Hello

For nearly 2000 years, Jesus’ followers have been adding doctrines, beliefs, traditions, rituals, rules and jargon to his teachings.  We think of these things as being Christian, but they are in fact human traditions and rules.  Jesus was passionate, perhaps brutal, in his criticism of the religious leaders of his day for teaching human rules.

“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you charlatans[1]; ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they worship me in vain, teaching teachings that are human rules.’  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” (Mark 7:6-8)

Over the centuries, different churches and denominations have introduced their own sets of rules.  Each denomination has different rules, so the rules encourage division between denominations which works against Jesus’ teachings that we are all sisters and brothers (Matthew 23:8), that he wants us to be one (John 17:20-23) and that he wants us to love each other (John 13:34-35).  I reckon these human rules are obstructing the coming of our loving Father’s kingdom by encouraging divisions within his church.  I also reckon, if we deliberately promote these human rules as rules required by our loving Father, then we are just as guilty as the religious leaders Jesus was criticizing.

It gets worse. We do not just weigh ourselves down with these human traditions and rules; we burden others with them.  Jesus criticized the religious leaders of his day for doing this, saying:

“They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” (Matthew 23:4)

Jesus does not want his followers to be burdened with human rules.  Jesus tells us that, when we commit ourselves to his service, we will find rest and will find that the work he requires us to do is light:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

And Jesus’ disciple, John, said:

“For this is love for God: to keep his commands.  And his commands are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)

(For a list of Jesus’s non-burdensome commands, see the article “What does Jesus want his followers to do?”.  Link Below.)

 

We followers of Jesus must free ourselves from unnecessary burdens, including our human traditions and rules, and we must be very, very careful not to lay these unnecessary burdens on others.

 

May our loving, heavenly Father keep us safe, bless us and strengthen us, as we serve him.

Jesus is Lord.

Peter O

 

Related articles

“What does Jesus want his followers to do?”

“What did Jesus say about Worship?”

“What did Jesus say about church?”

“What did Jesus say about prayer?”

 

[1]  This is usually translated as “You hypocrites” in modern English bibles, but the Greek word actually means “actor”.  So, it means someone who is acting a part, or pretending to be someone they are not.  “You hypocrites” does not really get this meaning across.  We get a better sense of what Jesus was really saying if we translate his words as “you fakes”, “you shysters” or “you charlatans”.  I use the word “charlatan” because I think its meaning is closest, in modern English, to what Jesus was saying: “Charlatan: A person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill” (Oxford English Dictionary).

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