SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/11/2017 10:31 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 The Deficiency of Philosophy
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
2:8
Message of the verses: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
I mentioned that Paul now gives two sources for such vain
speculation, and the first one, “The tradition of men” we will look at in our
SD for this evening.
First we need to do is to understand the word “tradition,” which in the Greek is “paradosis.”
“1) giving up, giving over
1a) the act of giving up
1b) the surrender of cities
2) a giving over which is done by word of mouth or
in writing, i.e. tradition by instruction, narrative, precept, etc.
2a) objectively, that which is delivered, the
substance of a teaching
2b) of the body of precepts,
esp. ritual, which in the opinion of the later Jews were orally delivered by
Moses and orally transmitted in unbroken succession to subsequent generations,
which precepts, both illustrating and expanding the written law, as they did
were to be obeyed with equal reverence” This is the definition given in the
Greek/English dictionary that is in my Online Bible program. John MacArthur states the meaning is “that
which is given from one to another. Just
because people have believed something and handed it down through the years
does not make it true. Tradition usually
serves merely to perpetuate error.”
Francis Schaeffer remarks on the truth that most
philosophers have built on the work of previous philosophers as they either
refine their system, or they refute, he writes “One man would draw a circle and
say, ‘You can live within this circle.’
The next man would cross it out and would draw a different circle. The next man would come along and, crossing
out the previous circle, draw his own—ad infinitum.”
When we studied and continue to study the gospels, as we
are now looking at the gospel of John, we have learned that the first century
was also full of examples of the effects of traditions as Jesus had to contend
with these false traditions while on earth.
Let us look at an example from Mark 7:5-9 “5 The Pharisees and the
scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the
tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?" 6 And He
said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is
written: ’THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY
FROM ME. 7 ’BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS
OF MEN.’ 8 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of
men." 9 He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God
in order to keep your tradition.”
Well things don’t change a lot in our day and age as traditions are
still important to many church goers even though perhaps they are not needed or
truthful according to Scripture.
The first century Gentiles also had traditions and Peter
wrote something about that in 1 Peter 1:18 “knowing that you were not redeemed
with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your
forefathers.” People of that day
had their own ideas of how they are going to get to heaven, just as they do
today, and we know that there is only one way to get to heaven, and that is to
accept the forgiveness that is offered through Jesus Christ’s work on the
cross.
Now in his commentary John MacArthur talks about
evolution, which is something that I have mentioned many times in my Spiritual
Diaries as this angers me a lot to believe in this total lie as there is no,
and never will be any scientist evidence to show this is true.
Our last SD from this section will cover this second source talking about vain speculation and that will cover “the elementary principles of the world.”
3/11/2017 10:53 PM
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