Without a doubt one of the most magnificent manmade spectacles in the world is St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. It has been the largest church on Earth since the sixteenth century, and it is adorned all over with gold and sacred images to show off its worshipfulness as extravagantly as possible. I was blown away when I saw it, but then was drawn back when I learned that the building had been funded mostly by indulgences. The church had twisted truth and justice, exploited God’s people, and forsaken his righteous commands to make a show of worshiping him. Does that sound like worship that pleases God?
There are several other ways that Christians of all denominations inadvertently find themselves doing something similar. We love our big, beautiful churches and liturgies as well; we attend church frequently, we sing loudly and beautifully, we grow the number of people in the pews, we put on impressive programs, we do the beautiful church things that Christians are supposed to do. Not one of those things is a bad thing in itself though—in fact, we’re supposed to worship well with everything we have! But sometimes we forget that these things are not the basis of righteousness. We should be doing these things because first and foremost we love God and desire to humbly obey him. Without that love, the homilies become hypocrisies, and God pulls no punches in saying he despises those hypocrisies. And there’s not much that’s worse than something God says he despises.
So what should we as Christians be doing? We should obey God’s commandments at their basis. As Micah 6:8 says, this means we “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.” We seek to discern his will and then do it. We love and selflessly care for our neighbors the way the Lord cares for them. In everything we do, we imitate Christ with perfect justice and perfect mercy. Everything else flows from that. God does not hate any particular religious practices; he hates when they’re done without righteousness. So let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream!
