In what ways do I pretend before God?

Psalm 50:16-17God says to the wicked: “Why bother reciting my decrees and pretending to obey my covenant? For you refuse my discipline and treat my words like trash.”

Proverbs 28:9God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law.

Isaiah 58:2-7“Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.”

Jeremiah 3:10“Her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry, I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Amos 5:21“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.”

James 1:22-25Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

You may pretend with your actions, religious practices, false repentance, and superficial obedience, but God knows your heart. Even the right actions done with the wrong motives are offensive to God.

Isaiah 29:13, 15So the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. . . . What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The Lord can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!”

Ezekiel 33:31“So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money.”

Matthew 15:7-8“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”

We may pretend before God with words and even with thoughts. If we keep doing this, we may eventually fool even ourselves into thinking our motives are sincere. Worse yet, we may conclude that God cannot see the truth about us. We would be foolish to think that God does not see through our hypocrisy.