“For you know that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were delivered from your fruitless form of conduct received by tradition from your forefathers.

1 Peter 1:18,

Suppose a large amount of silver or gold had been paid to ransom us from death. Would we not feel deeply indebted to the one who made such a major material sacrifice in our behalf?

²³ How much greater, then, is our indebtedness to Jehovah God and to Jesus Christ! The ransom price paid was far more valuable than any material treasure that can be lost, stolen or destroyed. Its value is greater than all the silver and gold found on earth today.

The payment of this ransom price also provided the basis, as Peter says, for our being ‘delivered from our fruitless form of conduct received by tradition from our forefathers.’ How so?

24. Before we became disciples of Jesus Christ, how may our conduct have been “fruitless”?

²⁴ When we accepted the fact of our having been ransomed or bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we abandoned our former course of life. Without knowledge of Jehovah God or his purposes, our life had been “fruitless,” vain, empty, in that it revolved exclusively around the attainment of things that had no permanence. The way we conducted ourselves may even have harmed us mentally, physically and emotionally. Moreover, our parents and grandparents may have been unacquainted with the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, the standards and principles by which they conducted their affairs of life may not have been in harmony with the divine will. They may even have engaged in God-dishonoring religious practices. Thus, even the “tradition” we may have received from our ancestors respecting conduct did not lead to our enjoying a purposeful life.​—Compare Matthew 15:3-9.