8 Bible Verses about Formality

And when they had gone, Jesus began to say to the multitudes, concerning John, What went you out to the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Behold, they that wear fine clothes are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

THEN came the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders, for they wash not their hands when they eat bread?

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to do, and not neglect the others.

but now knowing God, or rather being known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and imperfect rudiments, which you wish again to serve? Do you observe days, and months, and times, and years? I am afraid of you, lest I have expended labor on you in vain.

If therefore you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why do you practice ordinances as living in the world,??21 you shall not touch, you shall not taste, you shall not feel,??22 all which are to perish in the using??ccording to the commandments and instructions of men?

AND know this, that in the last days perilous times shall come. Men will be selfish, avaricious, vain, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, covenant breakers, slanderers, intemperate, ungentle, despisers of the good,read more.
traitors, rash, boasters, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of piety but denying its power; and these avoid.

But [what] if you are called a Jew and rest on the law, and boast of God, and know his will, and approve of things which are excellent, being instructed by the law, and believe yourself to be a guide of the blind, a light of those in darkness,read more.
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law; you that teach another, do you not teach yourself? You that preach not to steal, do you steal? You that command not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who boast of the law, by the transgression of the law do you dishonor God? For the name of God is blasphemed on your account among the nations as it is written. For circumcision indeed is profitable if you perform the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcision keeps the ordinances of the law, shall not its uncircumcision be accounted for circumcision? And the uncircumcision by nature which keeps the law shall judge you who with the written law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law. For not that which is external is the Jew, nor is that which is external in the flesh circumcision. But that which is in secret is the Jew, and circumcision of the heart is in the spirit not in the writing, the commendation of which is not of men but of God.

although I have ground of confidence in the flesh. If any other one thinks he may trust in the flesh, I [may] more; circumcised the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal persecuting the church, as to righteousness by the law being blameless.read more.
But whatever things were my gain, these I have considered a loss for the sake of Christ.