{"id":11901,"date":"2021-10-07T09:46:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T13:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/?p=11901"},"modified":"2021-10-07T09:46:43","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T13:46:43","slug":"1-cor-112-should-we-follow-traditions-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/1-cor-112-should-we-follow-traditions-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Cor 11:2 &#8211; Should we follow traditions or not?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Problem:<\/strong> Paul writes, \u201cNow I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you\u201d (1 Cor. 11:2).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Solution:<\/strong> The Bible isn\u2019t explicitly against human traditions\u2014only those traditions which contradict the Word of God. Jesus said, \u201cWhy do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? \u2026 by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition\u201d (Mt. 15:3, 6). Here Jesus judges their accepted human tradition by the superior authority of Scripture. Likewise, Paul writes, \u201cSee to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men\u201d (Col. 2:8). As we noted above, this does not mean that all tradition is ungodly, anymore than all philosophy is ungodly. However, this does teach that human tradition is not equal to or more authoritative than Scripture. If tradition ever disagrees with Scripture, then this tradition is always wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Catholic apologist Jim Blackburn writes, \u201cJesus rightfully condemned [false tradition], but his condemnation was not meant to be applied to every tradition.\u201d[1] However, we feel that Blackburn has missed the point. The Pharisees were placing tradition above the Bible, and Jesus was using the Bible as a higher standard for correcting their false view. We do not believe that all traditions are ungodly. However, we do hold that traditions should be subservient to Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, Paul\u2019s apostolic \u201ctradition\u201d here was the word of God. This is why NIV translates this word paradosis as \u201cteachings.\u201d Later in 1 Corinthians 15:3, Paul uses this same language (\u201cI delivered\u2026 what I received\u201d) to refer to the basic teaching of the \u201cgospel\u201d (1 Cor. 15:1); that is, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He is referring to the core gospel message. Furthermore, Paul uses this same language (\u201cI received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you\u201d) to refer to the biblical teaching of the Lord\u2019s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23). Paul isn\u2019t referring to a \u201ctradition\u201d (i.e. teaching) which is alien to the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>While the first-century church had the privilege of living apostles teaching the word of God verbally (Acts 2:42), we do not have this luxury today. This is where we differ with Roman Catholicism: the office of apostleship only existed in the first-century\u2014not today. We have apostolic succession only insofar as each believer teachs what the apostles wrote in Scripture. For more on this topic, see our earlier article \u201cSola Scriptura.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[1] Blackburn, Jim. \u201cNot By Scripture Alone.\u201d This Rock. Volume 18. Number 4. 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Problem: Paul writes, \u201cNow I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you\u201d (1 Cor. 11:2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}