Religious People

J.D. Greear:

What exactly does religion replacing the Gospel look like? Jesus gives 7 woes... I would describe them in these 5 categories:

• Religious people are obsessed with recognition (vv. 5-6). They love conventions, titles, and public praise.
• Religious people focus on external conformity to tradition and not inward transformation (vv. 25-26). It's not to say that they don't also teach inward transformation, just that they are defined more by the externals than the internals. As D. A. Carson says, "Error is truth out of proportion."
• Religious people focus on the sins of other rather than on their own sins (vv 2, 28).
• Religious people esteem secondary traditions over a love for God (vv 16, 23-24). If you conform to their traditions, they consider you godly. If you don't, there's no way you possibly could be. They strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
• Religious people are generally judgmental and angry in their tone (v. 23)