Tradition versus Relationship

[Christsfreeservant]

“Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, ‘Woman, you are freed from your disability.’ And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. ​

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“But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, ‘There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’ Then the Lord answered him, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?’ As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.” (Luke 13:10-17 ESV)​

There are many such people as these who criticized Jesus who live among us today. They are those who are locked into tradition and culture to the point to where they are not capable of seeing when God is working in people’s lives. They are so locked into their traditional practices that they will openly criticize those who have escaped those non-biblical traditions to truly worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. And they will even accuse you of being unfaithful to the Lord because you do not adhere to their religious practices which are not in accord with the teachings of the Scriptures.

And it won’t matter to them if people are being healed, and if people are hearing the truth of the gospel and if they are trusting in the Lord for their salvation. It won’t matter to them that the gospel is going out to people in many nations across the globe and that the body of Christ is being encouraged and exhorted by the truths of the Scriptures to walk in righteousness and in holy living in obedience to the Lord. What matters to them only is that you are following their traditions, and if you are not, you are regarded as someone who is not following the Lord Jesus.

This is how Jesus got treated, and in some cultures this is how we will get treated, too, if we break with tradition to truly follow the Lord Jesus with our lives in truth and in righteousness and in obedience to his commands.

But let me preface this all with this: The church is the ekklēsía, the people of God who are called out from the world and to God. We are God’s holy people who are to be different from the world because we are being made to be like Jesus in character, word, and deed. We who have been crucified and buried with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, we are the church, the body of Christ. And there is only one church, but we gather in different locations throughout the world.

But human tradition and culture have largely made “the church” into a building, an institution of human origin, a social club, a civic center, a church denomination, a corporation under the state, and a business of human making being marketed to the ungodly in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world and to incorporate them into their gatherings. And human tradition has them gathering mostly on Sunday mornings for a song service and to hear a preacher preach until the next week, then repeat. Some of them also do have small group gatherings throughout the week.

But these gatherings are not the biblical church, the body of Christ, because they are a conglomeration of the people of the world, the ungodly, the rebellious, the habitual sinners, the government, big business and worldliness and godlessness all combined together. And most are not following the biblical pattern for the purpose for why we gather together as the body of Christ, and many have even eliminated much of what the Scriptures teach is the purpose of our gatherings, because they are trying to attract the people of the world to their gatherings.

Now the Scriptures clearly teach that we are to come out from among such gatherings as these which are worldly minded and worldly focused and which are not doing what the body of Christ is supposed to be doing in their gatherings. For we are not to turn our gatherings into a marketplace to be marketed to the ungodly. And we are not to be unequally yoked (united) together with unbelievers (with the ungodly), and we are not to be in fellowship with them. But we are to come out from among them and to be separate so that we don’t take part in their sins and in their punishment.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

But if you separate yourself from the worldly market-driven “church,” then you are regarded as out of fellowship with God and as the ungodly, even if what you are doing is what the Scriptures teach that we are all to be doing. For the church is made up of all of us of genuine faith in Jesus Christ and we all have a job, an assignment of God, and we have all been given spiritual gifts, and we are to function in those assigned areas of ministry as God assigns us, utilizing the spiritual gifts we have been given to minister to one another and to encourage one another in our walks of obedience to Christ.

And we are to be those who are taking the truth of the gospel to the people we know and to worldly professing Christians and to the people of this world. And we are to be daily exhorting one another as Christians so that none of us are hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. And we are to be speaking the truth in love to one another so that we are not led astray by men in their deceitful scheming. And we are not to be telling one another that we don’t want them or need them or that they should go someplace else just because they don’t fit with human marketing plans. But we are to be loving one another.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]

But if you are someone who is doing all that, who is following what the Scriptures teach, and you are taking the gospel message to the ends of the earth, and you are daily exhorting and encouraging your brothers and sisters in Christ in holy living and in walks of obedience and surrender to our Lord, but you have obeyed the Lord and you have come out of these institutions of man which are in fellowship with the world and with the government and with the ungodly, then you are regarded as a backslider of some sort because you do not attend their Sunday gatherings.

And please see that this is the same as what the religious hypocrites of Jesus’ day did to him when he healed people on the Sabbath. He was doing the good that he ought to do but they were more concerned that he not do it on their Sabbath day, mainly because they did not really comprehend the purpose of the Sabbath, which was for the good of the people, not to do them harm. For man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man, Jesus said, and he was Lord of the Sabbath. And now Jesus is our Sabbath rest and we worship him in spirit and in truth anywhere on any day of the week at any time of the day or night, for his Spirit lives within us.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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