From Matthew 15:10-20 / Breaking the Chains of Tradition

These verses are a continuation of Jesus’ exchange with the scribes and Pharisees. For Jesus, it is not enough to rebuke those who err, He must go on to bring truth to those who had been influenced by the erring. Such is His care for His people.

Hint to preachers: This is the example upon which passages like 2 Timothy 4:2 are based: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

Jesus tells them the truth; Reproves the bad teaching; Rebukes the bad teachers; Exhorts the listening crowd – and does so with patience, and teaching.

Simply rebuking is never enough. It devolves into mere ranting and venting. It is never sufficient, and indeed eventually does more damage – for it never heals the wound. D. A. Carson likes to say that preaching should both wound and heal. If we only do one or the other – or neglect both – we abuse our people.

Note first: Jesus immediately shifts the conversation from mere behaviors, to inward motives of the heart. Mere behavior modification is not the same as sanctification.

Take two men who have become drunkards. Both decide to enter a 12 step program to get sober. (What we might think of such programs here is not the issue – don’t get side tracked.) One of these men is a Christian, the other is not. Both in time do find themselves living a sober lifestyle.

The Christian is seeking to grow in the image of Christ. The un-Believer – as good as it is outwardly, and it IS better to be sober than not – is simply now sober. He has not grown in the image of Christ at all.

We dare not make what is identical outwardly into what is true inwardly. 2 different motivations were at work. One is sweetly acceptable to God with eternal impact. The other, acceptable to God as it is better for the man as a creature of God, nevertheless has done nothing of eternal significance. He is still lost and undone.

Men may modify their behaviors for all sorts of reasons. But if these changes are not the product of a heart seeking to serve Christ – they are not holy things. Just different. If the heart is not changed, the behavior is of very secondary importance.

Note second: When we make following Christ into a system of do’s and don’ts – taste not, touch not, etc., we have become Pharisees in the worst sense of the word.

Are there behaviors which are commensurate with being a Christian, and some which are antithetical to it? Of course! The Word of God is filled with such examples. But the ruling principle is not the action – the ruling principle is the motive.

As you work through a passage like Eph. 4:25-32, you see a pattern of true sanctification which we dare not ignore. In each example, 3 things are evident: 1 – Identifying a wrong behavior (that which is inconsistent with the character of Christ) – like “falsehood.” 2 – Stop the habit of lying BY – speaking the truth. 3 – And this is the key: BECAUSE – “we are members one of another.” The proper motivation which appeals only to those who have been regenerated by the Spirit of Christ.

But please PLEASE do not miss the critical point: It is not the behavior considered by itself which is the problem – it is behavior which is not consistent with the character of Christ within us.

So it is, we pursue the character of Christ, and the behaviors fall in behind in due time.

If my motivation changes, the behaviors will automatically follow. Seek first the Kingdom, the Kingship of Christ – that is the “prime directive.”

One more side thought here. So much teaching and thinking about sanctification revolves around “how do I stop doing X”. And this is why it so often fails.

Here is the principle: If the “law” says, “thou shalt not walk south.” Do not worry about how to stop walking south. Walk north. And you will by default stop walking south. Do not approach mortifying the deeds of the flesh in terms of negatives, but in terms of positives. Just as we saw in Eph. 4. Speak the truth, and you have just stopped lying. But just trying to stop lying, cannot be done.

Note third: Jesus disabuses us of the notion that sin is matter of external contamination. Such a faulty view of sin inevitably leads to things like the traditions He is directly confronting, and things like cloisterism.

So ingrained is this wrong view of sin, that many Christian parents virtually raise their children as though they were born pure, and so if they can only keep them pure and un-engaged with that nasty world “out there” that their kids will always grow up to be fine Christians by default. We just need to keep them pure and all will be well.

It is a lie.

We must reckon with the Biblical teaching regarding our being born in sin, and the need of the new birth. We come into this world loaded with inward corruptions.

So Jesus will be clear, it is out of the heart that evil thoughts come, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander and the such. These do not need to be taught. They are the natural gravitation pull of our own inward sin – irrespective of our outward environment.

If outward environment were the answer to sin, then Adam and Eve should have never fallen. They had the most perfect environment which could possibly be provided. Something else had to be afoot.

Sin is not caught, it is inherited.

I had a dear aunt, who loved Christ and did all she could to raise her 2 boys in the faith.

So zealous was she for their purity, that she would go through the Sunday newspaper and remove all adds for women’s undergarments, bathing suits, lingerie or even normal clothes she thought were too revealing.

They were in Church constantly, and even into young adulthood their friends and companions were carefully curated.

Both men eventually fell into public and unrepentant homosexual lifestyles.

Both, quite simply, had never been born again. All of the well meaning vigilance could not do what only the Holy Spirit can do.

Failure to reason from the Biblical understanding the Fall, leads to all kinds of sincere, but sincerely wrong approaches to sin.

And it produces the worst of cognitive dissonance in the parents who feel betrayed by God – after having done all they could do.

Note fourth: What an amazing thing this salvation is which is extended to us through the Gospel. It is not a program of moral reformation, behavior modification, works based acceptance with God or vain religiosity – it is nothing short of the dead being raised to life by the Spirit of the Living God – and made new creatures by His sovereign work.

We MUST, MUST, MUST preach as Jesus and the earlier generations – above all – “You must be born again!”

And how willing He is to do that very thing for all who hear and flee to Him in their guilt, shame and utter weakness.