The Danger of a “Biblical” False Religion - Nick Napier
Imagine for a moment that you are having people over to your home for dinner and a Bible study. You are in the midst of trying to get dinner prepared and doing those things that are in keeping with having the house ready for hospitality. Before the people arrive you look around and see things out of place, perhaps a couple of toys on the floor, some art materials (slivers of paper cut from what looks like 2,436 different papers) from your child’s latest artistic effort, and a stray sock or two. You ask the children to help you clean up.
They scurry off to begin cleaning. After a while you look back and notice that the mess they have made is still there! You go find them in their rooms. One has taken their clothes out of their drawers and is folding and organizing them in each drawer by color, in the order of the rainbow. The other has pulled their desk from the wall, and is cleaning behind the desk. They have missed precisely the point of what you had meant when you asked them to clean up.
Such a story is kind of funny because it resonates with what we have all likely experienced with our children and in our own selves. We have often majored in minors, while missing the main need before us. In the realm of day-to-day things, this is not that big of a deal. Those things can be corrected with relative ease and no lasting damage. However, when it comes to matters of spiritual importance, such happenings are far more grave. We see this most often in Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees.
I’m thinking particularly of that account in Luke 11:37-44:
And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
In this text, Jesus has been invited into the home of a Pharisee. Jesus had spent some time that day teaching on prayer and casting out demons and being challenged by those who were teachers of the law. And right before this, Jesus had declared who he was–the greater prophet than Jonah; the one who would deliver men from their sins.The crowds were pressing in and then this pharisee invited Jesus in for a meal. Jesus enters the Pharisee's house, and doesn’t wash his hands in the custom of the teachers’ of the law –not something commanded by God, but something that had been made an outward measure of righteousness, by those who thought that righteousness was primarily external, and uncleanness came from “out there.”
Jesus notes their astonishment, and proceeds to teach them that the very religion they had been holding onto in the name of the covenant religion of Jehovah was false religion. He teaches them this by showing that false religion neglects what is primary for the sake of the secondary.
He teaches them this in four ways.
First he demonstrates that false religion is that which is merely symbolic. What harm would there have been in Jesus simply washing his hands? We must note what the Pharisees were guilty of believing: they believed that washing was not simply about hygiene, but it was an act of moral purity; cleansing the filth from “out there” off of them. In other words, this hand washing was not a simple conscience issue, but it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel issue. And if we believe God’s Word about the destination of men, we ought not to allow people to sit in misunderstandings of the gospel. Washing in the Scriptures was not primarily about external cleanliness (cf. Isaiah 1:16-17). If the Lord was merely interested in externals, the ceremonial law would have been Christianity in its fullness. So, the Pharisees were finding their hope in that they were externally clean by deeds that they could do. They were looking the greater Jonah in the face–the Redeemer of sinners, and saying to Him, “You need to be as clean as our hands are.” And he was telling them (in verses 39-40) outward cleanness is nothing because it doesn’t change your heart. They had stopped looking for the coming Christ, and begun resting in their own attempts to be righteous. They may have begun by the Spirit, but they were trying to be made perfect by the flesh.
Second in this interaction, in verses 41-44, Jesus demonstrates that false religion is that which neglects the primary for the sake of the secondary. These Pharisees were not content with merely giving, but thought that they would pursue the “more righteous” questions, and make complex what was simple. They would have been the ones arguing over gross or net income tithing. And Jesus tells them they are neglecting what is primary for that which is secondary, “But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” This is the trapping of all “Bible based” false religion. It gives the appearance of being biblical, but really thrusts things of secondary importance to the fore. If your religiosity does not compel you to love God and seek His glory, and to love your neighbor and seek his good you have made secondary matters primary–and passed by the weightier matters. They were concerned with how others saw them, and walked before them to impress–they were not concerned with weightier matters. They would have brought thousands of calves, but not sought to, “do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly” with their God (Micah 6:8).
Third, he demonstrates this to them by showing that false religion, in forsaking that which is primary and exalting that which is secondary, fills men with pride. Verse 43, “Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.” Their desire for outward purity only led them to desire outward praise. As those who forsook what was primary in practice, they also forsook what was primary in approval: being in right standing with God. They loved the praise of men and thrust God out of their mind. They didn’t love God or their neighbor, just themselves.
Lastly, Jesus demonstrates that in forsaking the primary for the secondary those who practice false religion defile themselves and their followers. He tells them they are defiled in verse 39, “And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.” And Jesus tells them they defile others in verse 44, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.” Going to the market and being among people didn’t make one unclean in God’s law–but coming up against graves would have (cf. Numbers 19:16). Such false religion looks fine–but defiles the undiscerning.
Jesus would go on and demonstrate in the rest of Luke 11 the failings of their false system. A system that stopped looking for the Redeemer – the very Redeemer who was standing before their eyes. And in just a few verses, we see where such false religion leads; it led them to want to kill Jesus. God-incarnate. The Messiah. The Redeemer of God’s people. Legalism is a false religion that is merely pretending to be biblical religion and replaces the primary with secondary matters. Most fearfully, it brings men to destruction through pride and defilement. True holiness isn’t in washing hands–it’s in having a heart washed and renewed by God.