8 Bible Verses about Formality

But as they were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the desert to gaze at? A reed that is tossed to and fro by the wind? If not, what did you go out there to see? A man dressed in silks and satins? No, people who dress in that way are found in the palaces of kings. If not, why did you go out there? To see a prophet?

Then some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, and asked Him, "Why do your disciples break the rules handed down by our forefathers? For they do not practice washing their hands when they take their meals."

"A curse on you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint and dill and cummin, and yet leave out the more vital matters of the law, justice, love and fidelity. These latter especially you ought to have done, but ought not to have left out the former.

but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again? You are observing days, months, seasons, years. I am beginning to fear that I have bestowed my labors on you for nothing.

If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as,

Now you must know that in the last days there are going to be hard times. For people will be selfish, avaricious, boastful, haughty, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, irreverent, lacking in love for kinsmen, irreconcilable, slanderers, having no self-control, savage, lacking in love for the good,read more.
treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure more than God, keeping up the forms of religion but not giving expression to its power. Avoid such people.

Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God, and understand His will, and by being instructed in the law can know the things that excel, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness,read more.
a tutor of the foolish, a teacher of the young, since you have a knowledge of the truth as formulated in the law -- you who teach others, do you not teach yourself too? You who preach that men should not steal, do you steal yourself? You who warn men to stop committing adultery, do you practice it yourself? You who shrink in horror from idols, do you rob their temples? You who boast about the law, do you by breaking it dishonor God? For, as the Scripture says, the name of God is abused among the heathen because of you. Now circumcision benefits you only if you practice the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision is no better than uncircumcision. So if the uncircumcised heathen man observes the just demands of the law, will he not be counted as though he were a Jew? And shall not the heathen man who is physically uncircumcised, and yet observes the law, condemn you who have the letter of the law and are physically circumcised, and yet break the law? For the real Jew is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, and real circumcision is not outward physical circumcision. The real Jew is the man who is a Jew on the inside, and real circumcision is heart-circumcision, a spiritual, not a literal, affair. This man's praise originates, not with men, but with God.

though I too might rely on these. If anyone thinks that he can rely on outward privileges, far more might I do so: circumcised when I was a week old; a descendant of Israel; a member of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew, a son of Hebrews. Measured by the law, I was a Pharisee; by the standard set by zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and measured by the uprightness reached by keeping the law, I was faultless.read more.
But for Christ's sake I have counted all that was gain to me as loss.