Then there is the tradition of water baptism. There are those who believe you cannot be baptized unless you are fully immersed in water from head to toe. Others believe you may be sprinkled with water. And some do not use water at all and believe it is a spiritual baptism.

Then how about communion? Some use wine and others grape juice. Some actually tear a loaf of bread in half and pass it out. Others have little squares of a bread like substance while some use little pieces of bread (often stale) or even wafers that taste like cardboard.

When I was growing up my Catholic friends believed it was a sin to eat meat on Fridays. This was not from the Bible I knew, yet they believed because their church had told them so. According to the Word of God, all things are good to eat. Nothing is banned from us now that Jesus has come. Saying they could not eat meat went against the Word that said they could.

It is the Word of God that is the truth and we cannot let our traditions pull us apart from other believers. Nor can we let our tradition overtake what God has said. Just because another believer does something different in their church service does not mean they are not following God. It just means their tradition is different from yours. As long as that does not go against what the Word of God says, celebrate Jesus and do not be concerned about the differences.