Bare Necessities
When the subject of “Tradition” comes up in evangelical circles, neck hair tends to stand. There is an inherent negative connotation associated with the “T-word”. Behind the crawling skin there is a valid concern that traditions can distract and mar the truth of the Gospel. While I can sympathize with such concerns, the concerns fail to address the issue. The issue is not whether or not to have traditions, rather which traditions will you have. The more thoughtless the tradition, the less effective it will be. Which raises the question; what makes a tradition effective?
Effective tradition will be in harmony with the Church’s identity found in 1 Timothy 3:15; “the church is the pillar and ground of truth.” From the bride of Christ, traditions will emerge, and the ones that ought to be maintained are the ones that support the truth, that buttress the truth. An image I have frequently used at our church may help visualize what healthy tradition would look like.
Let us imagine the bare essential necessity of confessing Christ is Lord and trusting Him for the forgiveness of sins as a thread. This is thief on the cross type necessity. This is sufficient to be considered a Christian. If, however, the thief was taken off the cross and now had to live as a Christian for 30 more years his thread would be in peril. If that thread is the sum total of our life in faith it can easily be shattered by hardships, temptations, the glories of the world, etc. Our minds, bodies, and souls must be conformed to harmonize with our essential confession. The harmonizing traditions should be seen as addition fibers weaving around the thread so that it becomes a sturdy rope upon which we can cling for dear life amid trials. That is what effective tradition should do. It becomes ineffective when the external threads become the object of faith. When our hope is in the liturgy, our devotional life, our obedience to the Word, or our exegetical tradition. When those good traditions become the center of hope, we risk losing center. The central thread of faith in Christ is the binding agent for all other fibers and must be kept as such.
Let us examine what fibers we have threaded around our faith and if they are the best options for endurance. What traditions have emboldened the martyrs? What habits did our heroes of the faith embody? How high on the list was comfort, personal taste, or “relevance” when embracing faithful traditions. We most likely need to turn our gaze toward the past and walk backwards into the future. What traditions have we mindlessly discarded because they seemed “too Catholic” or “too challenging”. Evangelicals are dealing with a crisis of faith and authority because they have let their ropes be chaffed down to a single thread so they feel like they have been given a faith once invented rather than The Faith once delivered.
