by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Somewhere before the time of Jesus, some of the Jewish leaders had taken the instructions for Priests in Num. 18:8-13, where they were to ceremonially ‘wash’ their hands before eating ‘holy’ food which had been offered as a sacrifice, and applied it to ‘ordinary’ food and ‘ordinary’ people. After a short while, this understanding and application became ‘the rule’. As such, it was viewed as ‘sinful’ not to do it. It had nothing to do with health and sanitation; it simply had become their tradition.<\/p>\n
Many ‘traditions’ come about like this. One generation begins doing or believing something, and after a short while, the reason <\/b>behind the action is forgotten, but the action <\/b>is deemed ‘necessary’. While it may not be wrong to continue such a practice, here, the practice was being ‘bound’. Everybody has traditions! Yet they are not to be held as God’s commandments.<\/p>\n
Jesus calls them out on this. They neglected the commandments of God yet held on to their traditions. They set aside various commandments of God and clung to their traditions.<\/p>\n
This simply shows that we must be careful to recognize traditions for what they are: traditions. We must also recognize the commandments of God as the commandments of God. This will require some thinking on our part, but it is necessary.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Hugh DeLong Somewhere before the time of Jesus, some of the Jewish leaders had taken the instructions for Priests in Num. 18:8-13, where they were to ceremonially ‘wash’ their hands before eating ‘holy’ food which had been offered as a sacrifice, and applied it to ‘ordinary’ food and ‘ordinary’ people. After a short while,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-93113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-traditions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62850,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/traditions-traditions\/","url_meta":{"origin":93113,"position":0},"title":"Traditions, Traditions!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Thessalonians 2:13-15 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When two people have a disagreement, there is a strong desire to label the position of the other person. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Often this makes the discussion easier. A word or short phrase is easier to repeat than a long detailed description of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57315,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/improper-sources-of-authority\/","url_meta":{"origin":93113,"position":1},"title":"Improper Sources of Authority","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Heath Rogers \"Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, \u02dcBy what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?'\" (Matthew 21:23). In \"The Proper Source of Authority\" we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62263,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/once-for-all-delivered\/","url_meta":{"origin":93113,"position":2},"title":"Once for All Delivered","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints\" (Jude 1:3). This last phrase means the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52858,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-the-israelites-add-an-extra-week-to-the-feast-of-unleavened-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":93113,"position":3},"title":"Why did the Israelites add an extra week to the Feast of Unleavened Bread?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I'm from a church of Christ. I, of course, believe in worshiping after the pattern in the New Testament. How would you harmonize II Chronicles 30:23 with this? This text appears to show the Israelites adding seven additional days to the Feast of Unleavened Bread with God accepting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85765,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-change-always-better\/","url_meta":{"origin":93113,"position":4},"title":"Is Change Always Better?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer I recently went to my favorite donut shop to get an apple fritter and, to my dismay, found that they had changed it. This was my favorite fritter, so when I saw it was not recognizable, I wondered why they would do it. (Honestly, it was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-these-points-about-easter-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":93113,"position":5},"title":"Are these points about Easter true?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is this true? Origin of Easter: Origin of word, \"Easter\": Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring: \"Eostre\" In her honor sacrifices were offered at the vernal equinox or spring By 8th century church leaders applied \"Eostre\" to Christ's resurrection In Acts 12:4, \"Passover\" in mistranslated \"Easter\" is in some Bibles Origin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}