True worship is all about giving honour and glory to God. We can only do that if our hearts are awed by His majesty and holiness, being deeply grateful for His mercy and grace. Worship should express the conviction that He is infinitely more valuable than we are, and yet He loves us. In worship our horizon should be filled with God. But, alas, much religious activity is really centred upon a desire to be great, expressed in human activity, following tradition which God has never prescribed.
 
Jesus criticised 'religious worship' as being heartless. Even though they would sing divinely inspired songs and read the God-given law, they were not worshipping. They wanted to feel good about their religious activities, and they manipulated God's Word to ensure that they gained personal advantage from their religion. Their worship-centre was themselves; and when their leaders taught, it was to glorify themselves.
 
That kind of worship is vain. It is not worship at all. God is not glorified. It is play-acting - the Greek word for that gives us the English word 'hypocrisy'. Jesus said that their so-called worship was stripped of any value because their hearts were so far away from God. Even though their words were what God wanted to hear, they did not come from their hearts; they were lying to God. They satisfied their own traditions but failed to satisfy God.
 
Although we may say that could never apply to us; think again. Prayers repeated automatically, music which satisfies our emotions, teaching which elevates the teacher, acts of service which draw attention to the 'servant': all these are hypocritical. God deserves better. When tradition is bigger than Scripture and worship is self-satisfying, alarm bells should be ringing but we cannot hear them. We need God to show us how hypocritical we have become; and then we need to repent. Repentance is the first act of true worship.