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Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
Pastor: Dr. Lester Hutson

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Beware of Loyalty, Tradition and Emotional Decisions

So far in this series of lessons we've studied what we should look for in today's churches to determine which are the Lord's. But there are some things which we should not include in our search and which could hinder our finding and joining the right church. Specifically these are loyalty, tradition and our emotions. Let me explain.

Loyalty is an admirable quality. The Bible teaches that we should be loyal to our friends (Proverbs 27:10), to our employers and to our rulers (Romans 13:1, Titus 3:1). But loyalty can be misplaced. The history books are full of people who have been led to destruction and ruin by being loyal to a corrupt leader (Jim Jones, Hitler, etc.) And when it comes to finding the right church our loyalty should be to the correct understanding of the Word of God and not to our parents, friends, prior church affiliations, etc. We should look for a church which correctly teaches the Word of God and not to what we have been used to in the past.

Not only will misplaced loyalties prevent us from finding the right church but so will following after traditions. Traditions are man made rituals or practices. If they are based on wholesome principles they can have merit and be of value. But good or bad they should not play any part in our search for the right church.

We all have traditions we like to observe. Many families have a tradition of getting together on a specific date. Most of us observe the tradition of giving gifts to someone on their birthday. The company I'm employed with has been in business for over 135 years because of sound business traditions passed down through the years in the form of company policy. But traditions are inherently prone to flaws because they are man made. Let me give you a humorous example.

I remember the first thanksgiving my wife and I spent together in our home. Her family was coming in to town and my wife took on the challenge of preparing a meal for 13 people. I remember that she put the turkey in a large pan and then did something I'd never seen my mother do. She covered the turkey with a wet, clean dish towel. When I asked her what purpose the towel served she explained that it was how her mother taught her. She further explained that during the basting process she would soak the towel with the water frequently, and thus help render the breast meat tender and moist. The dinner was a success and the turkey was indeed very moist. When I got the chance, I asked her mother about this tradition, and she giggled and said that the only reason she used a towel was because her oven was too small to allow a lid on her turkey pan.

Now let me give you an example of a horribly flawed tradition. I was raised in Brazil, South America. My parents were missionaries there from 1953 through 1993. One of the mission works my father worked was involved with was in an Indian village on the northeast coast of Brazil. These people had many traditions but one in particular turned our stomachs. Any child that was breach birthed was immediately sacrificed in order to appease the evil spirits of the jungle. They believed that failure to do so would result in the deaths of several other children.

When it comes to religion there is no lack of traditions and some are based on sound principles. For example, most Bible based churches offer Sunday School classes before the main service. Even though the New Testament does not describe this type of activity it makes perfect and sound sense. The idea is to offer Bible-based teaching to groups of the same age and stage in life thereby giving each group more specific teaching than can be done in a combined service.

But then there are church traditions which are not based on sound principles and which in fact stand in direct opposition to the Word of God, which they should be teaching. The tradition of baptizing babies is a good example of an unsound and unscriptural tradition. Not only does this practice not exist in the Scriptures but it stands in opposition to the truth of God's Word which clearly states that only a born again believer can be baptized. Obviously a baby or even a toddler is not mentally mature enough to become a believer. In addition, the baby baptisers use sprinkling as opposed to total immersion as taught in the Scriptures.

So when we search for the right church we must disregard the man made traditions we may have become used to observing and focus only on whether or not the church in question teaches the truths of God's Word. Remember that according to Christ (Matthew 18) each church is to be autonomous and has the flexibility to conduct itself in any manner which its members agree on, so long as they stay within the guidelines set forth in God's Word. For example, you might be in an area where your choices are limited to a church which does not correctly teach the truths of God's Word but has a Sunday School program which you have become used to, and one of the Lord's churches (as defined in God's Word and outlined in this series) which does not have a Sunday School program. The correct choice would be the latter.

But there is yet a more insidious and detrimental stumbling block to our finding the right church: our emotions. How many times have we regretted acting on our emotions. Maybe we purchased something we needed but chose the more expensive model which was out of our budget because of how it appealed to us? Maybe we formed a disastrous business alliance based on how we felt about the other partners instead of investigating their backgrounds? Maybe we caused a relationship to fail by giving in to negative and uncontrolled emotions? These are just some of the types of mistakes we could make based on the selfish and negative side of our emotions. We can also make mistakes based on the positive side of our emotional nature as well.

Love is a positive emotion but it can be misused and can cause us to make poor or even bad decisions. We might love someone, yet  not tell them the truth, because we don't want to hurt their feelings. We might like a type of food but eat too much of it. Or we can love the wrong thing altogether such as addictive substances.

When looking for the right church we might be tempted to listen to our emotions rather than what we know is right if we are not careful. For example, you might visit a church which is scripturally correct but not want to join because you perceived the congregation not to be as friendly as you'd have liked them to be. Or maybe the music was not to your liking. Or maybe the building wasn't the type you were used to. Or any other number of emotional reasons for not liking the church. And by listening to your emotions and not joining the right church you will have allowed your emotions to rob you of a great blessing.

God's Word speaks directly to these issues. The prophet Jeremiah said that 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?' (Jeremiah 17:9). He wasn't speaking of our blood pumps he was speaking of our minds, the well spring of our emotions. This same prophet also acknowledged 'that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). And Solomon warns us to 'trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:5,6).'

SUMMARY: The truth is that what we think and feel can lead us away from what God wants for our lives. Once we give in to how we feel or what we think we put ourselves on a path that at best is only parallel to the one God has for us as outlined in His Word, and at worst is perpendicular to His will for our lives. In order to find the right church it is imperative that we put aside what we've become used to, and what we are loyal to,, and how we feel and focus strictly on whether or not the church under review patterns itself after the New Testament model and aligns itself with the teachings in the Word of God.

NEXT LESSON: I've tried to give you the basics of finding the right church based on the Word of God. There are many other points that could have been covered, but these were the most important. In the next lesson we will review what we've studied and talk about some ways to apply what we've learned in our search for the right church.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"