The story is told of a daughter who asked her mother why she always cut the end of the roast off before cooking it in the pan. The mother didn’t know, that was the way her mother always did it. So, they called the grandmother, and asked her why she always cut the end of the roast off before cooking it in the pan. The grandmother said, “Because my pan was too small!”
There are two great dangers with tradition. (Though there is nothing wrong with tradition per se). First, if a person follows tradition blindly, without knowing why, he may be led to do something that is unscriptural. Something with which God is not pleased. Just because “that is the way we have always done it,” does not mean that it is acceptable to God!
Second, there is always the danger of elevating a tradition to a commandment. Jesus warned of this in Matthew 15, “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrine the commandments of men” (vs. 9).
Many times we do things the way we do because it is a good way to do them. This is fine. But, we need always to be sure that our ways are God’s ways. And, we need to realize if our traditions are only our preferences, and if there are other, scriptural ways of doing the same things, we must not condemn others for expressing preferences that differ from our own.
