Answer
As Jesus traveled around performing miracles, His disciples worshiped Him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). However, the Jewish religious leaders grew more hostile and antagonistic toward Jesus. In Matthew 15, the scribes and Pharisees track Jesus down to confront Him for not keeping their religious rituals regarding ceremonial cleanliness (verses 1–2). In response, Jesus challenges their traditions and accuses them of being hypocrites (verses 3–9).
Jesus directly addresses the scribes and Pharisees with an eighth-century BC prophecy of Isaiah concerning Judah’s hypocrisy: “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules’” (Matthew 15:7–9). Jesus emphatically states that Isaiah was talking about them when he prophesied, “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught’” (Isaiah 29:13).
The word translated as “hypocrite” in Matthew 15:8 has its origin in a classic Greek term meaning “one who wears a mask.” It referenced an actor or pretender on the stage of a Greek drama. A hypocrite professes beliefs and opinions he does not hold to conceal his real feelings and motives. A hypocrite wears an outward mask to cover up what’s inside his heart. He says one thing with his lips, but his heart reveals a different truth.
Jesus (and God through Isaiah) said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” because He recognized the false piety and spiritual acting of these Jewish religious leaders. They claimed with their mouths and lips to love, honor, and worship God, but their hearts rebelled against Him. Their rebellion was evident in their rejection of Jesus Christ and their insistence that others follow their self-made rules.
Religious rituals and traditions are external trappings—an outward show. In Matthew 6:2–4, Jesus presented an example of how we might honor God with our lips yet, at the same time, have hearts that are far from Him: “When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you” (NLT).
In religious circles today, people still perform pious rituals and honor the Lord only with their lips. They do it to please people or gain status (see Galatians 1:10–14; Matthew 6:1, 5, 16; 23:5–7). But God desires authentic worship that is more than external observance or lip service; it is a total and heartfelt commitment to loving, obeying, and pleasing God (Psalm 51:16–17; Matthew 22:37; Romans 2:29; 6:17; 14:17–18; Ephesians 6:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:4).
In Romans 2:25–29, Paul taught that a true worshipper “is one whose heart is right with God” (verse 29, NLT). Obeying “the letter of the law” (verse 29, NLT) in practices such as circumcision is merely an outward ceremony. What counts in God’s eyes is having “a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people” (verse 29, NLT).
We please God when we obey His Word and not human traditions. We honor Him when our words and actions reflect what we truly believe in our hearts (Romans 10:9–10; Colossians 3:16). Jesus said that religious pretenders “honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” May we be true worshippers who honor, love, and obey the Lord with our whole hearts, souls, minds, and strength. May we express our devotion to God in words that truthfully reflect our inner convictions.
