Religious hypocrisy happens when people selectively obey rules and only pretend to follow God's law without real change in their motives and lives. Those who boast about their religious commitment often lack a true desire to obey God.
The prophet Isaiah preached to people who seemed to be very religious. They fasted, prayed, celebrated holy days, and brought sacrifices to Jerusalem. Yet God rejected these practices.
Why? These acts had value because the Lord himself had prescribed them! But the people's worship was not sincere. It lacked the personal holiness and social justice that God requires (see, for example, Leviticus 19:13–17). The people of Judah had become religious hypocrites.
Many years after Isaiah, Jesus addressed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He urged them to obey all of what God had revealed, not just the parts that made them popular (Matthew 23:1–36, especially Matthew 23:23). The apostles Paul and James also emphasized the difference between performing religious acts and having true spirituality (1 Corinthians 3:1–23; James 1:21–2:13).
Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees also warns us. We should not imitate them (see Matthew 6:1–18; 1 Peter 2:1). Instead, Jesus tells us to be genuine with God and others and obey all his commands. In our worship of God, we must go farther that religion forms with a focus on outward actions.
Passages for Further Study
Psalm 50:16–23; Proverbs 15:8; 26:23; Isaiah 1:11–15; 29:13–15; 58:2–7; Jeremiah 7:4–10; 12:2; Ezekiel 33:30–31; Hosea 8:13; Amos 5:21–24; Micah 3:11; Zechariah 7:5–6; Malachi 2:13–14; Matthew 6:1–18; 23:1–36; Titus 1:15–16; James 1:21–27; 1 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:4, 9; 4:20