8 Bible Verses about Formality

But as they were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. "What was it that you went out into the desert to look at? A reed swaying in the wind? Then what did you go out there to see? A man luxuriously dressed? Men who dress in that way you find in the palaces of kings. Then why did you go out there? Was it to see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet!

Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, and said to him, "Why do your disciples break the rules handed down by our ancestors? For they eat their bread without first washing their hands."

"Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you pay tithes on mint, dill, and cummin, and you have let the weightier matters of the Law go??ustice, mercy, and integrity. But you should have observed these, without overlooking the others.

but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again? You are observing days, months, seasons, and years! I begin to be afraid that perhaps the labor I spent on you was wasted.

If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like

Understand this, that in the last days there are going to be hard times. People will be selfish, avaricious, boastful, arrogant, abusive, undutiful, ungrateful, irreverent, unfeeling, irreconcilable, slanderous, with no self-control, brutal, with no love for what is good,read more.
treacherous, reckless, conceited, caring more for pleasure than for God, keeping up the forms of religion, but resisting its influence. Avoid such people.

Suppose you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God, and can understand his will, and from hearing the Law read can tell what is right, and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark,read more.
train the foolish, teach the young, since you have knowledge and truth formulated in the Law??21 why, then, will you teach others and refuse to teach yourself? Will you preach against stealing, and yet steal yourself? Will you warn men against adultery, and yet practice it yourself? Will you pretend to detest idols, and yet rob their temples? Will you boast of the Law and yet dishonor God by breaking it? For, as the Scripture says, the very name of God is abused among the heathen, because of you! Circumcision will help you only if you observe the Law; but if you are a lawbreaker, you might as well be uncircumcised. So if people who are uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, will they not be treated as though they were circumcised? And if, although they are physically uncircumcised, they obey the Law, they will condemn you, who break the Law, although you have it in writing, and are circumcised. For the real Jew is not the man who is one outwardly, and the real circumcision is not something physical and external. The real Jew is the man who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, a spiritual, not a literal, thing. Such a man receives his praise not from men, but from God.

though I at least am entitled to rely on them. If anyone thinks he can rely on his physical advantages, still more can I! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a descendant of Israel. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and the son of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee; as to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church; and by the Law's standard of uprightness, no fault could be found with me.read more.
But for the sake of Christ I have come to count my former gains as loss.