The Centre of Christianity is the Cross, Not Traditions

Here we are at the fourth article in this series, and I’d like to know if you have seen yourself yet.  What does Mark 7 have to say to you?  There are at least three things to see.  The first two are incidental.  The third is the main thing, and I’ll develop it at some length. (First article)

Honour Your Parents

First, this passage tells us what God means in the fifth commandment when he requires that children honour parents.  For children, Ephesians 6:1 says that the fifth commandment means obedience.  Many Christians conclude that the fifth commandment means nothing once the child leaves his parents’ home.  Jesus differs.  Honour doesn’t look like ideological conformity.  It does look like material support.  The Pharisees had said the fifth commandment did not require certain individuals to support their parents financially in their old age, and Jesus excoriates them for laying aside the Word of God.  Apparently, those who teach that the fifth commandment does not require that adult children support their parents financially in their old age are people who set aside the word of God.  What would Jesus say about those who teach that the Fifth Commandment has nothing to say to adult children who have left their parents’ home? 

Apply Scripture

Second, legitimate applications of Scripture are authoritative and binding.  Jesus applies the fifth commandment to honour parents by including something that the commandment did not specify (material support), and he calls that inclusion “the Word of God.” 

Repent of Idolatry

Third, this passage tells us that we must sharply differentiate between the Word of God and human tradition.  We cannot confuse the two.  The Pharisees had elevated human tradition to the level of Scripture, and where the elders’ tradition exempted certain individuals from supporting their parents, and the fifth commandment required it, God’s word was set aside in favour of the elders’ tradition.  Jesus excoriates such people as hypocrites and idolaters. 

Binding Others to Your Ideas

This shows up in our Christian world today when older generations of Christians insist that younger generations conform to the way we’ve always done it.  Younger generations insist that they get to establish their own way and that older generations have nothing to say to them.  Conservative Christians attack less conservative Christians because they don’t conform to all their ideas about how Christianity ought to work.  Less conservative Christians attack more conservative Christians because their ideas are not considered valid.  In each circumstance, the situation is the same.  We are elevating our own ideas to the level of Scripture and making them binding for all people. 

How can we avoid this danger?  It’s a very prevalent danger.  What will test and reveal whether we are elevating our own ideas to the level of Scripture or not?  What will open our blind eyes to this tendency?

One Revealing Test

The best way to become aware of our blindness is to sit down and listen carefully to other Christians who differ from us.  Usually, those who refuse to listen to other Christians who differ from them are aware that if they did sit down and listen, it would unveil the faulty foundation upon which their traditions stand.  We would suddenly find out that other Christians have just as good, if not better, reasons for doing what they do. We may discover that they have more biblical reasons for what they do than I have for my traditions. 

When I Am The Standard

Listening hard to other Christians who differ from you forces you to evaluate the foundation upon which your Christianity rests.  It puts two human beings who differ side by side.  Our inclination in such circumstances is to force my ideas on the other Christian and insist that he conform to what I think.  We strive to align the other person with our way of thinking.  That’s the same heart that the Pharisees manifested.  It is the heart of idolatry because we bow down to our own ideas by thinking they are superior to the other person’s ideas.  We insist that they bow down to my ideas.  We take the thinking of man and elevate it above the thinking of another man. 

We might justify that way of thinking by saying, “I’m smarter than they are,” or “I’m more godly than they are,” or “I’m more surrendered to God than they are,” of “I have a word from the Lord about this,” or “I’m older than they are,” or “I have more experience than they do,” and therefore they need to privilege me and my way of thinking about this.  In each case, we insist that a man listen to the traditions and ideas of another man and bow down before them.  That is idolatry.  “I have become the standard of holiness.  I am the standard to which other Christians must conform.”

I am concerned that much blogging reflects this mindset.  “My ideas are worth setting before the entire world.”

Unless the Word of God clearly teaches what I’m trying to force on other Christians, forcing them to conform is exalting myself above them and calling them to my viewpoint rather than to God’s truth.  I’m worshipping myself and insisting that other Christians do the same.  What I call worship and service to God, then, is empty.  It is vain. 

Welcoming Those Who Differ

One of the best defences against traditionalism and this idolatry in the church is the presence of Christians in your church who differ with you over matters to which the Scripture does not speak with clarity and precision.  The Pharisees couldn’t admit that kind of difference into their community.  It was not okay that Jesus’ disciples were different to what their traditions prescribed.  Everything had to be uniform.  Diversity was a threat.  It all had to conform to them.  It was the only way they could preserve their ideas as authoritative.  Nothing was welcomed if it threatened their way of thinking.

Authority That Transcends Tradition Unifies

The Christian church must operate differently.  We have an authority that transcends human traditions and ideas.  We have the authoritative word of God.  When Christians choose to remain in the same church, despite some of these differences, that choice automatically downgrades the importance of those differences.  It automatically upgrades the importance of whatever they share in common.  One of the best ways to ensure the church stands firm on Sola Scriptura is to admit into the church Christians who adhere to the Christian faith in all its fullness, but who differ on matters to which the Scripture does not speak with clarity and precision.  That sort of church will only hang together in unity if each is willing to set his ideas aside to be part of it.  Only as we cling to Scripture alone as the centre and foundation is such a model of church unity possible. 

A Uniquely Christian Church

Such is a uniquely Christian church, because the gate by which we enter the Christian life is very narrow.  That doesn’t mean I must be narrow.  Instead, it means that I can’t bring all my ideas through the gate.  I must lay aside my scruples and traditions, those things that are merely mine, to love others and live under the banner of a common Christian faith.  That glorifies God, not me.  That elevates Christ, not tradition.  That establishes the Scriptures, not man.  Other Christians stand or fall before their own master, not before my traditions.  Insisting on uniformity or condemning others for failing to measure up to me and my worship of God is hypocrisy.  It is idolatry.

Conspiracy Theories and Deeper Knowledge

If we replace the Scriptures with human ideas, whether handed down or self-developed, we relocate the centre of Christianity and begin to worship a different god, a god who, not surprisingly, looks very much like me.  This is one of the reasons Christians dive so deeply into conspiracy theories and become enamoured with nearly everything except Jesus Christ.  Those conspiracy theories and all the nitty-gritty that fill your YouTube history become a way of getting a leg up on other Christians.  It’s a way of showing that you have superior knowledge.  “I am more perceptive than other Christians because I can see these things.”  How many such Christians fill their “fellowship time” at church with everything except Christ?  How many say, “I am content to be ignorant of all else except this one thing.  Jesus Christ was crucified for me, and in that alone do I boast and glory!”

The Deep Things of God

How unchristian our Christianity has become.  Christianity is this: God destroys human wisdom by bringing salvation, not through superior knowledge or more perceptive human minds, but through a cross that crucifies us. 

The Cross

A stumbling block to Jews

A scandal to Greeks.

The Wisdom of God. 

That is the centre of Christianity. 

So, when was the last time you had a really deep discussion with another Christian about the cross (Galatians 6:14)?  When was your last blog post about the glory and beauty of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 2:2)?  When did you celebrate the fact that nothing holds your church together except a common Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:3–6)?  When did you welcome another Christian who differs from you (Romans 15:7)?

This is Christianity.

I determined to know nothing, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

So let us follow Christ, and let us call one another to follow Christ and not to follow ourselves.

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible.

Photo courtesy Michael Pointer on Unsplash.