Matthew 15:6, commentary and pictures

The verse exposes a practice that set aside love and duty to father and mother under a pretense of liberality to the temple, teaching that a person could be free from honoring parents. More broadly it teaches that putting human requirements, ideas and institutions where God's requirements belong, even exalting rules and customs handed down from generation to generation above the commandments given at Sinai, makes His commandment ineffective. This is done by weaving human sayings and inventions into truth and teaching them as doctrines, and by distorting Scripture so its plain meaning is obscured and people are led away from trust in God. Christ met this corruption by separating Jehovah's precepts from human maxims, clearing away erroneous theories and rescuing truth from error to restore the law to its purity as reaching the motives of the heart. The same guilt is reached when God's law is declared abrogated and no longer binding, and when a spurious sabbath is accepted and exalted in place of the Sabbath given in Eden, turning souls from obedience and loyalty to God. Against making void the commandments stands doing His commandments, by which alone there is right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city.

Words and Historical Context

The verse exposes a practice by which neglect of duty to father and mother was concealed under a pretense of liberality to the temple, teaching that a person could be free from honoring parents and thus setting aside filial love and duty. Human tradition was used to excuse disobedience and failure to honor father and mother, replacing God's plain word with human commands and deceiving people away from obedience. Scribes and Pharisees distorted Scripture with interpretations and rules God had not given, obscuring its plain meaning, weakening respect for God's law, and replacing the Word of God with human rules and standards. Those faced with such formal teaching were faced with the choice of following tradition or remaining with Christ.

This hypocrisy works like leaven placed in meal, acting imperceptibly until it permeates character and life and transforms the whole mass to its own nature. The scribes and Pharisees concealed the real tendency of their doctrines and improved every occasion to instill deceptive principles artfully, and once accepted those false principles worked like leaven and made it hard for the people to receive the words of Christ. The same influence works today through those who explain the law of God to make it conform to their practices, not attacking the law openly but putting forward speculative theories that undermine its principles and destroy its force.

The human traditions were given greater authority than the commandments given at Sinai, even than the Ten Commandments. Rules presented as safeguards for God's law were treated as more sacred than the law itself, and focus on ceremonial observances distracted people from the law's great principles. Customs and maxims handed down from generation to generation through the rabbis were made all-essential and regarded as of more force than the Ten Commandments. The precepts and teachings of men were taught and dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God and than a Thus saith the Lord, thereby making God's commandment ineffective. These customs and maxims kept back Christ's few followers and disciples from advancing, supplying their lack of knowledge, and becoming efficient workers.

The specific traditions elevated above what God commanded included ceremonial observances, oral customs, ritual rules, and ceremonies such as handwashing. The religious leaders elevated oral customs and rules about ceremonies, including handwashing, above what God had commanded, treating their own human inventions as more important than Jehovah's precepts. Those ceremonies were treated as essential even though God had not commanded them. The priests strictly enforced ritual rules while their traditions undermined God's law.

The verse was spoken openly before assembled multitudes against the leaders and teachers of the people, against rabbis, priests, and rulers who wove human sayings into truth and demanded submission to human invention. It was spoken by the One who Himself gave the prophecies through holy men of old and came as their Expositor, charging the leaders in Israel with making the law of God void by their tradition and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. It holds up the Ten Commandments as an expression of truth in all its purity against human teaching, separating Jehovah's precepts from human maxims and traditions. It means that men entrusted with the oracles of God break the law themselves and deceive those who would investigate and obey the light to break it also, bringing about a lawless condition of world and church with none righteous, none seeking God, and no fear of God. Christ firmly and continuously resisted this corruption, coming when most needed to clear away the heap of erroneous theories, maxims, falsehoods, and authoritative dogmas that confused spiritual understanding, perverted true worship, and buried the plan of salvation, so truth could stand in purity.

How Tradition Voids Law

Placing human requirements where divine requirements belong makes the divine command ineffective, and putting human ideas, institutions and teachings above God and His law declares His law to be of no effect. Human tradition sets aside the commandment when it is set against commanded duty, and work that spreads doubt and weakens faith serves that same end by setting human ideas against divine truth. The leaders' inherited rules and teachings did not preserve the authority of the law but made it ineffective.

Tradition voids the law when human sayings, maxims, customs and inventions are woven into truth, received and repeated from age to age, and taught as doctrines and as the commandments of God, though they come from human minds. Religious teachers make the law ineffective when they treat their own teachings as truth, elevate their own rules as divine commands, and present human inventions as divine truth. By misapplying Scripture, substituting traditions and fables for its meaning, and reshaping divine messages to fit their own ideas, they disregard the underlying principles of love to God and fellow people, blind themselves and others to Christ, and lead others astray. Forms, traditions and customs of men thus mixed with truth bring truth down to the dust, and no long-descended tradition can save the soul by being observed, nor does baptism sanctify such a tradition and make it whole, for right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city stand only in doing His commandments. Age does not turn error into truth even when the error is hoary with age, and truth so mixed with accumulated maxims and customs taught for the commandments of God must be rescued from where it was made to strengthen error and restored to its native loveliness.

Tradition voids the law by distorting Scripture with interpretations and rules God had not given, misapplying it, reshaping its messages to fit human ideas, wresting it from its true meaning, and obscuring its plain meaning. In this way respect for God's law is weakened, people are left perplexed and confused, led away from trust and faith in God, turned away from holy requirements, and misused Scripture is made to suit self. Minds filled with prejudice misunderstand plain lessons, study the Scriptures to prove their own ideas correct, change the meaning of God's Word to suit opinions, quote half a sentence while leaving out the other half that would show the reasoning false, and wrest the Scriptures to conform to preconceived ideas. Human inventions that void the word please the carnal mind and pacify the conscience while clinging to sin, because faith that works by love and sanctifies the soul is not palatable. To excuse sin that is not forsaken and despised, men devise reasonings and assertions to blunt the edge of the sword of truth, yet if the word were permitted to do its work upon heart and intellect and received in simplicity, it would distinguish the spurious from the true, turn minds from worldly pursuits and temporal hopes, and make wise unto salvation as a safeguard and shield against delusion.

Taking the sayings of men as the commandments of God is not only unreliable but dangerous, for it places men where God should be and places the sayings of men where a Thus saith the Lord should be. Giving human sayings the authority that belongs to God obscures the truth. Tradition voids the law when it is used to excuse disobedience and failure to honor father and mother, as in teaching that a person could be free from honoring parents. Such interpretation magnifies minor matters while treating matters of eternal importance as unimportant, undermines true principles of morality, leaves precious truths concerning salvation unheeded through occupation with matters of no consequence, and turns people from God's law by elevating tradition above it. Christ's suffering was not permission to break the law, but was borne because the law had been transgressed, to honor and magnify the law while saving sinners by enduring sin's penalty.

Those who thus void the law profess obedience while remaining impenitent, self-sufficient and disobedient, like the son who said, I go, sir, and went not. Their religious life becomes a pretense, their worship becomes vain and empty when God's law is replaced with rules of their own and human commands are taught as doctrine. Professed obedience does not make refusal to obey acceptable, for true religion requires obedience to the law God gave rather than a self-invented standard, even when the law is proclaimed while traditions are exalted with hypocritical devotion. Teachers who used tradition to excuse neglect of God's law are denounced as deceivers, whereas God's church is characterized by obedience to His commandments.

Christ Exposes and Restores

Christ set human commands over against God's law, which he came to reveal and to obey, separating Jehovah's precepts from human maxims and making clear that the Ten Commandments express truth in its purity. He exposed the replacing of the law's true requirements with human rules and restored its real meaning, showing that it reaches the motives of the heart and condemns selfishness as sin. He came to separate truth from the human utterances that had obscured it, so that the principles of God's government, the plan of redemption, and the lessons of the Old Testament could be made clear.

He came when a perishing world most needed it, to clear away the heap of erroneous theories, maxims, falsehoods, and authoritative dogmas that confused spiritual understanding, perverted true worship, and buried the plan of salvation. Truth had become so mixed with error that traditions, maxims, and customs received and repeated from age to age had accumulated until they were taught as the commandments of God, yet age does not turn error into truth even when the error is hoary with age. He came to take away those traditions, remove the rubbish, rescue truth from where it had been made to strengthen error, and restore it to its native loveliness so it could stand in purity.

The teachings, sayings, customs, and traditions had piled like rubbish over the jewels of truth so that truth could not be discerned, obscuring the principles of God's government, the plan of redemption, and the lessons of the Old Testament. He rescued those jewels from error and set them back in order in the framework of truth, exploring hidden things and separating precious truth from superstition, error, and human devisings and imaginings. He came to teach truth in its purity by tearing away the error enveloping God's commandments and showing the true character of Jehovah's law, since truth mixed with such a mass of error had been brought down to the dust.

He firmly and continuously resisted this corruption before assembled multitudes, refusing submission to human invention woven into truth. He would not follow customs or formalities that required departure from God's will, nor accept teachings that placed human words above God's word, rejecting such meaningless forms and maxims rather than letting them shape his mind.

His suffering was not permission to transgress the law, for he suffered because the law had been transgressed. He bore the sinner's penalty so sinners could be saved while the law's demands were met, thereby honoring and magnifying the law.

Sabbath Law and Doctrine

To make the commandment of God of none effect by tradition is to make Jehovah's law void by declaring it abrogated and no longer binding on the human race. The charge once brought for formalism, backsliding, rebellion, apostasy and forgetfulness of God is repeated against ministers who claim to be His people and Bible teachers yet teach their families and the world that His law is not binding, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men and turning from the Word of God to substitute fables in its place. Such disobedience is just as offensive now as in the beginning when the same assertion was made to Eve in the garden.

Satan's work through all ages has been the same, to make the law of God of none effect. He began this work in heaven when he refused allegiance to God's law, and ever since he has infatuated men and women to mistake darkness for light and error for truth, telling them that God has abrogated all law and will open heaven to transgressors. The Jewish nation made God's law void by putting human commands in its place as doctrine, and this led them to reject the Son of God. The same guilt is reached when a spurious sabbath is accepted and exalted and souls are turned from obedience and loyalty to God. Rulers bring this on by using law to restore the man of sin to ascendancy, giving divine honor to a false sabbath and clothing human commands with sacred garments as holy, until persecution breaks out against those who keep the Sabbath God gave in Eden as a memorial of His creative power.

Calling God's law Jewish makes it ineffective in practice and misleads people, but the Sabbath command is not merely Jewish, for God set apart the seventh day at creation for humanity and its obligation continues in every age. Replacing that seventh-day memorial given at creation with the first day of the week is a human change with no sacred authority, which sets aside God's command and separates people from Him. Men entrusted with the oracles of God break the law themselves and deceive the people by teaching those who would investigate and obey the light to break it also, as the Jewish teachers did while Christ as the great Teacher and light of the world was among them with Satan interposing his hellish shadow between Him and souls. Making the law void in this way brings about a lawless condition of world and church with none righteous, none seeking God, and no fear of God, with throats as open sepulchers, deceit, cursing, bloodshed and misery.

The same nullifying applies to theories about God and to worthless and harmful theories that make His word of no effect, for rejecting the restraints of God's word and Spirit leaves people without a barrier against sin. The warning also applies to resistance against God's law by falsehoods and stirred-up passions that keep people from accepting truth, especially the truth of the fourth commandment. Unfaithful pastors make void the law by leading hearers to set aside the divine precepts and to persecute those who would keep the law holy, and this rebellion against the Author of all just and righteous law gives rise to evil, discord, hatred and iniquity. At the last the ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right relation to God, the teachers confess before the world their work of deception, and the deluded multitudes turn in fury upon the false shepherds as the cause of their ruin and loss of eternal life. The same condemnation rests on those disloyal to God who transgress His holy Sabbath, cavil over the plainest statements of the Word, misinterpret and wrest the Scriptures from their true meaning, and make desperate efforts to harmonize disobedience with the Scriptures.

Warning and Obedient Response

Religious claims must be tested by Scripture, for human tradition sets aside God's commandment when human opinions are taught as doctrine instead of biblical truth. Those who refuse an unprejudiced search of Scripture continue to spread error, having misapplied Scripture and substituted traditions and fables for its meaning until they are blinded to Christ. Truth had become so mixed with error that traditions, maxims and customs received and repeated from age to age had accumulated until they were taught for the commandments of God. Those given the light of truth must not let tradition stop their mouths or allow falsehood to be put in their mouths, but must speak the truth as it is in Christ without mixing in self, ideas and opinions.

The same difficulty with the sayings of men remains in the present day, for teachings and sayings with customs and traditions had piled like rubbish over the jewels of truth so that truth could not be discerned until those jewels were rescued and set back in order in the framework of truth. This calls for training of the heart after Christ's example and practice, taking heed to a Thus saith the Lord to know what is truth. The change the Jews should have made must now be made by leaving human tradition and obeying God, turning from traditions and maxims and sayings of men rather than from the greatest Teacher the world has ever known.

Minds filled with prejudice misunderstand plain lessons, not from lack of plainness but because prejudice hates and opposes Christ's effort and makes His words of no effect. Many study the Scriptures to prove their own ideas correct, changing the meaning of God's Word to suit opinions, quoting half a sentence while leaving out the other half that would show their reasoning false, and wresting the Scriptures to conform to preconceived ideas. God has a controversy with those who do so. Tradition also nullifies God's counsel when people use it to dismiss the parts that correct cherished opinions while accepting only what supports them. Yielding to the tempter's suggestions can likewise lead people to make God's holy law of no effect.

The verse applies to monastic teaching that induces youth to enter a cloister without parental knowledge and consent and contrary to parental commands, even telling children to trample a weeping father and mother under foot to go onward to Christ. As the Pharisees of old did, so such leaders do the same when they treat religious service as more important than filial love and duty. Such tradition steels children's hearts against parents, makes homes desolate, and deprives parents of the society of sons and daughters.

The customs and maxims handed down through the rabbis from generation to generation were made all-essential and regarded as of more force than the Ten Commandments, so that precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the living word and a Thus saith the Lord. These customs kept back Christ's few followers and called disciples from advancing, supplying their lack of knowledge, and becoming efficient workers. The disciples were faced with the choice of following such formal teaching, which made people think they were free from the duty to honor father and mother, or remaining with Christ.

Because the most learned rabbis had brought a mass of human tradition into interpretation until traditions and maxims were exalted above the Word, few understood God's true requirements or practiced pure principles, and all who connected with the religious teachers expecting proper education according to the Word became confused. For this reason children are safer kept from the customs and habits of worldly society for the formation of a pure and all-sided character. Heart and mind are to be kept open to heavenly impressions, as John the Baptist was schooled by nature with the Old Testament as lesson book.

Against making void the commandments stands doing His commandments, by which alone there is right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city. No tradition come down through the ages can save the soul from death by observing it, and baptism does not sanctify such a tradition and make it whole. Teachers who used tradition to excuse neglect of God's law and who taught traditions and customs of men as the commandments of God, mixing truth with such a mass of error that it was brought down to the dust, stand denounced as deceivers. God's church is characterized by obedience to His commandments.