You don’t have to read very far in the Gospels before coming across some pretty steamed members of the religious establishment. It just seems like Jesus was always getting into trouble with these guys!

In Mark 7, the Pharisees were upset because some of Jesus’ disciples were eating and they didn’t wash their hands. Now, before you jump on the Pharisee bandwagon and condemn their poor hygiene, you need to understand that it wasn’t just their hygiene (or lack thereof) that upset the Pharisees.

Jesus quotes Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” He goes on to say,

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

Ouch! My guess is that if Jesus were walking among us today, things wouldn’t be much different. Those of us members of today’s religious establishment would be writing scandalous blogs about this Jesus character who is breaking all the rules.

Question: What human traditions are we following today at the expense of ignoring the commands of God? Commands like “love one another,” “judge not lest you be judged,” “go into the world and make disciples,” and many, many others.