DAY 2

Intellect and Tradition

Read Mark 12:18-25; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 2:7-14; Matthew 15:1-9; 1 Peter 1:18-19.
Our determination to use intellect and logic as our final authority is the way we most clearly crown ourselves the god of our lives. On the other hand, our dependence on tradition and ritual is the way we most clearly escape responsibility for making decisions and being accountable for them. Let’s look at these two sources of authority to see why alone they’re inadequate.
Something about the human race makes us believe we can make judgments about truth and error, good and evil, right and wrong, using no more than our intellect. Nevertheless, all of history gives evidence that we continually use poor judgment and that intellect alone isn’t adequate to make moral and spiritual decisions.
Yet people still refuse to believe Scripture and trust Christ because they can’t reach Him through their intellect. They say, “I just can’t understand how a good God could …” or “It’s not reasonable to believe that God would …”
During His earthly ministry Jesus had to deal with this kind of thinking. Read Mark 12:18-25.
The Sadducees were a major group of Jewish religious leaders in Jesus’ day. According to verse 18, what did the Sadducees refuse to believe?
To support their intellectual doubts about resurrection after death, the Sadducees told Jesus a long story. Note what you think was the basis of their story.
☐ The teaching of Scripture
☐ Their own reasoning
In verse 24 how did Jesus analyze the Sadducees’ reasoning?
Jesus said they were __________
because they knew neither the __________nor the ______________________________.The Sadducees were mistaken (or wrong or in error) because they understood neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Do you think the Sadducees were really searching for truth when they came to Jesus?
Yes No
What was the Sadducees’ source of authority for their religious system?
Like Jesus, Paul had to cope with people who made intellect the source of authority for their beliefs. Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
A word in verse 20 well describes the Sadducees who came to Jesus. Record the word here.
Trying to debate or dispute with people about what they believe rarely does any good. Paul even said in verses 20-21 that God has made foolishness of what the world considers wisdom. And the world considers foolishness the truth that leads to salvation.
Paul analyzed the way the two major ethnic groups of his day used the wisdom of the world:
The Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-25
These verses don’t mean the Christian faith is anti-intellectual—far from it! Paul himself had one of the most brilliant and highly educated minds of his century.
Read 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 to learn what kind of wisdom Paul taught. He said if earthly rulers had understood this true wisdom, they wouldn’t have committed what terrible crime?
Paul didn’t accuse humankind of having too much wisdom but of having too little of the right kind of wisdom. If they had enough true wisdom, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now read 1 Corinthians 2:9-11 to learn why people of the world didn’t understand who Jesus was or why He came. According to verse 11, who’s the only person who understands God’s thoughts?
If only the Spirit of God understands the thoughts of God, what’s the only way people can understand them? Read verses 12-13 to find out. Summarize those verses in your own words.
Did you record something like this? Christians have received the Spirit of God, who teaches us God’s truth.
According to 1 Corinthians 2:14, why is it impossible for us to find God through our intellect?
A natural, worldly person (anyone whose life isn’t committed to Christ) hasn’t received the Spirit of God. According to that same verse, you can’t depend on reason alone when you talk with a person who holds intellect as the ultimate authority. You must ask God to use His Holy Spirit to create the kind of awareness and conviction that will prepare a person to believe.
You should have found 1 Corinthians 2:14 familiar when you read it today. Try recording it from memory. Then use your Scripture-memory card to check your recall.
Now let’s consider why tradition alone is also an inadequate source of authority. Traditions usually develop when someone in the past decided a particular teaching, custom, or ceremony should be repeated again and again. For that person, the teaching, custom, or ceremony was so important that it must be preserved and not forgotten.
Often, however, the deep heart meaning of the teaching, custom, or ceremony has been lost. Only the form remains and continues to be observed as no more than ritual that calls for no real heart commitment. Tradition can become a jail cell, imprisoning people who might find the true meaning of the original teaching, custom, or ceremony if it were expressed another way.
The religious leaders were critical of Jesus’ disciples because they didn’t wash their hands a certain way before eating. But Jesus said these religious leaders were ignoring a more important matter.
Read Matthew 15:1-9.
Which of the Ten Commandments did Jesus accuse the religious leaders of breaking?
The Pharisees and scribes were breaking the commandment to honor their fathers and mothers.
When it comes to Scripture versus tradition, you must make a clear-cut choice. Summarize in your own words Isaiah’s prophecy quoted by Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9.
Some people give God lip service instead of heart service.
Read 1 Peter 1:18-19. According to those verses, can tradition bring salvation to people? In light of the verses from Matthew that you studied today, why not?
Did you state that tradition tends to become a matter of outward expression, not of the heart, and that human traditions sometimes contradict God’s Word?
Do you know people who’ve been misled by their intellect or who are trapped by religious tradition? List a few and commit to pray for them by name during your quiet time.