BELIEVERS IN CHRIST JESUS AND THE TRADITIONS

1. “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”
2. JESUS REPLIED, “AND WHY DO YOU, BY YOUR TRADITIONS, VIOLATE THE DIRECT COMMANDMENTS OF GOD?"
3. For instance, God says, ‘Honour your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’
4. But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’
5. In this way, you say they don’t need to honour their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition."
   Matthew 15:2-6 (NLT)

• Traditions are deadly. They would always be contrary to the Word of God—the Will and the Plans of God.
IF you live by the TRADITIONS AND the cultures you live in, you may not please GOD (Galatians 1:10).

• As a Christian, you have to ignore the TRADITIONS of men, that you may enjoy the full benefits of the Kingdom (Colossians 2:16,20).
• If you as a Christian still want to be relevant in your town meetings, family meetings, you may never please God and live up to His expectations.
• Your association with the people of the world, those from your town, partaking in all the customs and affairs of the Land; makes you irrelevant in God’s programme for His Kingdom on earth (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15).
• There can never be an agreement between what they do in your Town meetings, and what God has instructed to do in His Word—and the Word specifically given you By the Holy Spirit to do as an individual.
• If you wanted to please your town people or extended family, you may not be able to please God.
  WHEN you endeavour to please humans, you have automatically displeased God, and your pleasing God makes you displease human beings.
• God is Supreme and He should be number One in your life.
  IF you want to follow TRADITIONS, you will violate the commandments of God.

• The Word of God teaches the honouring your parents.
HONOURING your parents includes taking care of them—when you see to their well-being (1 Timothy 5:4). WHEN you do this, you have obeyed God’s commandment (Ephesians 6:1-3).

• In Christianity, you must know what the Bible teaches, interprets the MESSAGES of it correctly, and obeys it in its entirety.

• The Word of God is our guide.
  AND the WORD should not be interpreted wrongly (2 Peter 3:16).

• The Word of God is perfect and complete.
  You use the Scriptures to interpret Scripture.
  DO not take the Word of God out of context AND used it against your Blessings.

• There is the Place of parents, and that of God in your life.
  God should be number One in your Life and affairs!

• When you allowed your Parents to take the place meant for God in your Life, you may have to suffer for it.
  NO one on earth should take the Place of God in your heart or life.

• When what your parents wanted you to do is contradictory to God’s direct commandments in His Word, you should obey God not your parents.

• God Is the Ultimate and Supreme—Number One
  • Basic Truths:

• God is a jealous God and does not want to share your affection for Him with anything or anyone else.

• Your parents are the instruments, vehicles, which God has used to bring you to the planet earth. However,
  you are God’s property, AND not parents' (Psalm 127:3).

• Thus, there is a limit to what your parents can do in your Life, without God’s approval.

• If you allowed parents to take the lead of your Life, direct the course of your Life, you may regrets it in the end; ESPECIALLY if they do not KNOW God.
  THEY could only lead you to the best of their knowledge, in so far they know—as seems best to them: "OUR HUMAN FATHERS correct us for a short time, AND THEY DO IT AS THEY THINK BEST. BUT GOD CORRECTS US FOR OUR OWN GOOD, because He wants us to be Holy, as He is" (Hebrews 12:10 Contemporary English Version).
  IF they are not born-again Christians, believers in Christ Jesus, they tend to lead you according to the cultures and the TRADITIONS you live IN.
  AND usually, the cultures and traditions that you live IN would not be in agreements with the things the believers are instructed to do By GOD in His Word

• God will allow whoever you submit the leadership of your Life to, apart from Him, disappoint you.

• If you find it difficult to obey God, you however always want to obey your Parents; then, be ready for disappointment and chastisement from such Parents—God will use such as a Cane to flog you.
  • If you love your parents more than God, then you are not qualified to be His disciple: "You cannot be My [Jesus'] disciple, UNLESS YOU LOVE ME MORE THAN YOU LOVE YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. YOU CANNOT FOLLOW ME UNLESS YOU LOVE ME MORE THAN YOU LOVE YOUR OWN LIFE" (Luke 14:26 CEV).

• Note: Take care of your parents and be obedient to them within the context of the Word of God.

• Do not allow Traditions of your people to take you away from the Faith.
  DO not compromise the principles of the Kingdom of God because you want to please your parents or people.
• Give priority to God, His work, whatever has to do about Christian Faith, and His Kingdom.

• There is a place for God, and that of the Parents.
YOU should give what you have to God, His WORK, His Kingdom on earth; and also neglects NOT your parents.

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.
Peace!