I’m beginning to hate this more and more

Apr 24, 2026

Tradition

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And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Mark 7:5 (NET)

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Something that’s utterly annoying me:

Majoring in the minors.

I’ll go ahead and point the finger at myself first. I don’t want you to think I’m preaching from “on high” here.

I sometimes see myself getting caught up in details that don’t matter much.

There are precious few things in life that actually “move the needle” when it comes to accomplishing goals. It’s easy to fall into a trap of doing busy, urgent work even when it’s not important.

I’ll own that struggle.

But more than my own problems, I see others getting caught up in details that don’t matter.

The Pharisees here had created their own special traditions. The original idea was probably a way to avoid accidentally sinning.

A noble enough cause.

Except over time they had elevated their traditions too high -- such as washing hands before eating (which is important but the disciples were snacking on plucked grain while walking, not sitting down to feast).

Man’s rules are not equal to God’s rules.

Should be obvious and yet they made this mistake.

Jesus called them out on it (the next verse if you read Mark 7).

The glaring question to ask today:

What am I focusing on -- elevating too high -- that keeps me from doing God honoring things?

It might be a good thing, but if it’s keeping you from doing something great, then it’s gotta go.

Some traditions need to be thrown out.

(Use careful discernment when throwing out traditions … they exist for a good reason.)

— Ricky Ketchum

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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