This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord : "Stand at the gate of the Lord's house and there proclaim this message: " 'Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers forever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. ~Jeremiah 7:1-8
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…~Philippians 3:2-3
What are the similarities between these two verses? Some would say there are none. I say that you should look closer. If we look at material and physical things like the temple and the circumcision we are looking in the wrong direction, an insignificant direction. We need to look more closely at the spiritual things that these phrases and bodily signs represent. These verses speak to a person’s heart or about their heart. Jeremiah is telling the people of Israel that God sees right through them. They may believe they are fooling other men by revering the temple and claims to piety but the truth is they are only in the Temple in body, physically and mentally they are miles away.
Jesus too mentions this “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Matthew 15:8
We are no more Christians by baptism than the Jews were by the circumcision. It is not rituals or signs that save it is an accepting knowledge of Christ and the work done on the cross.
What does Paul say earlier in Romans?
For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Romans 2:24
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. Romans 2:28
We can also jump back to Jeremiah for a similar statement:
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." Jeremiah 4:4
"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised—Jeremiah 9:25
What is being conveyed here? Man is not saved by outward actions or by his acts or works. It isn’t the baptism or circumcision that saves the person. It is cognizant recognition of Jesus Christ and an ongoing progressive relationship with Him that allows us to grow in Him and be like Him. The works, acts, and the actions are outward manifestations of the internal change as mentioned in James 2.
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” James 2:15-18
This isn't so much spiritual hypocrisy as much as it may be a misunderstanding of what God expects from people and what it takes to be saved. I believe this was the case in Jeremiah's time, the time of Christ and today because man's rituals have polluted the intent or original meaning of what true reverent worship and love of God really is. Mans extra ritual and rules piggybacked onto God's requirements. Rituals that were attainable and doable by people as opposed to the Law and requirements from God that actually do man good. Jeremiah even alludes to this with the statement "Do not trust in deceptive words", "do not follow other gods to your own harm" and "you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless". Sometimes people just don't know any better. They just want to do right by God and right by their church because their church has told them that "this is the way it is" and they trusted them. So they go through the motions like reading off of que cards because they were told that this is how they stay "tight" with the "Big Guy". A religion of ritual, works and a unhealthy portion of reprobation. So it was in the time of Jeremiah and Jesus, so it is today in many churches and denominations.
In short, the passages in Philippians. Romans and Jeremiah are calling for an inward change of the heart. The power to affect change comes from God either through nature in the form of miracles or through the Holy Spirit in man, not through the volition of man. Not through things man wills but through things God wills. We are only potter's clay in the hands of the potter. It is about a willingness to obey not chant phrases, show up once a week at church, or pay our dues to keep in the good graces of the Church. We are to tithe out of joy not out of obligation. We need to be creative with our prayer life and approach God in different ways with different intents like joy, happiness, repentance, lament, etc. Not to reiterate the Lord’s Prayer as if it is a ritual but to pray like the Lord did in the Lord’s Prayer. It is okay to say the Lord’s Prayer, just not every Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday as a part of a ritual pattern. To me this would then constitute vain repetition. God is clear all throughout the Bible that He wants a close relationship with us. He doesn't require that we say a million Hail Mary's in our lifetimes. Besides, the only intercessor to the Father is Jesus Christ not Mary. He wants us to want Him, not feel obligated out of terror and regret. Fear and awe yes, terror no…unless of course you have died without repentance. It is clear and spelled out in patterns all over the Bible, obey him and he will act on your behalf in His own time as He sees fit so that it will benefit your eternal salvation. This pattern is no more evident than it is in Deuteronomy 28: Blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience.
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