dangers of church tradition

Introduction, Part 3

Jan 17, 2023

This is the third and final post in our introductory series. The first post is here: What is Church Tradition? and the second is here: Benefits of Church Tradition

It’s coming, folks. The day you’ve all been waiting for! It’s sure seemed like an unusually cold winter so far, but in just two weeks and two days (from when this is posted, at least), we’ll have some real scientific data to tell us what the rest of winter will look like. That’s right: we’re just sixteen days away from Groundhog Day!

I’m sure most American readers will know what I’m talking about: every February 2nd, the groundhog comes out of his den, and if he sees his shadow, it means six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, though, it means winter will end early! We all know the tradition. But do we plan our lives around that woodchuck’s weather forecast? I don’t think so.

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a good example of a dangerous tradition, but that’s mostly because we don’t actually take it seriously. If we really took that fuzzy little marmot’s prediction seriously, we could possibly run into trouble as a result.
That’s because this tradition isn’t based on truth. It comes from a German maxim that says if Candlemas (February 2nd) is a sunny day, then winter will last longer, but if it’s cloudy, spring will come early. I suspect that tradition is not reliably true in Germany, but it’s definitely not true in the US.

No big deal for a lighthearted tradition like Groundhog Day, but if we’re basing our spiritual lives on tradition, there’s much more potential for danger. Let’s look at a few of those dangers.

perpetuating error

As we discussed previously, tradition can help us stay on track with Christian orthodoxy (the right things to believe) and orthopraxy (the right things to do). But by the same token, a tradition that is based on an error can keep us off of the correct path of belief and action.

The Nicene Creed1 was written to express the fundamentals of orthodox Christian faith, as an answer to the heresy known as Arianism. The simple version of Arianism is that Jesus Christ was created by God the Father. Whenever Christians recite the Nicene Creed, they proclaim Arianism false by saying that Jesus Christ is "begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father."2

But what if Arius and his followers had written their own creed and passed it down to later generations?3 The same mechanism that helps us remember and reaffirm what we believe could be used to reaffirm error.

checking a box

Human beings are creatures of habit. This can be a good thing. Routines can help us do important but boring tasks without really thinking about them, without thinking about the fact that we even need to do them. We can check many tasks off of the unwritten to-do list without even giving much thought to them.

Our relationship with God, however, does not fit on a checklist. Any relationship requires that we do give thought. That doesn't mean we can't have a checklist or set a reminder on our phone. But if that becomes our purpose, to mark a reminder as "Done," we're missing the whole point.

I'll confess something to you: I have a recurring reminder on my phone to buy my wife flowers every once in a while. I wish my brain worked in such a way that I didn't need the reminder, but I do. Here's the thing, though: when I see that reminder, I get a little excited. I look forward to buying the flowers, not so that I can check the task as done, but because I know my wife will love it. And when I go to buy the flowers, I do it with purpose, and I make the effort to choose a bouquet that I think she'll like. It means something to me, because it's part of one of the most important relationships in my life.

I suspect that this is the number one reason that church traditions have been abandoned. They have become rote,4 no longer requiring any real thought or effort. They lose their meaning. We wonder why we're even doing this. So naturally, when churches have tried to get back to the heart of following Jesus, such traditions get left behind as "dead religion." We don't want to "quench the Spirit," after all. If tradition becomes merely checking a box, that will quench the Spirit. But note that it is not the tradition doing the quenching, but the state of our hearts in the process.

works righteousness

Of course, checking a box, completing a task list, can push us into a mentality of earning our way to right standing with God. The issue here has almost no connection to what we are doing, but rather to the motivation for doing it. Jesus illustrates this in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.5 The two men both go to the temple to pray, but they pray two profoundly different prayers. Truthfully, the two men could have prayed the exact same words, because the real difference was in the heart with which they each approached the altar. Jesus used the different prayers to expose the two men's hearts.

If a particular tradition or ritual becomes merely something we do to be more "Christian," or perhaps worse, to be "other" (let's be honest, "better") than non-Christians or even other groups of Christians, then we've missed the point. If we look at our tradition as evidence of a more sophisticated faith, I think we risk running afoul of Paul's rejection of "Lofty speech and wisdom," instead of which he proclaims "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."6 No tradition will gain us righteousness. Only Christ's blood can ever do that.

traditions of men vs. traditions of Christ

Paul warns the church at Colossae, "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."7

Jesus himself addressed this in Matthew 15. The Pharisees asked him why his disciples did not observe a tradition that their elders had taught. But Jesus turned the question back on them:

He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God."
Matthew 5:3-6

The Pharisees had allowed the traditions of their revered elders to supersede the commandments of God! It wasn't that the tradition that they were advocating was bad, in and of itself. But the importance they had placed on the traditions instituted by their elders had become more important than true Godliness, true relationship with the Messiah, who was standing right in front of them.

The Pharisees took their eyes off of God for the sake of tradition.

how can we avoid the dangers?

We should note one other thing regarding the dangers of tradition. Notice that in almost all of the potential pitfalls I've listed above, it ultimately isn't tradition that is the danger, but the state of our hearts as we participate in the tradition. We can only combat this danger through prayer and a humble awareness of our own hearts.

The exception to that category is where tradition perpetuates error. In the case of theological error, we must always come back to the Bible. Whatever else we are doing as a part of our spiritual life, we must have a foundation of knowing the Word, and through prayer, hearing from the Spirit.

in conclusion

We now have a basic understanding of what church tradition is, what the potential benefits are, and what the possible pitfalls are. I want to finish by explaining what I hope to accomplish with this project.

If nothing else, I hope that we (those of us from non-traditional church backgrounds) can learn a bit more about our more traditional brothers and sisters in Christ and be less inclined to see them as "other." Paul calls for unity in Ephesians 4: reminding us that we are all of "one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."8

I also hope we can learn more about the history of the Christian church and see that in it's nearly-two-thousand-year history, our modern ways of worshiping would be foreign to almost all Christians that have lived.

Beyond that, I hope that some of us will find ways to incorporate some of these traditions into our own spiritual lives. I won't be pushing my pastor to start wearing high church vestments or install a pipe organ, but I would love to see whole congregations adopt some more traditional practices here and there. I truly believe it can enrich our corporate worship.

Outside of church, I believe there are many traditions that can be powerful when used in private prayer and worship, or in a family setting. From pre-written prayers to understanding the church calendar, to knowing church history, tradition can be a rich part of our spiritual lives.

Finally, I hope you'll understand that I am learning through this process as well. I certainly don't have all the answers, and I hope you'll see me grow over time as well. If you have any thoughts to share, I'd love to hear from you!