8 Bible Verses about Formality

As the disciples of John went away, Jesus proceeded to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Come, what did you go out to see? A man arrayed in soft raiment? The wearers of soft raiment are in royal palaces. Come, why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet.

Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they take their food."

Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and omit the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omit ting the former.

but now that you know God ??or rather, are known by God ??how is it you are turning back again to the weakness and poverty of the Elemental spirits? Why do you want to be enslaved all over again by them? You observe days and months and festal seasons and years! Why, you make me afraid I may have spent my labour on you for nothing!

As you died with Christ to the Elemental spirits of the world, why live as if you still belonged to the world? Why submit to rules and regulations like

Mark this, there are hard times coming in the last days. For men will be selfish, fond of money, boastful, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreverent, callous, relentless, scurrilous, dissolute, and savage; they will hate goodness,read more.
they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God ??5 for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such.

If you bear the name of 'Jew,' relying on the Law, priding yourself on God, understanding his will, and with a sense of what is vital in religion; if you are instructed by the Law and are persuaded that you are a guide to the blind, a light to darkened souls,read more.
a tutor for the foolish, a teacher of the simple, because in the Law you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth ??21 well then, do you ever teach yourself, you teacher of other people? You preach against stealing; do you steal? You forbid adultery; do you commit adultery? You detest idols; do you rob temples? You pride yourself on the Law; do you dishonour God by your breaches of the Law? Why, it is owing to you that the name of God is maligned among the Gentiles, as scripture says! Circumcision is certainly of use, provided you keep the Law; but if you are a breaker of the Law, then your circumcision is turned into uncircumcision. (If then the uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, shall not their uncircumcision be reckoned equivalent to circumcision? And shall not those who are physically uncircumcised and who fulfil the Law, judge you who are a breaker of the Law for all your written code and circumcision?) He is no Jew who is merely a Jew outwardly, nor is circumcision something outward in the flesh; he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual not literal ??praised by God, not by man.

Though I could rely on outward privilege, if I chose. Whoever thinks he can rely on that, I can outdo him. I was circumcised on the eighth day after birth; I belonged to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin; I was the Hebrew son of Hebrew parents, a Pharisee as regards the Law, in point of ardour a persecutor of the church, immaculate by the standard of legal righteousness.read more.
But for Christ's sake I have learned to count my former gains a loss;