Tradition or Doctrine?

The topic on my heart tonight is one that is somewhat controversial and may not be well received, but I think it is worth discussing. Now if you weren't a Christian since childhood, it may not make a lot of sense to you; but if you were raised in the church like I was, please hear me out.

A photo with #3 from last year

As I have matured into an adult, there were many steps along the way that taught me that life is a lot more complicated than the simple world of my childhood. From moving out on my own, to joining the military, to getting married, I have learned so much in the last few years - and of course, this is just another step in the journey, God is far from finished with me yet, and I know I have so much more to learn. But with much thought and prayer, with experiences ranging the spectrum from amazingly, unbelievably blissful to life-threatening and permanently scarring, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of what I learned in the Christian churches of my childhood wasn't true.

And the main reason for that is this: a lot of what is taught in Christian literature, families, and church pulpits today didn't come from God, but rather from people.

Let's be honest. A lot of the Bible is very clear, black-and-white if you will, but there is a lot of gray area that is open to interpretation and personal conviction. Moreover, a lot of what people think is black-and-white, when taken in context with the original languages and the culture of the day, really isn't so cut and dried as we've always been told. So much of what we're taught as doctrine today can be more accurately called tradition.

I'm not knocking tradition. In fact, I love traditions. But they are just that - traditions, not unchangeable and not absolutes.

Before you call me heretical, stop and think of a well-known, wide-spread church teaching. Got one in mind? Good. Now start thinking about the Bible verses usually used to support that teaching. Do those Bible verses ACTUALLY outline and delineate that teaching, or have they been twisted, used out of context, and influenced into supporting someone's opinion? Note: this may require actually analyzing the context, original language, etc. and that is a lot more work than most Christians today want to put into it, choosing rather to accept what they have been told than to find out for themselves.

Part of my journey in learning to make my faith real was learning that things are not always what they seem. For awhile I questioned God, since the God I was starting to see and understand did not look much like the God I had been told about. The God I've come to know is concerned with the status of my heart, not the outward appearances. He doesn't care about the length of my clothes, the job that I work, or what I do with my money nearly so much as He cares about whether I love Him and the people He has made and placed in my life. He doesn't have some kind of cosmic check-off list involving things you can do to please Him - He's made it very clear what He desires of us, and most of the things we're told to do in order to please Him are far from pleasing.

Possibly the worst part of this image, however, is the inherent hypocrisy of the church that teaches against it and yet still practices it. We are told that the Bible forbids smoking (under the pretext of taking care of the body) in the middle of a sermon preached by an obese minister. We are admonished against gossip and then invited to social events involving nothing but empty chatter. I heard a sermon preached on tithing which used Biblical authority to declare the congregants to be in sin if tithing less than 10% - but anything over that amount is perfectly acceptable. I've heard well-meaning and sincere brothers and sisters emphatically declare that this or that is how God wants them to do things (clothing, money, work, etc) and be in complete contradiction of each other, each believing the other wrong and misquoting Bible passages to support their beliefs.

Is God contradictory? Is He a deity of confusion, of fickleness, or of hypocrisy? Is any of this really concerning to Him or is it our hearts that interest Him?

The problem is that when you accept His directive to love God first and love your neighbor as yourself as being the most important thing to Him (after all, He stated that this is His greatest and only commandment - Mark 12:29-31), you realize that all those other things that seemed so important are really insignificant. If my brother feels led to a certain line of work, then that is between him and God and really none of my concern. If my sister feels personally convicted about a certain type of clothing, what is that to me? Neither of us are more or less holy for following our own personal relationships with God. Let Him take care of all that other stuff.

But see, here's where it becomes radical. Because we're not used to letting go of stuff like that. If you're still holding on to the traditions, it can get downright uncomfortable.

Here's what I know:

I've met people from all walks of life who love Jesus. I've met rich people and homeless people serving the same God. I've met political opposites, straight and gay, black, white, and every other color out there who follow Jesus' commandment. There are people shouting on street corners and people working quietly behind the scenes; some in dead-end jobs and some in corner offices; stay at home moms and dads and well-suited CEOs that bow to the same Lord and Savior. They don't all have the same style of worship or identify under the same or any denomination or even religious organization, but the God that sees every heart knows what is in theirs, and that is the bottom line.



Some suggested reading:
Grace Is Not a Cheeseburger: Faith, love, and who God is
FreedHearts: Do other people's opinions change your Christian status?
Rachel Held Evans: Proverbs 31 woman