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Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

There is a old saying that has been bothering me lately, it goes “You can’t teach an old dog a new trick”.  It is commonly used to express the idea that someone has reached a point in life where they can’t keep up with change.  I am afraid that sometimes this phrase applies to me.  I don’t want to be passed by the pace of change so I keep trying to learn new things.  But the rub is, sometimes to except something new you have to leave behind something old.  And there is a danger in that process.  In Mark 7 Jesus is talking with the Pharisees about this very thing.  They had left behind the commands of God to follow the traditions of men.  

The Pharisees of Jesus’s time were dedicated followers of God.  But they fell in to a  trap that the church should be very mindful of.  They structured their lives to honor God, but in doing so the rules they made became more important than the principles the rules were designed to highlight.  And this is what Jesus was pointing out to them.  They had strayed away from the commands of God following a set of rules meant to honor God.

So, how do we avoid the error of the Pharisees?  I think it comes down to making a clear distinction between our Principle and our opinions.  Our principles need to be firmly and clear based on God’s word.  These should be set in stone and considered unmovable.  Our opinions on the hand need to be continually aligned and realigned with our principles.  I am laughing a bit to myself as I write this because on paper this seems easy.  We all know that our opinions are not easily changed and this is the challenge for us.  We often hold on to our opinions as if they were our principles.  This was the error of the Pharisees and we need to guard against it.