Have you thought about all the religious rituals we do that God never commanded? Memorials, large weddings, holidays, speaking to the dead, and much more.
If we are to desire only pure truth to be in obedience to the Lord it would be good to go through all the rituals and holidays we celebrate and see if there is any command or basis for them in scripture.
Most things we do that we love to celebrate came out of paganism, added by the Catholic church and other cultic traditions that people wanted to include in their life.
Basically, we have indulged in paganism without even realizing it, merely because it is always what has been done and it is accepted by everyone, believers and non-believers alike.
Mark 7:13 "13Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”
Those who have given up the things of the world and of the pagans are often treated disrespectfully for not wanting to join in, even among believers.
Mark 7:3
"Now in holding to the tradition of the elders, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat until they wash their hands ceremonially."
Mark 7:5
"So the Pharisees and scribes questioned Jesus: "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with defiled hands."
Here in these passages, we have men of God dedicated to following Jesus Christ and even eventually dying for Him, being chastised for not following human traditions of ritualistic handwashing.
If you want to find out who loves you stop celebrating all the rituals, expunge from your life anything that is not commanded by God or based on a very real principle of the Bible and watch who becomes embarrassed by you. You WILL lose friends guaranteed, perhaps not all, but so many that you will feel very alone at times.
John 14:6-7 "6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”…"
When we desire to follow Christ so fully that we remove from our lives those things that do not glorify Him others will become distant and sometimes even angry.
I once heard of someone who decided to remove the television from their house because their children were fighting over it. They felt it was distracting them from good family interaction. They didn't tell anyone they got rid of their television, they just did it without announcing anything. Family members came to their home and noticed the TV was gone. Asking about it they were shocked and upset that the family decided to remove it. They even accused the family of being self-righteous for not having one of these machines in their home. This was one of the silliest stories I had ever heard, being rejected and corrected over the lack of entertainment in their own home. This family didn't go into the homes of others telling them they should remove their television, they merely made their own choice for their own family without announcing it.
By the way, those who were upset at their family decision were Christians......or so they pretended.
This is how people view you when you remove something from your life that is distracting you from Christ. They see you as weird and arrogant when the arrogant ones are those who are angry about what we are doing that is drawing us closer to Christ.
It is possible and likely that when we take a major step to come closer to Christ the world is going to hate us for it. They want us to be just like them, without concern for our spiritual life.
We are living in the end times of apostasy when many people who are in the church are not born again. They will work against our desire to serve and please God. They will chastise those who are growing in holiness attempting to bring them back to their own way of thinking. Those who are pretenders love their traditions, their worldly desires and themselves far more than they care about Christ.
When you are rejected for the way you live your life, praise God, for if we were of the world the world would love its own.
John 15:18-20 "18If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. 19If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. 20Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecute"
Do not be dismayed or saddened by this, rejoice that you are seeking Christ, His reward is great and our joy is full. Hallelujah!
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