Follow God not tradition

Jesus taught that following "the word of God" * is more important than following tradition.  

Matthew 15:1-9 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat." 3 He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' 5 But you say that whoever tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,' then that person need not honor the father. 6 So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: 8 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'"

Do we ignore Jesus' teaching that following God is more important than following tradition?  Tradition comes in many forms.  For the Pharisees, they had developed a long list of rules (traditions) based on their fears of breaking God's law and falling out of favor with God.   What traditions in our churches, marriages, workplaces, politics, do we hold onto out of fear (could be fear of change or fear of the unknown or fear of making God and others mad)?  How can we let these go and follow God instead? 

* I believe "word of God" in this case is not just referring to the scripture, but to the very heart and intention of God. We often forget that God's word to us (God revealing himself to us and speaking to us) is not just through scripture - but his Spirit speaks to us in many ways - through prayer and fellowship with other believers.

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Note: This passage contains more than just one teaching. They will be divided over the next few posts. 

• Following the word of God is more important than following tradition
• Honoring God with our lips and not our heart is meaningless
• Worship is meaningless when hearts are far from God
• Teaching human precepts as doctrine is wrong
•  Neglecting one's parents (giving to church treasuries support they need) is not honoring to God