Tradition. Again.

Reaching a point of absolute exasperation with the Jews he was speaking to in Corinth, Paul gave up trying to persuade them to see and accept what was plainly written about the Messiah in the scriptures, and how all of it pointed to Jesus being that Messiah. I can imagine Paul’s exasperation level rising until he finally gave up trying to contend with the people.

Banging his head against a brick wall

He got so fed up with their pigheadedness that he shook out his robe and warned them that the blood was on their heads. That’s a pretty severe curse, reminiscent of the warnings in Ezekiel:

Like Ezekiel’s watchman, Paul had effectively sounded an alarm. Paul exercised his responsibility towards God and His people when he told the Jews that the Messiah they had been waiting for had finally come. He had desperately tried to persuade them to relinquish their attachment to traditions and the law, so they might be free to instead receive the good news of God’s grace. Despite all he had done to persuade them of the truth, they were so rigidly fixed in their traditional ways of thinking and interpreting scripture, and so firmly entrenched in their way of life, that they were unwilling to consider any alternative – including the possibility that the good news they were hearing was true. And like those that hear the alarm but choose to ignore it or refuse to take action, the responsibility for their eternal salvation was then placed squarely upon their own heads.

There, but for the grace of God…

What Paul was saying to those Jewish believers was shaking the very foundations of all they had built their lives upon. They needed him to be wrong, because if what he was saying was right, then their world would be turned upside down. They knew who they were because of the traditions of thinking and doing and interpreting scripture. Those things had provided them with a foundation and framework to live their lives upon. Paul was effectively threatening that foundation and framework, and therefore how they derived their sense of identity and security. The fact that he was right only heightened their insecurity.

Paul understood how the people he was speaking to thought, because he had been just like them – in fact he had stood at the pinnacle of their religion as one of the most zealous Pharisees. Better than most, he understood the impact of what he was saying. He knew his words might be heard as a death knell for the ways of thinking and doing that had been so comfortable and familiar for generations. He knew that by saying a new thing had begun, he was indirectly saying the old ways must come to an end. But although Paul had done his utmost to persuade them of the truth, they loved their law and traditions more than they loved the truth, and more than they loved God.

Standard of Measure

These days it might be easy for us to read through the gospels and the book of Acts and self-righteously tut-tut to ourselves about what we see as the foolishness of the unbelieving Jews that rejected the message of Jesus. But unless we ourselves are willing to individually examine the basis of our own beliefs today – the why of what we believe – what’s to say we wouldn’t have been just like them?

To my way of thinking, it all boils down to whether or not we are willing to take stock of the standard of measure we are using. When we begin to consider anything related to God and faith, we need to make ourselves aware of the basis from which our considerations and determinations spring. Is it the word of God, together with His nature and character as He has revealed it to each of us in our relationship with Him? Or are our thoughts more greatly influenced by the teachings of the church and the traditions of our Christian religion? Are we actually able to distinguish between the two? Is our understanding of scripture based on personal revelation, or is it simply an echo of someone else’s?

Consider the standard of measure we use being like the baseline, or the foundation of our understanding. For the Jews, the standard was the Jewish way of life that had been built on the law, and the traditional teachings and interpretations of the scriptures. By showing them the truth from their own scriptures, Paul was basically compelling them to re-evaluate their own standards. And that can make anyone squirm.

The Jews would have been shaken by what Paul had shared. Some of them gave it due consideration and chose to believe. But many of them responded emotionally, so rather than even accepting the need to consider what he had said, let alone pondering the veracity of what was shared, they let their fears and insecurities reign. Despite the incontrovertible evidence before them, they chose to either stick their heads in the sand, or just ignore it in favour of clinging to rules and tradition and what was comfortable.

That’s the rules

The standards we use create a kind of subconscious mental rule book from which we all make our decisions and live our lives. When we need to decide what we think or feel about something, that rule book will be the point of reference from which we consider new or alternate information on any given subject or topic. Because that rule book is the foundation of our perspective on that given subject, it’s a reflection of what we have already decided to believe. It therefore subconsciously stands in our minds like firm ground.

In the case of traditional Christian beliefs today, more often than not, those are beliefs we have inherited or adopted solely on the basis of their being the traditional view. The fact is that we all have to start somewhere as spiritual infants, so at that point we would be more inclined to accept those traditional beliefs without question. We are, however, not meant to stay as infants. We are meant to grow in wisdom and understanding; to renew our minds by personally examining each belief before making up our own minds. To mature spiritually means being willing to evaluate what you believe about God and your life and identity as a believer. It means not being afraid to consider the rules in your rulebook. And it means looking to God first in all things.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that many of the traditional Christian views will have been heavily influenced by denominational perspectives, many of which encouraged particular beliefs for the purpose of gaining political power or permitting individuals to pursue personal agendas.

Help me, I’m falling….

In our search for the safety of firm ground, we may look to our peers or those in positions of authority over us for reassurance that the parameters of our beliefs are sound; that we are playing from the right rule book. However, we then face the problem that those people we may look to are generally all in the same boat as we are – with each looking to others for reassurance. We all want to feel safe, so by looking to each other we will all end up concurring that yes, we must be right; so therefore whomever questioned or challenged us must be wrong.

To stay in our comfort zone, we need them to be wrong so the rest of us can all feel we’re okay. We need them to be wrong because the alternative is frightening to us. We need them to be wrong so we can justify our out of hand dismissal of both the message and the messenger. And we need them to be wrong to alleviate any feelings of guilt when we reject or destroy them. In my opinion, this is never more true than when the challenging information presented is highly plausible and bears the ring of truth within us.

Paul became well acquainted with this dynamic on his missionary journeys because he had been on the receiving end in many of the places he visited. He’d been threatened and chased out of town more than once. He’d been beaten and whipped and shamefully mistreated. And by the time he’d reached Lystra, the truth he was sharing had upset the people’s applecart sufficiently that they took him out and stoned him.

A New Creation

The thing is though, once we become born again and become new creatures, we are meant to allow God to make us over again to be more like Him. Meaning, we voluntarily cooperate with God to let him change the foundation of our beliefs so that His values and His character and His truth become the foundation of our identity. Part of that means learning to trust Him more than anyone else, including ourselves.

Regardless of what point we are at in our journey with God, we need to be prepared to let God re-write our rulebook. For him to do that, we need to be willing to let God take what we currently believe and strip it back the way we strip away the old coats of paint on a piece of furniture to prepare it for painting. We will also need to keep in mind that the traditions currently forming the basis of our perspective may have become so entrenched within us, and so habitual, that it just hasn’t occurred to us to consciously recognize them until they are challenged.

By choosing relationship with God and His word over and above anyone or anything else in life (including our pastor, leaders, spouse, family, work or church in general), it promotes God to being the most important source we look to for assurance, rather than other flawed individuals. It means giving more weight to the witness of the Spirit of God within us than to the words of another person. Reading the Word and allowing the Spirit of God to quicken it to us will also help change the way we think. As Paul has said, we need to:

If God is truly a person of value in our lives, then we can find our identity in Him and feel safe regardless of any challenge to our thinking. Let’s try not to make Him have to contend with us because of our attachment to church beliefs or any traditional ways of thinking.

Let HIM be the one we run to first when we feel shaken. Let God be the only stronghold in our minds. Let HIM be the one to protect us and the one in whom we find our safety and solace.