One of the great
dangers that God's people face in every generation--even the Israelites
faced it--is adding to God's Word. We are great manipulators. We add
to God's Word in order to justify our behavior, to define righteousness,
or to hide our cold-heartedness. After all, a list of man-made rules
is easier to follow than to open our hearts to the Spirit's transforming
power. There is a certain security in adjusting what God says to what
we want Him to mean so that we can continue to practice things our way
whether Scripture agrees with us or not. Keeping our list also elevates
us in the eyes of others, puts us on a spiritual pedestal. Our heart
can be as cold as ice spiritually and no one will ever know. Our list
can also be used to control and manipulate others, to get them to
conform to our standard of righteousness, to accept our manipulations of
Scripture as truth. It's quite an ego trip.
The problems of such behavior, however, are deadly. Living by the list shuts out the Spirit's prodding, quenches His leading. Living by the list gives us a false sense of security in our relationship with God. We can be slowly slipping away from Him and not even know it. We can be using God's Word to disobey God's Word. We can even get caught up in the cycle of the Pharisees. First, they just used their traditions as ways to explain what God meant. Then, they put them on an equal footing with revealed truth. Finally, they supplanted God's Word with their traditions. Claiming to know and understand God better than anyone, they didn't even know Him at all. He stood right in front of them, and they didn't recognize Him. In fact, they hated Him.
And, in addition, forcing others to follow our traditions in order to be spiritual can kill their love for God and His truth. They reject God's truth because they can't distinguish it from our additions. Human rules enchain those whom God's truth has set free. They always hinder growth not encourage it.
Obviously, we must be diligent to avoid such error. We must distinguish between tradition and Scriptural teaching. We must keep our practices within the boundaries established in the Word. We must have a heart sensitive to God and not an external standard of human righteousness to placate our coldness. We must understand that no man is immune from wrong assumptions, wrong reasoning, and thus, wrong ideas--including ourselves. When told that such and such is true, we must search the Scriptures to see whether those things are so. If not, like the children of Israel we will find ourselves so far away from God that it will be nearly impossible to get back into fellowship with Him. After all, someone cannot find his or her way back to God if he's convinced that he hasn't left His side.
The problems of such behavior, however, are deadly. Living by the list shuts out the Spirit's prodding, quenches His leading. Living by the list gives us a false sense of security in our relationship with God. We can be slowly slipping away from Him and not even know it. We can be using God's Word to disobey God's Word. We can even get caught up in the cycle of the Pharisees. First, they just used their traditions as ways to explain what God meant. Then, they put them on an equal footing with revealed truth. Finally, they supplanted God's Word with their traditions. Claiming to know and understand God better than anyone, they didn't even know Him at all. He stood right in front of them, and they didn't recognize Him. In fact, they hated Him.
And, in addition, forcing others to follow our traditions in order to be spiritual can kill their love for God and His truth. They reject God's truth because they can't distinguish it from our additions. Human rules enchain those whom God's truth has set free. They always hinder growth not encourage it.
Obviously, we must be diligent to avoid such error. We must distinguish between tradition and Scriptural teaching. We must keep our practices within the boundaries established in the Word. We must have a heart sensitive to God and not an external standard of human righteousness to placate our coldness. We must understand that no man is immune from wrong assumptions, wrong reasoning, and thus, wrong ideas--including ourselves. When told that such and such is true, we must search the Scriptures to see whether those things are so. If not, like the children of Israel we will find ourselves so far away from God that it will be nearly impossible to get back into fellowship with Him. After all, someone cannot find his or her way back to God if he's convinced that he hasn't left His side.
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