Free Indeed!

"Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. ³² And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

John 8:31-32

By faith in Jesus Christ, people are born again and freed from sin and death.  Unlike what some imagine, following Jesus does not fetter us with restrictions or prohibitions, for we are set free to love God and love others with the divine empowerment of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said His true disciples would abide in His word, receiving and heeding it.  In knowing Jesus we know the truth, and Jesus sets us free from sin, the flesh, legalism and traditions of men.  Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for worshipping God in vain by teaching traditions of men as commands of God (Matt. 15:9), and they also rejected the commands of God to keep their traditions (Mark 7:9).

It is important to understand traditions are not a bad thing in themselves; traditions are not sin.  Traditions can be good because they are being followed for a sound biblical reason.  They can also become a snare when they are placed on the level of God's word, or we judge others for having a particular tradition or not observing what we see as proper and useful.  It is likely we religiously keep many traditions we have not recognised as such, and over time we adopt a view of them being the right way.  The most untraditional church by their regular practices begin to establish traditions of how things are commonly done, and it is important we continue to make God's word the standard by which we live.

The way we receive communion, how we conduct a baptism, and the format of our worship or teaching are patterns that form traditions we become accustomed to.  It is good when we restrain ourselves from negative judgments of others who are different in their service times, methods or style of conducting gatherings.  It is also good when we can differentiate between what are key, foundational doctrines and not allow our own traditions or preferences to be cobbled together with them.  Having believed Jesus, we are to heed His word, walk in freedom from sin ourselves, and extend grace to others to walk in the freedom as they are led by the Holy Spirit.  We are all in need of continual refinement, and praise the LORD He is patient with us as we learn to do the will of God consistently.

God frees us from bondage to sin, and Jesus frees us to make obedience to Him and being led by the Holy Spirit our traditional way of life.