Dangerous Satiation

Be it a Orthodox or a Charismatic church, every church has its own tradition. It varies according to the region, language and culture. It might be radical to say that we must not follow any sort of tradition, but it is impossible. 

Though tradition may vary from one church to another, there are some traditions that are followed by each and every Christian. It is not incorrect to follow our traditions, at the same time, we must also understand the danger in it. 

Nowadays believers are in a state wherein they cannot distinguish between the Truth and the tradition as they are entangled together, so the believer might follow a tradition and might be satiated as he may think that he obeyed the Truth. This satiation will hinder his spiritual growth, put him in a stagnant state, crown him with spiritual pride and turn him into a Pharisee eventually. 

“Pride” is the only quality that changed a noble Cherub into a devil. Similarly, in the time of Babylonian imprisonment, the Pharisees who acted as guides of people were changed into the foes of the Son of God only because of the satisfaction that they got by following the tradition and the spiritual pride that crowned them as the consequence of doing it. 

Observe the life of Lord Jesus Christ. He kept notifying the difference between the Truth and the tradition. The Gospels are filled with many such incidents. Most importantly, Christ ruined the traditional principles that they made centering the Sabbath. It was the major reason that stirred the anger of the sectarians to kill Jesus Christ. Though He knew clearly that it would cost Life, He taught us that lesson only because it is that crucial. 

However, it is an insidious factor that is ignored by churches today. That is why we are in a state of compulsion to speak again and again about the lesson that Jesus Christ taught us by staking His life. 

Well, how to differentiate between the two? 

We cannot follow the Truth autonomously. We have to depend on Christ as a climber that depends on the neighboring plant, and we also need the assistance of the Holy Ghost as well. It is more beautiful to use the term ‘living’ the Truth, instead of the term ‘following’ the Truth. However, we can follow any tradition uncomplicatedly with our self-sufficiency. That is where the danger also lies. 

The conspiracy of Satan is, he can change the spiritual experience that we should carry out with the assistance of God into a ritual, that could be done through self-sufficiency and he will give us satisfaction and also spiritual pride from it. He is powerful enough to deceive us by changing prayers, meditation of Bible, participating in worship, ministry and everything into a ritual and by imposing them on us as traditions. 

For example, we are taught that a believer should pray to God every early morning. It is good. But to do this, a man only needs determination and self-reliance. However, praying every morning like a machine and being satisfied with it is dangerous. Self-reliance is enough to pray at every dawn, nonetheless, conversing with God, delighting in His presence and listening to His voice is the crux of the prayer. Self-reliance will not help us for this. 

Self-sufficiency is enough for a believer to take part in worship every week. However, this cannot change a man into a part of the church, the body of Christ. Accepting Christ as the head of the church and understanding that every believer of the church are parts of Christ’s body is the crux of the Church. This is also impossible through self-reliance. The experience of perceiving through our spiritual eye which is the consequence of comprehension of the Word of God is the only necessity. 

I would like to nail down one thing here. There is a satisfaction in living the Truth and in following the tradition as well. But there is a huge difference between the two. Living the Truth is as said by the Psalmist, “I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods,” (Ps 63:5). But the satisfaction that one gets from following the tradition is, “The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get,” (Luke 18:11-12) dangerous as this. The former will thaw us, the latter will harden us. 

We have to do certain things through our self-reliance. Meanwhile we also have to go along the flow of the Holy Ghost as a feather that goes along the flow of the stream. For instance, God does not lift you from your bed at dawn, asking you to pray. You have to do it. But after you begin to pray, the Holy Ghost should guide you. When we live this way, we will not take pride in what we have done through self-sufficiency. There will be a growth in our spiritual life as well. 

Another danger that lies in executing through self-reliance is that we gradually lose interest in what we do. Assume that you pray, read the Bible and worship God only through self-reliance. You will gradually lose interest in doing those things, but to retain the satisfaction that you got through doing so, you will keep doing it. This is a sort of addiction. This is the sign of arid soul. Eventually, instead of becoming the image of Christ, you will be becoming the image of Annas and Caiaphas unbeknownst of yourself. 

A believer needs an inner view of himself. We often check our appearance in the mirror to correct it, similarly our soul should be observed regularly. Check wherever there is aridness in your soul, in those arid areas, some ritual will be Sceptering. Let the Holy Ghost flow in those places. Then the seed of the Word of God will sprout in those places and will bear fruit. 

We cannot abolish the traditions completely. However, we can identify it and show its place. We must use tradition as a tool that helps us to accomplish spiritual experiences. Churches should help people to understand this. If you place the tradition on the throne instead of “Spiritual Experience,” it will blind us divert us from our path.