Tradition

Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Here we are at the fourth article in this series, and I’d like to know if you have seen yourself yet. What does Mark 7 have to say to you? There are at least three things to see. The first two are incidental. The third is the main thing, and I’ll develop it at some length.

With the Old Testament and historical background in place in previous articles, it’s time to examine Mark 7:1–13 in more detail. In other words, it’s time to start comparing our lives to Scripture. God is holy, and he deserves a holy people. Mark 7 makes it clear that in our quest to be holy, the trap of idolatry lies close at hand. Indeed, the Pharisees were the conservatives. They were also idolaters. Are you a conservative? Are you liable to the same rebuke?

This brief series of articles arises from the concern that conservative Christianity is in danger of the sin of idolatry. I’ll go a bit further here to say that Christians who do not describe themselves as traditional or conservative are equally in danger of idolatry. Admittedly, I’m dropping these provocative statements to keep you reading, but the danger is real.

To many of you reading this blog, the words conservative and traditional are sacred cows. I think of myself as a conservative Christian. If you are a traditional, conservative Christian, you may be committing the sin of idolatry in your pursuit of conservatism. John’s warning against idolatry at the end of his first epistle is not gratuitous. Very few Westerners bow before physical idols. Instead, idolatry in Western civilizations always hides behind a mask. Is your conservative Christianity idolatry? In a series of short articles over the next few days, let’s examine Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees in Mark 7, where he exposes the idolatry of traditionalism.