What images, feelings, and thoughts arise in our hearts from reading this phrase? I’m going to take you on a journey of just five-days time. It started on the 4th of July. I began with my customary Friday routine, leading a worship service at a local nursing home. I often speak ahead of the Bible reading as thoughts come to my mind from the hymns we sang, the prayer we made, or some current event. ‘Independence Day’ was on all of our minds and I first thought to say a few words, but decided instead to read from the scriptures and then go from there, commenting that maybe the LORD would tie the reading and our national holiday together somehow.
I’ve had the opportunity to read through many of the books of the Bible in these services, and we just march through verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and book by book. I’ve come to really appreciate this approach-for my own edification-and so we were reading that morning in Mark 7.
Mar 7:6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Mar 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mar 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Mar 7:10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
Mar 7:11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
Mar 7:12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
The full sense of the words hit hard as an application sprung forth in my mind that I never would have imagined had I not been reading these words on Independence Day in a nursing home! As always, I’m still learning and want you to poke holes in my theories, but I can’t act like this is just some sort of nice idea, a rosy analogy, or anything of the sort. I already held to a strong belief in this regard on a subject that is just as relevant as one that Jesus was chastising the Pharisees and scribes about. But, this one knocked the wind out of me. Hear me out….
We understand that to honor one’s parents is in the 10 commandments. The eternal, all-wise LORD GOD put it right alongside ‘no other Gods but ME’ and ‘thou shalt not steal.’ To then have people reject one of the commandments in favor of a man-made rule / tradition / custom / law / social order but LIE to themselves and one another by suggesting that through this new idea they were still keeping the commandment….wow, I wouldn’t want to be doing that….ever! That is not a good plan–to suggest that we know better than God (our law is better than His original law), and to teach others that you can break God’s law and still be keeping it!!!
Okay, here’s what hit me….Jesus says to love your enemies, bless them, etc. I actually cannot think of any of Jesus’ commandments that are more central to the Bible, not even the 10 commandments. However, in America, in the very churches of God, we say that we have a tradition–to celebrate the fighting that supposedly birthed this nation. That, this tradition, not only is not in opposition to Jesus’s commandments, but somehow is actually fulfilling his commandment. Celebrating this tradition is lauded as godly, being ‘unpatriotic’ is expected only of the ungodly…..you might be able to hear me exhale at the weight of this realization.
This is about the point in time when people start throwing accusations–“so you aren’t thankful for those who have given their lives so you could live in peace and freedom today??!! Should we just let other countries run over us–that’s what would happen if people weren’t willing to serve in the military! If you aren’t part of the solution, then you are part of the problem!”
I’ve thought through many of these accusations in times past and have well-reasoned responses for many of them. But, I’m not here to defend a position but simply share what happened and ask you to really give this some soak time. What if there are just as many traditions today that the churches of God have implemented so they can reject a commandment of God? What if it is just as unpopular for us to call that hypocrisy out as it was when Jesus was doing it?
Can we be thankful for what we have and honor people who have gone before and be a true disciple of Jesus? Let’s start with the Bible…how do we define ‘good?’ Good is who GOD is and what he loves, with evil being the absence of all that. That’s easy enough, right?! So loving your enemies is good and hating your enemies is evil. Helping another is righteous and hurting another is wicked.
Two days later in our morning family devotion time, the LORD pealed back another layer of the proverbial onion.
Pro 17:15 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.
When we say, ‘thank you for your service’ to someone who has served in the military, we are at great risk of justifying the wicked. To hate people or hurt people is wicked. Do you know what that person did in the military? Likely, not. If that person hurt another and you thank him for it, does that work to God’s glory? I think not. Where does that behavior fit in relation to Proverbs 17:15? You may respond, ‘well, it is implied that I’m only thanking him for the good things he did.’ Is it? With a tradition of man in this country so engrained in our society that this phrase “thank you for your service” is NEVER used toward anyone else–not a mother with children, a father’s self-sacrifice, a grandparent raising a grandchild, a steelworker risking life and limb, a nurse up all night in the ICU, and numberless other huge sacrifices? None of those people wear hats and shirts reminding people of their self-sacrificing service. How telling, that the very tradition of man which rejects the commandment of God is met with such defense against criticism.
So, what about the person who joined the military, thinking he was doing service to God and country? First, a primary reason that he is doing so is that he has blindly believed and followed the blind leaders. I feel for him. His motives might be good, but his actions, if it involved hate or harm to others, are evil. So it was with the people following the Pharisees who thought they were honoring God’s commandment to honor their parents by using the man-made work-a-round!
Let’s thank people for the good they do, for that is of GOD. Let’s warn people of the evil they do, for that is not of GOD. But, a blanket blessing upon someone involved in an organization whose publicly-stated and universally-understood goal is to hurt our enemies…I think that is quite unwise.