17 Bible Verses about Useless Religion

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you.

You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts?

by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

A Song of Ascents, of Solomon.
Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.

and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

‘But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”

‘But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
And washed my hands in innocence;

And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain—