Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:10)
The kingdom of Israel had become divided. The Northern kingdom, Israel, had abandoned biblical worship of God and gone after idols. God sent the people into captivity. Enemies conquered them and carried them off into slavery.
The Southern kingdom of Judah watched this happen, but instead of repenting and returning to God in truth, they made only a pretense of worshiping God, in hope that they would avoid Israel’s fate, while they continued to pursue worthless idolatry.
God calls Israel “faithless”, but he calls Judah “treacherous”. Treachery is worse than faithlessness. Treachery is betrayal and deception. And just who did they think they were deceiving? God?
If God is who he says he is, the Creator of all, who knows the heart, then it is clear that this kind of treachery would be more offensive than outright rebellion. Rebellion is saying to God, “I’m going to go my own way and do my own thing!” Making a pretense at worship is saying to God, “I’m going to go my own way and do my own thing, but I’ll pretend to worship you and I don’t think you’re smart enough to know the difference!”
After reading this verse, I asked myself, is there any pretense in my worship? Am I attempting to put on a show? To make something appear to be true when it is not? Am I putting on a false display of emotion, or affection when I worship?
Though it is sometimes difficult, we need to be honest and repent of our pretense, because God hates it. He views it as betrayal, as treachery. Pretense in our worship is highly offense to him.
Jesus tells us that God is not interested in our pretense, but that,
“those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4.24)
The bible has a special word to describe those who worship in pretense – hypocrite.
Hypocrites make a spectacle of prayer, fasting, tithing, and other aspects of worship. God hates hypocrisy, and so does everyone else.
So the next time you pause to pray before a meal, ask yourself if you are expressing heartfelt thankfulness, or just going through the motions. The next time you close your eyes and raise your hands during corporate singing, ask yourself if you are truly worshiping, or just putting on a show. Even as you honor God with your voice, is your heart far from him? (Mark 7:6)
I’m not saying these things are bad. I’m just saying that if our “worship” is limited to those things which have an appearance of worship to us, if they are unaccompanied by a life lived in service to God and others, then our “worship” is treacherous pretense to God.
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1.26–27)
I don’t care how emotional we feel on Sunday morning, if our heart doesn’t love what God loves, hate what God hates, and break over what breaks God’s heart, if we are not driven to real action, then our “worship” is pretense and that emotion is false.
But if our hearts are close to God, then we won’t go to church to worship, our lives will be worship.
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