See To It That No One Takes You Captive

My Tuesday night small group recently looked at Colossians 2:8: "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." Paul entreats the Colossians to be sure that they cling to Christ and his gospel, not to the prevailing teachings of the society around them. I was still thinking about this verse afterwards, because it had been pretty easy for us to identify things that fell under the categories of "philosophy" or "elemental spirits" or "empty deceit" - even if some of those things hit a little too close to our daily experiences - but the idea of "human tradition" was perhaps a little too far out of our understanding.

Personal autonomy is the virtue of the day, making it difficult for white middle class Americans to understand cultures of the present or past that placed a high emphasis on community or family authority. Perhaps we have an easy out, as modern Protestants, with our talk about the Pharisees of Jesus' day and their additions to the law... or the Roman Catholic Church of the 15th century and the concept of church tradition. Okay, legitimate answers. The former is especially appropriate to Paul's own first century context. We can use this phrase to help us understand those things that humanity has added to the word of God and to his requirements. We will think of this long ago issue of the Pharisees or the Judaizers, the former who added to God's law and the former who added to God's grace. Paul is asking why we we live according to a tradition that kills, it is not from God. But my question is for today; what does human tradition look like?

I don't go in much for jumping on the controversy bandwagon, so I won't speak in any detail to some of the recent issues surrounding the subject of Hell and Eternity. However, I do believe the Bible teaches that there is eternal punishment for those who reject Jesus Christ, as much as I believe that the very reason Jesus Christ took on human flesh, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was buried, and on the third day rose again was to purchase our redemption from our sins... those same sins that make us liable for damnation. That's a short and sorry synopsis, but bear with me as I work through this thought. Listening to the many different conversations, it struck me that we know very little of church history. Perhaps because of the American ideal of personal autonomy. Maybe we're just lazy and arrogant. Maybe we're apathetic. Maybe no one has told us to care. I don't know, I just know that we are evidencing that we have little grasp on some very important matters.

Somewhere in the conversation with my small group, it struck me that the idea of human tradition was easily understood to mean that we just didn't let other people tell us what to think of believe. Now, it's wonderful to follow in the footsteps of the Berean brothers and sisters who studied the Scriptures to be sure that Paul's teaching was truly in line with the faith. We should not accept anyone's teaching as is without deeply pondering and meditating on what the Word of God teaches.

But what I want to clarify is that human tradition does not somehow exclude the teaching and counsel of the men long dead, of traditions and wisdom that have come down to us through the ages. I'm not sure why we seem eager to throw off this counsel. Maybe it's the American myth of the self that prevents us from seeking to learn, or the long shadow of rigidity within some Christian traditions. But either way, can we come to see that it is appropriate to ask "What has the church taught about this issue?" In some places we will see a glaring discontinuity between Scripture and that teaching, perhaps as Martin Luther saw in Romans and the prevailing doctrine of justification. And in other places we will see that the church has upheld the teachings of Scripture well.

I am reminded of Paul' admonition to the Galatians as they are apparently hearing another gospel and believing it. Paul warns them not to follow it, but to cling to the gospel he first preached to them; they are to follow that and nothing else, not even if he himself preaches a different message to them or an angel from heaven. They are to hold to what he had taught them from the beginning. We have to see that there is not going to be a new understanding of the gospel. There will be no new teaching, nothing should change in our understanding of what the Scriptures fundamentally teach. Even something so boldly revolutionary as the Reformation was at it's heart "merely" a return to the biblical understanding of the doctrines of grace and the authority of the Scriptures over the tradition of the church.

We should, like the Bereans, search out the Scriptures, know it in our bones. We should never be caught in a "tradition" for the sake of tradition or earning something from God. But those places where things have been done in a certain way, and we wish to continue in that way, need to match the Scriptures. If we're going to carry on in any tradition, it must be the tradition of Scripture, no matter the expression of ethnicity, culture, time and place. We may need to rethink communication tools, the way words are heard, and cultural contexts. There may be times when we need to check our personalities at the door, our cultural or ethnic backgrounds, even our personal preferences, for the sake of serving Jesus Christ. But the Word of God stands.

As I sometimes say to my small group girl's, that's all I have to say about that. Read your Bible. Study history. God can handle our biggest questions and isn't afraid of paradoxes, but let's not use paradox as an excuse for not doing the hard work of studying, thinking and praying.