Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
To make the word of God of none effect is to empty it of power by setting human rules above it, treating man-made precepts as more sacred than the commandments from Sinai and giving them preference when they collide. The chief example was pronouncing property devoted to God to escape caring for father or mother, keeping it for self-use in life and leaving it to the temple at death, and thus dishonoring parents under cover of devotion while voiding the fifth commandment. Christ exposed this as vain worship that honors God with the lips while the heart is far, laying aside God's commandment to hold the tradition of men and teaching human commands as doctrine. The same voiding is done by transferring the blessing of the seventh day to the first day, upholding Sunday without divine authority and thereby nullifying the fourth commandment while treating human requirement as holy. Those awaiting Jesus must therefore give up errors and traditions received from men and turn wholly to God and His word, receiving Scripture in simplicity to distinguish truth from error and guard against delusion.
Historical Setting and Terms
The confrontation arose when scribes and Pharisees came to watch Jesus to find ground for accusation because His disciples ate with unwashen hands and did not practice the washings of cups, pots, brazen vessels and tables. Christ answered by calling them hypocrites who honored God with lips while the heart was far, laying aside the commandment of God to hold the tradition of men. The traditional precepts that encumbered the law were professedly designed to guard its observance, yet they were regarded as more sacred than the law itself, and when they collided with the commandments given from Sinai preference was given to the rabbinical precepts. Neglect of ceremonial purification before eating was made the accusation that they transgressed the tradition of the elders, while the people were occupied with trifling distinctions God had not required and their attention was turned away from the great principles of His law.
The traditions were oral rules handed down from rabbi to rabbi and from generation to generation, conceived by narrow minds and supplemented to God's commandments until exalted above them. They were numberless rules that a lifetime was scarcely sufficient to learn, making life one long struggle against ceremonial defilement in an endless round of washings and purifications. They insisted on senseless forms and minute particulars about ceremonies such as washing the hands before eating, for which God had given no commandment. These customs and maxims were made all-essential and dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God, being given even more force than the Ten Commandments. By being treated as more important than God's commandments they distorted religious belief, held back even Christ's few followers and disciples from advancing and becoming efficient workers, and helped lead the religious leaders to reject and kill the Redeemer over difference of opinion about these things.
The chief example was the fifth commandment to honor father and mother, which the rabbis set aside as of no consequence while exact in keeping the traditions of the elders. They taught that devotion of property to the temple was more sacred than support of parents, so an undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban, a gift devoted to God, over his property to be declared free from doing anything for father or mother. He could keep it for his own use during his lifetime and leave it to the temple after death, and thus dishonor and defraud his parents under cover of pretended devotion to God. This apparent zeal was a pretense to cover desire for self-aggrandizement, deceiving the people and binding heavy burdens God had not imposed, and condemnation of this misuse does not lessen man's obligation to present gifts and offerings to God but condemns using consecration as an excuse for disobedience. The same deceptive teaching worked like leaven, spreading through thinking and lives whenever God's law is explained to fit practices or its principles are undermined and its force destroyed.
Another instance was Caiaphas tearing his high-priestly robe at Christ's trial, which set aside God's command to keep a human rule. God's law forbade the high priest ever to tear his garments under sentence of death, because the whole and unblemished official dress represented the perfect character of Christ and the sacredness of heavenly service, so a torn robe severed the wearer from God as His representative. A man-made law said a priest might tear his garments in horror at blasphemy and be guiltless, and Caiaphas followed that tradition for effect to display outward piety and zeal, influence the judges and secure condemnation. By obeying the human rule he broke the divine command, voided God's law, disqualified himself from the priesthood, and pronounced his own death sentence. His very act was itself blasphemy and disobedience as real as Adam's eating of the forbidden fruit, showing that disobedience to God's commands creates every phase of sin.
Religious control lay with the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes, who held influence over Jewish belief yet were not converted nor sanctified through the truth, with perverse ideas and self interwoven in all they did. They were jealous over the letter of the law while weaving human traditions and maxims of men into the laws of God, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men so that worship was vain and men were confused in regard to God's government. The nation loaded the law with needless ceremonies and claimed strict observance, yet made it ineffective and emptied it of force, tearing down the standard of righteousness. Their traditions and distorted teaching clouded faith, blinded eyes and hardened hearts to Christ the fulfillment of Scripture and of the Jewish system, causing the people to believe a lie in place of truth. Pious Jews hoped the coming Messiah would reveal God's will clearly and free doctrine from those burdens, while human misinterpretations taught as sacred doctrines were set in defiance against lessons of pure truth and practical godliness, and obstinate leaders formed a confederacy to stand by the old traditions rather than give them up.
How Tradition Voids Scripture
To make of none effect is to nullify, void, empty and render powerless the word of God. Human precepts professedly designed to guard observance encumbered the law, yet came to be regarded as more sacred than the law itself and were given even more force than the Ten Commandments. When they collided with the commandments given from Sinai, preference was given to the rabbinical precepts. This is setting man above God, rejecting His word in order to preserve tradition, for those who harden the heart against the Holy Spirit cannot recognize His voice. The many ceremonial requirements distracted the people from the great principles of the law, occupying them with trifling distinctions while external ceremonies took the place of obedience.
Tradition voids Scripture by being taught as doctrine in place of God's commands. Rabbinic opinions were exalted as supreme, human sayings were mingled with heaven's precepts, and inventions of human minds were presented as Thus saith the Lord. In this way outward forms and ceremonies were upheld while the law was set aside, leading people into confusion and darkness. The same danger arises whenever human commands are treated as holy while God's command is dishonored, even to turning others from obedience and rejecting the Son of God. Those who do this teach error instead of truth and teach that breaking God's law makes no difference.
It voids Scripture also by misconstruing it to meet a backslidden attitude. Because truth condemns the course pursued, forced and mystical meanings are put upon the oracles, and utterances are interpreted to suit preconceived opinions so they seem to harmonize with the traditions and commandments of men. Inspiration is thus put under the judgment of finite men, and the living Oracles are cut and carved at will to please self. Plain commandments are twisted until they seem to require the opposite, ideas God never gave are put into Scripture, truths He made plain are obscured, and attention is reduced to technical disputes while essential truths are denied. The Word is tortured to advance apostasy, its force is blunted so sin can be excused, and God's voice is drowned.
It does so further by mixing truth with masses of error. Eternal subjects were mingled with fables, childish traditions, frivolous sayings and trivial forms, and trivial theories, false ideas and strange teachings without Scriptural foundation were added. Clear Scripture was thereby obscured, prophecies concerning Christ were concealed, and men's own ideas were attributed to patriarchs and prophets. Obedience was turned into a burdensome set of needless ceremonies and impossible demands, weakening the authority of the law and lessening respect for God. Truth was brought down to the dust, lost its luster, and vital truths, God's justice and denunciations of sin were kept out of sight while the Decalogue was treated as a dead letter. Like leaven, many such like things spread, confusing minds about God's government and turning attention from great principles to trifling distinctions.
When copies of the Bible were few, learned men in places changed words to lean to established views governed by tradition, thinking they were making plain truth plainer when they were mystifying what was plain. Ministers likewise wrest Scripture by declaring the Bible incomplete and that Daniel and other books should be removed. Yet God especially guarded the Bible, so the Word as a whole remains a perfect chain with one portion explaining another. It is plain and simple in declaring the way of life, so true seekers for truth need not err, and the Holy Spirit is given to guide in understanding the way of life revealed in it. Instruction is therefore to be given as far as possible in the language of Scripture, so warnings are recognized as words of eternal truth, and denying true statements or misinterpreting messages God has sent works against their force.
Occupation with inherited traditions that do not concern salvation distracts from questions of salvation. Such traditions blunt truth to furnish excuse for sin, while receiving Scripture in its simplicity enables distinguishing truth from error and guards against deception. They bury the plain meaning under teachers' errors, teach that breaking the law makes no difference, and leave the unaided will without barrier against sin. Those who excuse sinners while themselves transgressing and disregarding the commandments while claiming piety promote apostasy, and their weak excuses bring destruction to themselves and to others. Work that spreads doubt, as literature casting doubt on Christ's incarnation, opposes God and weakens faith by nullifying the commandments when human teaching is set up as doctrine.
Christ's Rebuke and Vindication
Christ's rebuke was directed at scribes and Pharisees who came to watch Him to find accusation because His disciples ate with unwashen hands and did not practice washings of cups, pots, brazen vessels and tables. He called them hypocrites and deceivers who honored God with lips while the heart was far, laying aside the commandment of God to hold the tradition of men and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, so their worship was vain. Their traditions handed down from rabbi to rabbi nullified the plain requirements of God, placing human requirements above divine precepts, which is setting man above God. The chief exposure was their rejection of the commandment to honor father and mother, treating the fifth commandment as of no consequence while exact in keeping the traditions of the elders. They taught that devotion of property to the temple was more sacred than support of parents, so an undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban, a gift devoted to God, to be free and need do nothing more for father or mother, keeping it for his own use in his lifetime and leaving it to the temple after death, thus dishonoring and defrauding parents under cover of pretended devotion to God to cover desire for self-aggrandizement.
This apparent zeal was pretense binding heavy burdens God had not imposed, deceiving the people, and does not lessen obligation to present gifts and offerings to God but condemns using consecration as excuse for disobedience. By weaving human traditions and maxims of men into the laws of God they confused men in regard to God's government, led them to make void God's law, and exposed self-righteous pretense of sanctity as a cloak to iniquity and ignorance both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. The rebuke is an arraignment of hypocrisy and of the whole system that teaches for doctrines the commandments of men, and it calls all who really desire to serve God to be freed from bondage of tradition. In that rebuke He stamped the teachers as deceivers who made void the law of God through tradition.
He came to tear away the error enveloping the commandments, strip away false theories, separate divine truth from human error, free truth from human demands and traditions and restore its original brightness. Israel though entrusted with the oracles of God had misconstrued Scripture to meet a backslidden attitude, so teaching was no longer the Word of God but sayings and doings of men, turning from the high holy standard of God's law to a human standard and seducing into vain philosophy. Truth had been mixed with such a mass of error that it was brought down to the dust, and human ideas, customs, practices and misinterpretations taught as sacred doctrines were set in defiance against lessons of pure truth and practical godliness. He came to teach truth in its purity, explain God's principles and plan of redemption clearly, set the lessons of the Old Testament fully before humanity, reveal God's character by His own life, and lift souls perishing in ignorance of true godliness into a pure holy atmosphere. He came to give back precious jewels of truth lost sight of, gathering grand truths given to patriarchs, prophets and apostles and setting them again in the framework of the gospel in divine brightness, cleansing the law of human additions without abolishing or diminishing it and showing it reaches motives of the heart.
The Jews were obstinate and would never give up misinterpretations but formed a confederacy to stand by old traditions. From childhood He refused to obey rabbinic customs lacking authority in Scripture, would not follow customs or formal rules requiring departure from God's will, and would not learn from teachers who exalted human words above Scripture. When urged to obey their rules He tested them by asking what the Bible taught and would do only whatever the Bible said, refusing to do as the rabbis did. The rabbis knew their rules were contrary to the Bible yet were angry at refusal and complained of Him to Joseph and Mary, who thought the rabbis good men, so He suffered blame hard to bear. His brothers sided with the rabbis, saying words of these teachers should be heeded as the word of God, and reproved Him for setting Himself above leaders of the people. His refusal also teaches it is better to keep evil from taking hold than to try to correct it afterward.
In His day Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes held controlling influence over religious belief, not converted nor sanctified through truth, with perverse ideas and self interwoven in all they did, without oneness with Christ, jealous over the letter of the law. They supplemented God's commandments with a mass of wholly human oral traditions conceived by narrow minds, exalted inventions above God's commandments, insisted on senseless unreasonable forms and minute particulars about ceremonies such as washing hands before eating for which God gave no command, and killed the world's Redeemer over difference of opinion about these things. The priests and rulers strictly maintained ritual practices and traditions while He exposed evil practices that made void God's law. Their commitment to those traditions and to preserving authority helped lead them to reject evidence of His divinity and decide to put Him to death while regarding themselves as patriots.
He did not suffer to give men liberty to transgress the law of God; He suffered because the law was transgressed, to give all honor and respect to that law, to magnify it, meet its demands and bear the sinner's penalty so sinners could be saved. Satan works to defeat God's purpose by portraying the law as unjust and impossible to obey, and his falsehood has placed the Christian world as transgressors because men yielded as Adam did. People cannot keep the law in their own strength, but Christ brings deliverance not by abolishing the law; through His obedience and death He makes obedience possible by His merits. He died not to immortalize sin or perpetuate transgression but as the only hope for the transgressor.
Unity is possible only on obedience to the commandments of God, and in this rebuke is plainly set forth the character of His church as obedient. That requires voicing no other message than that combining truth of the first, second and third angels' messages, which require obedience to God's law. God's holy law is made of none effect when people yield to the tempter's suggestions and come to the Word with a spirit it does not approve, for the tempter educates every yielding mind to nullify God's law. Those who come with humble inquiring minds determined to know terms of salvation understand what Scripture says, but the Lord will not speak to an unconcerned mind and wastes no instruction on one willingly irreverent or polluted. Only the humble contrite mind, with silence in the soul, reverence, and thoughts brought into captivity to Jesus Christ, can see light.
Papal Parallels and Reformation
Rome forsook the paths of the Bible for human traditions, and by elevating human laws and traditions above God's law made the word of God of none effect. This was fulfilled when the Roman Church came to power at the beginning of the Dark Ages, with darkness deepening as her power increased. The remedy taught by the verse is to restore the Bible's authority in the church and to make its teaching available to the people.
That elevation of tradition transferred faith from Christ the true foundation to the pope of Rome. People were taught to look to the pope and to the priests and prelates to whom he delegated authority for forgiveness of sins and for eternal salvation instead of trusting in the Son of God. The pope was set forth as the earthly mediator whom none could approach God without, standing in the place of God and to be implicitly obeyed, with deviation punished severely in body and soul, thus turning minds away from God to fallible, erring and cruel men. When Scripture is suppressed and man is regarded as supreme, fraud, deception and debasing iniquity follow, and this corruption is what ever results from setting aside the law of God. The same turning appears in religious practices that lead people away from God and Christ toward human mediators and toward works intended to atone for sin or win God's favor.
As the Pharisees of old made God's commandment void, so papal leaders do the same when church tradition exalts monastic life above love and duty to father and mother. Youth are induced to enter a cloister without their parents' knowledge or consent and even contrary to their commands. Children are urged to abandon parents, their hearts are steeled against them, homes are desolated, and parents are deprived of the society of their sons and daughters. In this the command to honor father and mother is made ineffective by a human religious tradition that leaves homes desolate.
The same disposition to accept human theories and traditions in place of Scripture that confronted Christ confronted Luther in his opposers. Human traditions were treated as God's word and thereby made God's word ineffective. Truth therefore meets opposition when it is specially important for its time.
Sabbath and Worship Conflict
Transferring the blessing of the seventh day to the first day exalts common things above what God has made sacred and replaces divine instruction with human tradition. Making God's word ineffective happens when His commandments are set aside to keep human rules, and worship practices attached to a false Sabbath are Christ's rebuke applied to treating the first day and its ceremonies as sacred in place of the seventh-day Sabbath commanded in Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Teaching human commands as doctrine led people in Christ's day to set aside God's law and reject the Son of God, and the same danger arises when a false sabbath is exalted to turn others from obedience while human commands are treated as holy and God's command is dishonored.
Religious teachers uphold Sunday as a sacred day without divine authority, thereby nullifying the fourth commandment and urging a human requirement instead. Their zeal may lead to persecuting those who keep God's commandments, while obedience to human rules is treated as worship of God. Obeying the fourth commandment rather than human religious custom is obedience to God's word, even when that choice brings persecution.
Human practice cannot make God's word or law void, so the attempt to replace the seventh-day Sabbath with a common working day fails because disobedience and convenience do not change God's command or remove the day's holiness. Opposition makes truth ineffective when falsehoods and stirred passions are used to keep people from accepting unpopular truth, especially the fourth commandment, and such resistance tries to prevent others from receiving the truth by trampling God's law. Those who teach the law must identify sin as its transgression and point sinners to Jesus Christ as the remedy.
Human teachings and practices make God's word ineffective when human wisdom and reliance on people's opinions displace the messages God sends and lead away from self-denial, devotion and consecration to God toward receiving human opinions as truth while rejecting God's messages. God's messages must not be covered up by human wisdom, and the Sabbath truth must not be hidden but presented plainly in contrast with error.
Present Warnings and Applications
Schools repeat the ancient hindrance when they misconceive the most essential work to be done by students and by teachers for them and pattern after already established schools instead of studying and doing the Word of God critically as the great Lessonbook under its guidance. As the customs and maxims handed down through rabbis from generation to generation were made all-essential and dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God, even with more force than the Ten Commandments, so educators place human inventions, methods, theories and systems above Scripture. Human inventions, human laws and jurisdiction, and things brought into schoolbooks, churches and theology becloud the senses, replacing Scripture with books of human invention and nonessential studies and so-called education in the sciences. This directs minds away from what God has plainly said and from truths with eternal importance, and as traditions held back even Christ's few followers and disciples from advancement, from supplying their great lack of knowledge and from becoming efficient in usefulness, the same hindrance retards spiritual education.
Reopening the Battle Creek school against the message God had given made that message of no effect by following the tradition of men and hindered the work and cause of God. The word and instruction of God are made void when men put human suppositions in their place, interpreting His plain words by man's wisdom instead of God's wisdom and then going forward with their own plans in disregard of His positive directions, which is Satan's way of binding about the work of God. So the General Conference wrongly carried the Battle Creek school indebtedness when it had no funds to do so while missions in foreign lands lacked needed help. Satan works in various ways to make the word of the Lord ineffective, and the warning against going to Battle Creek is an instance of the Lord's word that should be respected rather than disregarded.
God's counsel is made of none effect by tradition when professed believers who claim to accept divine messages reject reproof and correction that crosses their preconceived opinions and particular ideas, counting what sustains cherished ideas as divine while calling what corrects errors merely human opinion and judgment. The same occurs when leaders resist light, refuse to come to the light and investigate the Word together with humble hearts, keep up criticism and objections instead of presenting open Bible evidence, try to bring the Bible to their own ideas instead of bringing their ideas to the Bible, and as far as they can nullify the words of those the Lord is using, taking the same position as the scribes and Pharisees. Putting the inspiration of the Scriptures under the judgment of finite men and cutting and carving the living Oracles at will to please themselves voids their effect, and the same handling is done to the testimonies of the Spirit of God by those who do not know what they are doing. Unless there is earnest seeking of the Lord with zealous repentance, with less of self and far more of the Holy Spirit controlling minds and hearts of men in the foremost rank, darkness will come upon minds in proportion to light not appreciated, causing failure to walk in harmony with God's opening providences, questioning and quibbling over light sent, and turning from Christ's teachings in self-confidence just as the Jews refused the light of the world. Disregarding the testimonies because they reprove conduct sets aside God's word, and prejudice and unwillingness to hear can make testimony of none effect by evading the light it gives.
The testimony of the Spirit is made void when its divine origin is denied and it is represented as human originating, and claiming as one's own the expressions and material furnished by God robs His word of its effect. Denying true statements and misinterpreting messages God has sent, with human interpretations and traditions, also works against their force. Because reproof may be misunderstood, instruction is to be given as far as possible in the language of Scripture, so that the Lord's warnings are recognized as words of eternal truth rather than distorted and misapplied.
Theories that remove God from sovereignty make God's word ineffective, undermine the Bible's authority so it is treated as fiction, reject the restraints of God's word and Spirit, make the atonement seem unnecessary, place trust in human power, and leave the unaided human will without barrier against sin so it cannot resist and overcome evil. Spiritualistic theories about God's personality make the heavenly truth given through John count for nothing, dismiss the importance of events ahead, and rob God's people of the truth and experience they have received. Speculative teachings about God, including claims that sanctified people cannot sin and that their affections cannot lead them astray, mislead, encourage sinful practice and self-satisfied impurity, and cause spiritual harm. Human traditions nullify God's commandments when taught as doctrine in place of truth, and literature that spreads doubt about Christ's incarnation opposes God, weakens faith, undermines the commandments, and advances the enemy's cause.
A life without Christ's grace makes the Word ineffective in influence, for when claimants to truth show no genuine love, service, or sanctifying power their lives testify against their profession. Christians who lack a transformed life give the world a false picture of God and testify that truth has no power to sanctify, thus nullifying the saving influence truth would have if practiced, and a life that misrepresents Christ turns others away from the safe path. Honoring superstition and falsehood above God's Word makes His teaching ineffective and costs eternal life if continued. Selfish, health-destroying indulgence nullifies the message to prepare a people for God's great day, for churches not living health reform lose strength and reap spiritual and physical degeneracy, while unconverted or backslidden older members leaven new converts and rob the message of power over them, which is why many souls are not now brought in. When appetite and passion control, truth is made ineffective in the heart, preventing sanctification of the whole person and keeping one from being a true obedient servant of Christ.
Satan inspires falsehoods to nullify God's truth, yet he cannot turn truth into a lie, for though he hinders its going forth the truth remains sure. Malicious lies and pure fabrications circulated to defeat proclamation make truth of none effect, presenting God's messenger in false light to deceive honest souls and keep them from truth, but those lies are powerless over minds really desirous to know truth when God gives opportunity to see and hear for themselves. The false report that Sabbath-keepers do not preach Christ is such a Satan-inspired falsehood to be exposed, for they preach no other doctrine but Christ, lifting up the Man of Calvary as the only Hope of the world in whom hope of eternal life is centered. Making the Word of none effect means hedging up the way of God's workers, as the spirit that held the colored people in slavery stirs whites to work against whatever uplifts them, and when church members arrayed against truth join that opposition they block workers, spread false statements about God's servants, and make the ignorant their ready dupes, as false teachers did when Christ was on earth. The same nullifying work occurs when a man whom God cannot stand beside is encouraged to stand in the sacred desk, throwing a covering of sanctity over a crooked course, and when God's people extol such a man and solicit his labors as though God could work through no other, turning his head until reproofs, warnings and counsels cannot reach heart and character with designed effect, for which those who take this course must answer in judgment, since every man stands only as what he is in God's sight—a finite man.
People make God's message ineffective by opposing or obstructing it as the Jews did, standing between God's people and light, hope and comfort by blocking the message that Christ is their righteousness, and they are called either to receive it or stop blocking others. The same rejection occurs when people refuse the Holy Spirit's appeals and work against the Word, resisting truth until led into deeper darkness. The Lord sends messages in mercy to save men and give opportunity to help others in danger, but rejecting them and stubbornly following own plans through pride and blindness leads to discovering the mistake too late. After the judgment on San Francisco the call to repentance and humility unheeded left increased crime and fraud, showing truth made ineffective. Ministers who wrest the Scriptures and make statements against the Bible use human teaching to undermine Scripture, in contrast to the visible change in lives when truth is accepted.
Those awaiting Jesus must give up errors and traditions received from men and turn wholly to God and His word, for human traditions set aside and nullify it. Receiving Scripture in simplicity distinguishes true from false and guards against deception, whereas traditions twisting Scripture from its true meaning blunt truth to excuse sin. The traditions and maxims of scribes and Pharisees that make God's word ineffective are compared with medical theories unnecessary or harmful to the mind.
Using human traditions to disregard commandments while excusing sinners and transgressing promotes apostasy, and weak excuses bring destruction to makers and to others. Religious leaders make God's word ineffective by rejecting its authority and treating it as no longer binding, as teachers in Christ's time did to the law, and the same disregard continues in the religious world today.
To make the word of God of none effect is to empty it of power by setting human rules above it, treating man-made precepts as more sacred than the commandments from Sinai and giving them preference when they collide. The chief example was pronouncing property devoted to God to escape caring for father or mother, keeping it for self-use in life and leaving it to the temple at death, and thus dishonoring parents under cover of devotion while voiding the fifth commandment. Christ exposed this as vain worship that honors God with the lips while the heart is far, laying aside God's commandment to hold the tradition of men and teaching human commands as doctrine. The same voiding is done by transferring the blessing of the seventh day to the first day, upholding Sunday without divine authority and thereby nullifying the fourth commandment while treating human requirement as holy. Those awaiting Jesus must therefore give up errors and traditions received from men and turn wholly to God and His word, receiving Scripture in simplicity to distinguish truth from error and guard against delusion.
Historical Setting and Terms
The confrontation arose when scribes and Pharisees came to watch Jesus to find ground for accusation because His disciples ate with unwashen hands and did not practice the washings of cups, pots, brazen vessels and tables. Christ answered by calling them hypocrites who honored God with lips while the heart was far, laying aside the commandment of God to hold the tradition of men. The traditional precepts that encumbered the law were professedly designed to guard its observance, yet they were regarded as more sacred than the law itself, and when they collided with the commandments given from Sinai preference was given to the rabbinical precepts. Neglect of ceremonial purification before eating was made the accusation that they transgressed the tradition of the elders, while the people were occupied with trifling distinctions God had not required and their attention was turned away from the great principles of His law.
The traditions were oral rules handed down from rabbi to rabbi and from generation to generation, conceived by narrow minds and supplemented to God's commandments until exalted above them. They were numberless rules that a lifetime was scarcely sufficient to learn, making life one long struggle against ceremonial defilement in an endless round of washings and purifications. They insisted on senseless forms and minute particulars about ceremonies such as washing the hands before eating, for which God had given no commandment. These customs and maxims were made all-essential and dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God, being given even more force than the Ten Commandments. By being treated as more important than God's commandments they distorted religious belief, held back even Christ's few followers and disciples from advancing and becoming efficient workers, and helped lead the religious leaders to reject and kill the Redeemer over difference of opinion about these things.
The chief example was the fifth commandment to honor father and mother, which the rabbis set aside as of no consequence while exact in keeping the traditions of the elders. They taught that devotion of property to the temple was more sacred than support of parents, so an undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban, a gift devoted to God, over his property to be declared free from doing anything for father or mother. He could keep it for his own use during his lifetime and leave it to the temple after death, and thus dishonor and defraud his parents under cover of pretended devotion to God. This apparent zeal was a pretense to cover desire for self-aggrandizement, deceiving the people and binding heavy burdens God had not imposed, and condemnation of this misuse does not lessen man's obligation to present gifts and offerings to God but condemns using consecration as an excuse for disobedience. The same deceptive teaching worked like leaven, spreading through thinking and lives whenever God's law is explained to fit practices or its principles are undermined and its force destroyed.
Another instance was Caiaphas tearing his high-priestly robe at Christ's trial, which set aside God's command to keep a human rule. God's law forbade the high priest ever to tear his garments under sentence of death, because the whole and unblemished official dress represented the perfect character of Christ and the sacredness of heavenly service, so a torn robe severed the wearer from God as His representative. A man-made law said a priest might tear his garments in horror at blasphemy and be guiltless, and Caiaphas followed that tradition for effect to display outward piety and zeal, influence the judges and secure condemnation. By obeying the human rule he broke the divine command, voided God's law, disqualified himself from the priesthood, and pronounced his own death sentence. His very act was itself blasphemy and disobedience as real as Adam's eating of the forbidden fruit, showing that disobedience to God's commands creates every phase of sin.
Religious control lay with the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes, who held influence over Jewish belief yet were not converted nor sanctified through the truth, with perverse ideas and self interwoven in all they did. They were jealous over the letter of the law while weaving human traditions and maxims of men into the laws of God, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men so that worship was vain and men were confused in regard to God's government. The nation loaded the law with needless ceremonies and claimed strict observance, yet made it ineffective and emptied it of force, tearing down the standard of righteousness. Their traditions and distorted teaching clouded faith, blinded eyes and hardened hearts to Christ the fulfillment of Scripture and of the Jewish system, causing the people to believe a lie in place of truth. Pious Jews hoped the coming Messiah would reveal God's will clearly and free doctrine from those burdens, while human misinterpretations taught as sacred doctrines were set in defiance against lessons of pure truth and practical godliness, and obstinate leaders formed a confederacy to stand by the old traditions rather than give them up.
How Tradition Voids Scripture
To make of none effect is to nullify, void, empty and render powerless the word of God. Human precepts professedly designed to guard observance encumbered the law, yet came to be regarded as more sacred than the law itself and were given even more force than the Ten Commandments. When they collided with the commandments given from Sinai, preference was given to the rabbinical precepts. This is setting man above God, rejecting His word in order to preserve tradition, for those who harden the heart against the Holy Spirit cannot recognize His voice. The many ceremonial requirements distracted the people from the great principles of the law, occupying them with trifling distinctions while external ceremonies took the place of obedience.
Tradition voids Scripture by being taught as doctrine in place of God's commands. Rabbinic opinions were exalted as supreme, human sayings were mingled with heaven's precepts, and inventions of human minds were presented as Thus saith the Lord. In this way outward forms and ceremonies were upheld while the law was set aside, leading people into confusion and darkness. The same danger arises whenever human commands are treated as holy while God's command is dishonored, even to turning others from obedience and rejecting the Son of God. Those who do this teach error instead of truth and teach that breaking God's law makes no difference.
It voids Scripture also by misconstruing it to meet a backslidden attitude. Because truth condemns the course pursued, forced and mystical meanings are put upon the oracles, and utterances are interpreted to suit preconceived opinions so they seem to harmonize with the traditions and commandments of men. Inspiration is thus put under the judgment of finite men, and the living Oracles are cut and carved at will to please self. Plain commandments are twisted until they seem to require the opposite, ideas God never gave are put into Scripture, truths He made plain are obscured, and attention is reduced to technical disputes while essential truths are denied. The Word is tortured to advance apostasy, its force is blunted so sin can be excused, and God's voice is drowned.
It does so further by mixing truth with masses of error. Eternal subjects were mingled with fables, childish traditions, frivolous sayings and trivial forms, and trivial theories, false ideas and strange teachings without Scriptural foundation were added. Clear Scripture was thereby obscured, prophecies concerning Christ were concealed, and men's own ideas were attributed to patriarchs and prophets. Obedience was turned into a burdensome set of needless ceremonies and impossible demands, weakening the authority of the law and lessening respect for God. Truth was brought down to the dust, lost its luster, and vital truths, God's justice and denunciations of sin were kept out of sight while the Decalogue was treated as a dead letter. Like leaven, many such like things spread, confusing minds about God's government and turning attention from great principles to trifling distinctions.
When copies of the Bible were few, learned men in places changed words to lean to established views governed by tradition, thinking they were making plain truth plainer when they were mystifying what was plain. Ministers likewise wrest Scripture by declaring the Bible incomplete and that Daniel and other books should be removed. Yet God especially guarded the Bible, so the Word as a whole remains a perfect chain with one portion explaining another. It is plain and simple in declaring the way of life, so true seekers for truth need not err, and the Holy Spirit is given to guide in understanding the way of life revealed in it. Instruction is therefore to be given as far as possible in the language of Scripture, so warnings are recognized as words of eternal truth, and denying true statements or misinterpreting messages God has sent works against their force.
Occupation with inherited traditions that do not concern salvation distracts from questions of salvation. Such traditions blunt truth to furnish excuse for sin, while receiving Scripture in its simplicity enables distinguishing truth from error and guards against deception. They bury the plain meaning under teachers' errors, teach that breaking the law makes no difference, and leave the unaided will without barrier against sin. Those who excuse sinners while themselves transgressing and disregarding the commandments while claiming piety promote apostasy, and their weak excuses bring destruction to themselves and to others. Work that spreads doubt, as literature casting doubt on Christ's incarnation, opposes God and weakens faith by nullifying the commandments when human teaching is set up as doctrine.
Christ's Rebuke and Vindication
Christ's rebuke was directed at scribes and Pharisees who came to watch Him to find accusation because His disciples ate with unwashen hands and did not practice washings of cups, pots, brazen vessels and tables. He called them hypocrites and deceivers who honored God with lips while the heart was far, laying aside the commandment of God to hold the tradition of men and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, so their worship was vain. Their traditions handed down from rabbi to rabbi nullified the plain requirements of God, placing human requirements above divine precepts, which is setting man above God. The chief exposure was their rejection of the commandment to honor father and mother, treating the fifth commandment as of no consequence while exact in keeping the traditions of the elders. They taught that devotion of property to the temple was more sacred than support of parents, so an undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban, a gift devoted to God, to be free and need do nothing more for father or mother, keeping it for his own use in his lifetime and leaving it to the temple after death, thus dishonoring and defrauding parents under cover of pretended devotion to God to cover desire for self-aggrandizement.
This apparent zeal was pretense binding heavy burdens God had not imposed, deceiving the people, and does not lessen obligation to present gifts and offerings to God but condemns using consecration as excuse for disobedience. By weaving human traditions and maxims of men into the laws of God they confused men in regard to God's government, led them to make void God's law, and exposed self-righteous pretense of sanctity as a cloak to iniquity and ignorance both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. The rebuke is an arraignment of hypocrisy and of the whole system that teaches for doctrines the commandments of men, and it calls all who really desire to serve God to be freed from bondage of tradition. In that rebuke He stamped the teachers as deceivers who made void the law of God through tradition.
He came to tear away the error enveloping the commandments, strip away false theories, separate divine truth from human error, free truth from human demands and traditions and restore its original brightness. Israel though entrusted with the oracles of God had misconstrued Scripture to meet a backslidden attitude, so teaching was no longer the Word of God but sayings and doings of men, turning from the high holy standard of God's law to a human standard and seducing into vain philosophy. Truth had been mixed with such a mass of error that it was brought down to the dust, and human ideas, customs, practices and misinterpretations taught as sacred doctrines were set in defiance against lessons of pure truth and practical godliness. He came to teach truth in its purity, explain God's principles and plan of redemption clearly, set the lessons of the Old Testament fully before humanity, reveal God's character by His own life, and lift souls perishing in ignorance of true godliness into a pure holy atmosphere. He came to give back precious jewels of truth lost sight of, gathering grand truths given to patriarchs, prophets and apostles and setting them again in the framework of the gospel in divine brightness, cleansing the law of human additions without abolishing or diminishing it and showing it reaches motives of the heart.
The Jews were obstinate and would never give up misinterpretations but formed a confederacy to stand by old traditions. From childhood He refused to obey rabbinic customs lacking authority in Scripture, would not follow customs or formal rules requiring departure from God's will, and would not learn from teachers who exalted human words above Scripture. When urged to obey their rules He tested them by asking what the Bible taught and would do only whatever the Bible said, refusing to do as the rabbis did. The rabbis knew their rules were contrary to the Bible yet were angry at refusal and complained of Him to Joseph and Mary, who thought the rabbis good men, so He suffered blame hard to bear. His brothers sided with the rabbis, saying words of these teachers should be heeded as the word of God, and reproved Him for setting Himself above leaders of the people. His refusal also teaches it is better to keep evil from taking hold than to try to correct it afterward.
In His day Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes held controlling influence over religious belief, not converted nor sanctified through truth, with perverse ideas and self interwoven in all they did, without oneness with Christ, jealous over the letter of the law. They supplemented God's commandments with a mass of wholly human oral traditions conceived by narrow minds, exalted inventions above God's commandments, insisted on senseless unreasonable forms and minute particulars about ceremonies such as washing hands before eating for which God gave no command, and killed the world's Redeemer over difference of opinion about these things. The priests and rulers strictly maintained ritual practices and traditions while He exposed evil practices that made void God's law. Their commitment to those traditions and to preserving authority helped lead them to reject evidence of His divinity and decide to put Him to death while regarding themselves as patriots.
He did not suffer to give men liberty to transgress the law of God; He suffered because the law was transgressed, to give all honor and respect to that law, to magnify it, meet its demands and bear the sinner's penalty so sinners could be saved. Satan works to defeat God's purpose by portraying the law as unjust and impossible to obey, and his falsehood has placed the Christian world as transgressors because men yielded as Adam did. People cannot keep the law in their own strength, but Christ brings deliverance not by abolishing the law; through His obedience and death He makes obedience possible by His merits. He died not to immortalize sin or perpetuate transgression but as the only hope for the transgressor.
Unity is possible only on obedience to the commandments of God, and in this rebuke is plainly set forth the character of His church as obedient. That requires voicing no other message than that combining truth of the first, second and third angels' messages, which require obedience to God's law. God's holy law is made of none effect when people yield to the tempter's suggestions and come to the Word with a spirit it does not approve, for the tempter educates every yielding mind to nullify God's law. Those who come with humble inquiring minds determined to know terms of salvation understand what Scripture says, but the Lord will not speak to an unconcerned mind and wastes no instruction on one willingly irreverent or polluted. Only the humble contrite mind, with silence in the soul, reverence, and thoughts brought into captivity to Jesus Christ, can see light.
Papal Parallels and Reformation
Rome forsook the paths of the Bible for human traditions, and by elevating human laws and traditions above God's law made the word of God of none effect. This was fulfilled when the Roman Church came to power at the beginning of the Dark Ages, with darkness deepening as her power increased. The remedy taught by the verse is to restore the Bible's authority in the church and to make its teaching available to the people.
That elevation of tradition transferred faith from Christ the true foundation to the pope of Rome. People were taught to look to the pope and to the priests and prelates to whom he delegated authority for forgiveness of sins and for eternal salvation instead of trusting in the Son of God. The pope was set forth as the earthly mediator whom none could approach God without, standing in the place of God and to be implicitly obeyed, with deviation punished severely in body and soul, thus turning minds away from God to fallible, erring and cruel men. When Scripture is suppressed and man is regarded as supreme, fraud, deception and debasing iniquity follow, and this corruption is what ever results from setting aside the law of God. The same turning appears in religious practices that lead people away from God and Christ toward human mediators and toward works intended to atone for sin or win God's favor.
As the Pharisees of old made God's commandment void, so papal leaders do the same when church tradition exalts monastic life above love and duty to father and mother. Youth are induced to enter a cloister without their parents' knowledge or consent and even contrary to their commands. Children are urged to abandon parents, their hearts are steeled against them, homes are desolated, and parents are deprived of the society of their sons and daughters. In this the command to honor father and mother is made ineffective by a human religious tradition that leaves homes desolate.
The same disposition to accept human theories and traditions in place of Scripture that confronted Christ confronted Luther in his opposers. Human traditions were treated as God's word and thereby made God's word ineffective. Truth therefore meets opposition when it is specially important for its time.
Sabbath and Worship Conflict
Transferring the blessing of the seventh day to the first day exalts common things above what God has made sacred and replaces divine instruction with human tradition. Making God's word ineffective happens when His commandments are set aside to keep human rules, and worship practices attached to a false Sabbath are Christ's rebuke applied to treating the first day and its ceremonies as sacred in place of the seventh-day Sabbath commanded in Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Teaching human commands as doctrine led people in Christ's day to set aside God's law and reject the Son of God, and the same danger arises when a false sabbath is exalted to turn others from obedience while human commands are treated as holy and God's command is dishonored.
Religious teachers uphold Sunday as a sacred day without divine authority, thereby nullifying the fourth commandment and urging a human requirement instead. Their zeal may lead to persecuting those who keep God's commandments, while obedience to human rules is treated as worship of God. Obeying the fourth commandment rather than human religious custom is obedience to God's word, even when that choice brings persecution.
Human practice cannot make God's word or law void, so the attempt to replace the seventh-day Sabbath with a common working day fails because disobedience and convenience do not change God's command or remove the day's holiness. Opposition makes truth ineffective when falsehoods and stirred passions are used to keep people from accepting unpopular truth, especially the fourth commandment, and such resistance tries to prevent others from receiving the truth by trampling God's law. Those who teach the law must identify sin as its transgression and point sinners to Jesus Christ as the remedy.
Human teachings and practices make God's word ineffective when human wisdom and reliance on people's opinions displace the messages God sends and lead away from self-denial, devotion and consecration to God toward receiving human opinions as truth while rejecting God's messages. God's messages must not be covered up by human wisdom, and the Sabbath truth must not be hidden but presented plainly in contrast with error.
Present Warnings and Applications
Schools repeat the ancient hindrance when they misconceive the most essential work to be done by students and by teachers for them and pattern after already established schools instead of studying and doing the Word of God critically as the great Lessonbook under its guidance. As the customs and maxims handed down through rabbis from generation to generation were made all-essential and dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God, even with more force than the Ten Commandments, so educators place human inventions, methods, theories and systems above Scripture. Human inventions, human laws and jurisdiction, and things brought into schoolbooks, churches and theology becloud the senses, replacing Scripture with books of human invention and nonessential studies and so-called education in the sciences. This directs minds away from what God has plainly said and from truths with eternal importance, and as traditions held back even Christ's few followers and disciples from advancement, from supplying their great lack of knowledge and from becoming efficient in usefulness, the same hindrance retards spiritual education.
Reopening the Battle Creek school against the message God had given made that message of no effect by following the tradition of men and hindered the work and cause of God. The word and instruction of God are made void when men put human suppositions in their place, interpreting His plain words by man's wisdom instead of God's wisdom and then going forward with their own plans in disregard of His positive directions, which is Satan's way of binding about the work of God. So the General Conference wrongly carried the Battle Creek school indebtedness when it had no funds to do so while missions in foreign lands lacked needed help. Satan works in various ways to make the word of the Lord ineffective, and the warning against going to Battle Creek is an instance of the Lord's word that should be respected rather than disregarded.
God's counsel is made of none effect by tradition when professed believers who claim to accept divine messages reject reproof and correction that crosses their preconceived opinions and particular ideas, counting what sustains cherished ideas as divine while calling what corrects errors merely human opinion and judgment. The same occurs when leaders resist light, refuse to come to the light and investigate the Word together with humble hearts, keep up criticism and objections instead of presenting open Bible evidence, try to bring the Bible to their own ideas instead of bringing their ideas to the Bible, and as far as they can nullify the words of those the Lord is using, taking the same position as the scribes and Pharisees. Putting the inspiration of the Scriptures under the judgment of finite men and cutting and carving the living Oracles at will to please themselves voids their effect, and the same handling is done to the testimonies of the Spirit of God by those who do not know what they are doing. Unless there is earnest seeking of the Lord with zealous repentance, with less of self and far more of the Holy Spirit controlling minds and hearts of men in the foremost rank, darkness will come upon minds in proportion to light not appreciated, causing failure to walk in harmony with God's opening providences, questioning and quibbling over light sent, and turning from Christ's teachings in self-confidence just as the Jews refused the light of the world. Disregarding the testimonies because they reprove conduct sets aside God's word, and prejudice and unwillingness to hear can make testimony of none effect by evading the light it gives.
The testimony of the Spirit is made void when its divine origin is denied and it is represented as human originating, and claiming as one's own the expressions and material furnished by God robs His word of its effect. Denying true statements and misinterpreting messages God has sent, with human interpretations and traditions, also works against their force. Because reproof may be misunderstood, instruction is to be given as far as possible in the language of Scripture, so that the Lord's warnings are recognized as words of eternal truth rather than distorted and misapplied.
Theories that remove God from sovereignty make God's word ineffective, undermine the Bible's authority so it is treated as fiction, reject the restraints of God's word and Spirit, make the atonement seem unnecessary, place trust in human power, and leave the unaided human will without barrier against sin so it cannot resist and overcome evil. Spiritualistic theories about God's personality make the heavenly truth given through John count for nothing, dismiss the importance of events ahead, and rob God's people of the truth and experience they have received. Speculative teachings about God, including claims that sanctified people cannot sin and that their affections cannot lead them astray, mislead, encourage sinful practice and self-satisfied impurity, and cause spiritual harm. Human traditions nullify God's commandments when taught as doctrine in place of truth, and literature that spreads doubt about Christ's incarnation opposes God, weakens faith, undermines the commandments, and advances the enemy's cause.
A life without Christ's grace makes the Word ineffective in influence, for when claimants to truth show no genuine love, service, or sanctifying power their lives testify against their profession. Christians who lack a transformed life give the world a false picture of God and testify that truth has no power to sanctify, thus nullifying the saving influence truth would have if practiced, and a life that misrepresents Christ turns others away from the safe path. Honoring superstition and falsehood above God's Word makes His teaching ineffective and costs eternal life if continued. Selfish, health-destroying indulgence nullifies the message to prepare a people for God's great day, for churches not living health reform lose strength and reap spiritual and physical degeneracy, while unconverted or backslidden older members leaven new converts and rob the message of power over them, which is why many souls are not now brought in. When appetite and passion control, truth is made ineffective in the heart, preventing sanctification of the whole person and keeping one from being a true obedient servant of Christ.
Satan inspires falsehoods to nullify God's truth, yet he cannot turn truth into a lie, for though he hinders its going forth the truth remains sure. Malicious lies and pure fabrications circulated to defeat proclamation make truth of none effect, presenting God's messenger in false light to deceive honest souls and keep them from truth, but those lies are powerless over minds really desirous to know truth when God gives opportunity to see and hear for themselves. The false report that Sabbath-keepers do not preach Christ is such a Satan-inspired falsehood to be exposed, for they preach no other doctrine but Christ, lifting up the Man of Calvary as the only Hope of the world in whom hope of eternal life is centered. Making the Word of none effect means hedging up the way of God's workers, as the spirit that held the colored people in slavery stirs whites to work against whatever uplifts them, and when church members arrayed against truth join that opposition they block workers, spread false statements about God's servants, and make the ignorant their ready dupes, as false teachers did when Christ was on earth. The same nullifying work occurs when a man whom God cannot stand beside is encouraged to stand in the sacred desk, throwing a covering of sanctity over a crooked course, and when God's people extol such a man and solicit his labors as though God could work through no other, turning his head until reproofs, warnings and counsels cannot reach heart and character with designed effect, for which those who take this course must answer in judgment, since every man stands only as what he is in God's sight—a finite man.
People make God's message ineffective by opposing or obstructing it as the Jews did, standing between God's people and light, hope and comfort by blocking the message that Christ is their righteousness, and they are called either to receive it or stop blocking others. The same rejection occurs when people refuse the Holy Spirit's appeals and work against the Word, resisting truth until led into deeper darkness. The Lord sends messages in mercy to save men and give opportunity to help others in danger, but rejecting them and stubbornly following own plans through pride and blindness leads to discovering the mistake too late. After the judgment on San Francisco the call to repentance and humility unheeded left increased crime and fraud, showing truth made ineffective. Ministers who wrest the Scriptures and make statements against the Bible use human teaching to undermine Scripture, in contrast to the visible change in lives when truth is accepted.
Those awaiting Jesus must give up errors and traditions received from men and turn wholly to God and His word, for human traditions set aside and nullify it. Receiving Scripture in simplicity distinguishes true from false and guards against deception, whereas traditions twisting Scripture from its true meaning blunt truth to excuse sin. The traditions and maxims of scribes and Pharisees that make God's word ineffective are compared with medical theories unnecessary or harmful to the mind.
Using human traditions to disregard commandments while excusing sinners and transgressing promotes apostasy, and weak excuses bring destruction to makers and to others. Religious leaders make God's word ineffective by rejecting its authority and treating it as no longer binding, as teachers in Christ's time did to the law, and the same disregard continues in the religious world today.