Ostentatious Religious Behavior Opposes Christ

Ostentatious religious behavior is unnecessary or excessive display or spectacle in religion. Religious posturing and religious exhibitionism are closely related terms. Those who make an unnecessary display of themselves in religious settings perform ostentatious religious behavior. Since ostentatious behavior is inseparable from putting on an act, it is inherently hypocritical.

Think of someone at a church meeting talking about how long they just fasted and going into great detail of all the hardships which they faced in their recent fast. Why do they need to talk about this in front of everyone? The Bible has much to say about hypocrisy related to fasting. Jesus even addressed this in the Gospel accounts.

Matthew 6:16-18: “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

Jesus said similar things in Matthew chapter 6 in relation to giving alms and praying in public to be seen of people. The supposed exercise of alleged spiritual gifts often serves the same hypocritical purpose. People use fake spiritual gifts all the time to gain honor and power among groups which don’t discern these for what they really are.

Wearing clerical garments like robes and collars is another form of ostentatious religious behavior. Israel’s Levitical Priesthood was the only exception since God prescribed the special garments which Israel’s priesthood (which is now defunct) was to wear. He has ordained no such thing in the New Covenant era. Even in Israel before the Levitical Priesthood ceased, there were issues with people innovating in the wearing of religious attire to put others in awe of them and to demand respect.

Authentic righteousness before God necessitates not dressing in an exaggerated way which communicates a desire for attention and respect- especially in relation to one’s supposed spiritual attainments and/or authority. If someone needs to wear religious attire (i.e. a religious costume) to let everyone know about their holiness or to cause people to respect their supposed position, they don’t have the authenticity of such things. It is no different than praying in the street corners for attention, sounding a trumpet before you when you give, or looking worse than you have to when you fast so people will notice. Those who heed the wisdom of the Bible know that their own character should testify they are authentically serving the real Jesus of the Bible. They also understand that if their own character is flawed, they need to seek Him to get that fixed rather than persuade others to respect and honor them. Wearing clerical garments is a red flag that the one doing so should not be followed nor regarded as being an authentic servant of the true God. Any religious order or denomination which requires, encourages, or even permits the wearing of clerical garments should also be fled from.

Another key form of ostentatious religious behavior is taking and/or giving flattering titles. There are several commonly used unwarranted titles in the realm of professing Christianity which no one is fit for and no one should ever allow to be attached to their name.

Job’s one wise counselor Elihu said in Job 32:21-22: “Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away.”

One obvious example of a flattering title is “Reverend.” The Bible refers only to God as Reverend.

Psalm 111:9 says: “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.”

The Hebrew word which is translated as “reverend” in the preceding verse is usually translated as something more obviously communicating dread or fear. It is usually used in relation to how God is to be feared or how man should not be feared. The same word is used once to rebuke a man for not fearing to stretch forth his hand against one who was the Lord’s anointed (i.e. Israel’s king- a type and shadow of Jesus Christ). Rather than one taking a title implying others ought to fear them because a church ordained them, those who take the title (as well as those who call others by it) ought to fear using a term about a man which is only directly used in the Bible in reference to God. For a person to take a title with such dreadful implications seems very presumptuous. Calling someone who is viewed as a spiritual leader “Reverend” is like calling someone rabbi, master, or father. They are all titles which are given and received by people which the Bible doesn’t warrant. Any true servant of Christ, whether they are leading and/or preaching in front of a church or not, should be considered sacred and especially dangerous to take lightly. There is no basis though for anyone to be called “Reverend.”

In relation, find a church where the pastor’s wife is called the first lady and you’ll see a man leading it who has chosen to exalt himself and his wife with implications of honor which are not fitting. The Bible gives no warrant to call the leader’s wife the first lady.

Jesus actually taught that, when there is any doubt at all about one’s proper place, they should choose the lower place rather than the higher one.

Luke 14:7-11: “And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them. When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

Note that “worship” in the preceding passage is a reference to honor in being called up higher. It is not a reference to being worshiped as divinity.

It should also be noted that anyone who claims to be an Apostle of Christ today is not telling the truth and should not be trusted. They are only unduly exalting themselves and slighting the great authority which the first century Apostles were given. No one writes Scripture anymore and no one now is a foundation stone to Christ’s church like them (Jesus is the chief cornerstone and there never was such a thing as a pope- yet the first century Apostles had much greater authority than anyone would ever have now). That would only be logical to conclude since we need to heed the first century Apostles still today through what they wrote which is recorded in the Bible.

Does any of this negate ordaining men to lead in a church? Of course not. Church leadership has to be recognized to avoid confusion, to establish order, and for proper accountability (accountability for the leadership too). Yet the ordination ceremony should be simple and the offices of the leaders should be given labels which aren’t unnecessarily impressive. In the King James Version where it says ”bishop” in 1 Timothy 3:2, the word in Greek is “episkopos” which literally means overseer. Overseer is simpler and sounds less prestigious than Bishop or Pastor. The churches founded by the Apostles were basically led by a head overseer and assistant overseers.

When Christianity is practiced as is prescribed in the Bible, there is not a ladder to climb towards some grand title which puts one high above everyone else.

Matthew 20:25-28: “But Jesus called them (His twelve disciples) unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Since that is so, consider also how improper it is for a preacher to demand money for speaking- as if “for me to do that, you’ll have to pay me.” That attitude is not from the Spirit of the real Jesus. Whenever someone expects “this for that” in relation to preaching or religious services, that is a wolf or a hireling rather than a real shepherd of Christ.

Not only is ostentatious religious behavior a sin, it is also something which religious leaders can provoke those at their meetings towards in order to manufacture an environment which serves to promote their ungodly goals. They innovate in worship to produce a show for man, to gratify man, and to produce emotional experiences calculated to man’s satisfaction. The Lord has testified that His wrath is against showmanship in worship by the example He made of Nadab and Abihu when He killed them by fire in Leviticus chapter 10. In relation to this, when someone is regularly screaming in church like an angry drill sergeant, or acting like a know-it-all professor who is evidently seeking to impress by their oratory tactics, that is really just pathetic showmanship and also another form of ostentatious religious behavior.

People do indeed use Christianity to show off, obtain a reputation, make money, obtain security, and/or gain general acceptance in man’s eyes. People also do behavior that is of a similar nature for similar reasons in settings which are typically labeled as secular. Many give speeches about how they fear man-made climate change- as they travel the world on their own private jet- while their hearers also put on an ostentatious display as they applaud this hypocrisy. The same types of crowds will also feature talks about fears of Fascism from the government when, if they really believed the government was fascist, they probably would be afraid to call it that publicly and doing so sure wouldn’t be popular to do on national television. Such speeches are also an ostentatious display while applauding them is as well. In reality, both major political parties in America are controlled by Israel (through the AIPAC lobby and other means) and the most oppressive government acts in the United States are things which the same crowd either doesn’t take note of or blatantly supports (such as the numerous lockdowns recently which practically left many under house arrest).

Since multitudes in churches blatantly disregard the Bible, and doing so is even the norm, you can simply look at why Jesus rebuked the hypocritical religious leaders in Israel in the Gospel accounts and get a good sample of ostentatious religious behavior in the realm of professing Christianity just from that. Read Matthew chapter 23 and note the wicked deeds which Jesus rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees for. Such include exaggerated and unnecessary religious attire, love of prominence at feasts/religious gatherings/greetings in the markets, and to be called of men rabbi, rabbi (or, teacher, teacher- and this came with instruction to His disciples concerning giving and taking flattering titles which overestimate mere men). The Scribes and Pharisees were also rebuked for showing off through public prayer, strenuous missionary effort to gain a convert to their ostentatious ways, and whitewashing their outside without cleansing the hypocrisy and manifold sins in their heart. They were also rebuked for building the tombs of the prophets and garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous while saying they wouldn’t have been involved in killing them like their fathers did if they had lived in their days.

Matthew chapter 23 even ends with Jesus rebuking Jerusalem and saying that He would then forsake it for its rejection of Him. Another common ostentatious religious behavior in churches now is all the silky talk extolling and supporting modern Israel as if the bulk of its inhabitants are not enemies to Jesus and as if He never forsook Jerusalem at all (or as if He changed His mind about doing so). This silky, ostentatious talk is madness since Israel still doesn’t say of its true Messiah “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” But what else would you expect from those who disregard the rest of Matthew chapter 23 and a lot of other things which are in the Bible?