John 17:14-15 English Standard Version

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

While pondering these verses I cannot help but think about social norms and how they have changed over the years.

When I was in school girls had to wear skirts or dresses with a hem at least three inches below the knee. All we have to do is look at what girls are allowed to wear in school these days to see just how much society has changed over the last sixty years.

Before schools began making standards of proper attire parents controlled how their children dressed in public. When parents abdicated responsibility society started setting standards. As society changed, those standards changed.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

When Godly parents do not abdicate their training obligations according to biblical standards the children will honor standards which reflect the faith of the parents.

When they come of age, marry and have children of their own, whose traditions will they adhere to in that marriage?

2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Mark 7:6-7 English Standard Version

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Isaiah 29:13 English Standard Version

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

That is not a word for word quote but close enough to discover the connection.

The condition of their hearts is identified as the problem in Mark 7 but is expressed as fearing God in Isaiah as a tradition of man. That is not reverence for God which caused their hearts to be far from Him. In Mark 7 it is expressed as a vain attempt, meaning their tradition did not accomplish what God intended for man.

Traditions appear throughout the bible and God does not correct or nullify them if those traditions do not interfere with true worship. God lets the insignificant slide, something that I have had to learn how to do.