If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear: knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ; who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently: having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever. For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls; but the Lord’s word endures forever.

(1 Peter 1:17-25, emphasis added)

God judges each of us because we are fallen. The Father knew that each of us would be unable to meet His expectation of righteousness or love. It was known to the Father and to the Son that the Son’s lifeblood would be the only way to restore His creation to Himself. God knew we would fail Him. He knew Adam and every other man since him would fail Him. Our Father judges without favoritism. He does not see denomination, attendance, culture, status or behavior. He judges our walks on the paths of our lives. He judges our work. He causes us to always walk in reverence to Him. Money and things do not make us successful in our walk. We cannot purchase our way to His glorious presence. Our denominational underpinnings are not the way to the truth. Traditions of men are truly worthless in God’s sight. He says the things we learned about righteousness are “handed down by tradition by our fathers.” Are the things about a Christ-like life taught by our traditions? What about traditions that are contrary to those of our fathers, but in concert with the fathers of others? Is the Southern Baptist walking a straighter path than the path of the United Methodist? Is the Mormon any more righteous by “the tradition of their fathers” than the Roman Catholic who follow the “traditions of his fathers?”

God judges and we are to avoid that. We are saved by the blood of Christ Jesus shed that fateful day at Calvary. Because we have received the gift of faith and that through grace we understand the significance of Christ in our daily walk. We see, feel and express the grace that is in today. Our hope is in Christ and God is reasonable to expect our love to be for Him, in Him, through Him. We are to be His in every moment of every day.

Men build doctrines that include some and exclude most. We build traditions that judge all when we are cautioned not to judge at all.

Sermon Writer is a website that provides resources for Biblical study. They provide this explanation of these verses. ¹ We are told “the useless way of life handed down” is Peter’s description of “the traditions and values handed down by their parents – their spiritual inheritance.” Traditions and values form our moral judgments. Beliefs contribute to our understanding of the ways our lives work. The traditions handed down to us from our parents and traditions given to us by way of our Bible teachers are not necessarily good or worthy. We are taught to set all of those aside for the better, purer Way. We are to see and to live and to work our days in “The Blessed Hope.”

1 “Bible Commentary (Bible Study): 1 Peter 1:17:23.” Sermon Writer website. Date of publication not known. https://www.sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/1-peter-117-23/. Date accessed: 06/07/2018.