“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
“Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you” (1 Corinthians 11:1-2).
When the Apostle Paul uses the word “traditions” here, he does not imply that what he is about to teach should be followed just because it is something that people have always done. In fact, the King James Version translates the word as “ordinances,” thus firmly placing it under the category of commandments.
Repeating an action or an activity does not make it right or wrong—the determining factor is whether it is authorized by scripture or whether it violates an action that is authorized.
When we observe any or all of the ordinances specified in the New Testament, we do so, not just because of “tradition”—that is, because they are something our forefathers did—but because they are commands that have come to us from God and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
For a proper understanding of scripture, then, it is critical that we make a distinction between the word “tradition” as people in our society generally use the word and the same word as used in scriptures such as this one.
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