Articles
The Tradition Trap
The Tradition Trap
Tradition is not the enemy. Google defines it “the transmission of long-established customs or beliefs from generation to generation.” Some Christians don’t like tradition, and in their effort to escape it they fall into the tradition trap. Let’s say someone complains, “It’s so robotic to always have 2 songs, a prayer, a song, a sermon, then a closing prayer.” As a solution, they suggest “Let’s have the sermon first, then a prayer, then sing for the rest of the service.” That’s different for sure, but how long will we do it that way? If we do it two weeks in a row, now we have a new tradition! If someone says, “Well, to avoid tradition we’ll just change the way we worship every week,” now we have a new tradition again! It’s now our tradition to change the order of services every week. If someone says, “Well, we’ll only change it once a year,” that’s still a new tradition. That’s the tradition trap! In our effort to escape tradition we simply establish new ones in its place.
Tradition is not the enemy. In fact, we’re commanded to keep the traditions handed down to us by the inspired apostles in the New Testament. “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.” (2 Thess. 2:15) “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.” (2 Thess. 3:6). “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.” (1 Cor. 11:2). Apostolic traditions must be obeyed and never changed because they come from God! However, man-made traditions like how many songs before the prayer, whether we meet on Wednesday or Tuesday, 7:30 or 7:00, whether we’re going to have one or two services on Sunday, whether we use pews or chairs, whether we have one preacher or two, whether we stand for the invitation song or sit for it, or whether we have an invitation song at all; these traditions are not the enemy. In fact, we’ve adopted them because they’re good and helpful! For instance, we sing an “invitation song” to convict people’s hearts and give them time to repent after the sermon.
Man-made tradition is only our enemy when we raise it to the status of God’s law. When we move from saying, “It’s a wonderful idea to have an invitation song,” to, “We must have an invitation song or we’re condemned by God,” tradition has become our enemy. Jesus blasted the Pharisees many times for putting their traditions on par with God’s law (see Matt. 15 and Mark 7). We’ll never escape man-made tradition; that’s the tradition trap and that’s okay. We can, however, make sure we don’t confuse our tradition for God’s.
