Not Customs and Traditions

Christians look for divine authority for the way they serve God. After all, efforts to worship God should please Him and not ourselves. Sometimes there are those who follow traditions and customs handed down to them without ever investigating whether those things are from God or from men. How long something may have been observed and done does not prove that it has the authority of God. How many that may do this or that is not the standard by which we are to measure.

Christi warned, "Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7: 9). Again He said, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition" (Matthew 15: 13). A tradition is something handed down and a thing is not wrong simply because it is a tradition. The gospel is handed.

What matters is whether it has been handed down from the Lord or from the minds of men. The tradition we must follow is the tradition taught by the inspired apostles (Second Thessalonians 3: 6).