Jeremiah 3:10–Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”
When you think about what you desire from people you love and care for, it’s that their affections come from their heart, without the need for persuasion.  Of course being loving enough to compel someone to treat us as we desire, is important for us to expect some reciprocity.  But no one enjoys feeling like being loved, respected, and cared for is a burden or something people have to do, leading them to “love” in pretense.
To do something in “pretense” is to deceive ultimately, by doing an act that would presume that we love and care, but in our hearts not to at all.  When pretense is used between each other, we accept the act as genuine love, because we’re not God and don’t always know the motives of people.  But sometimes we know the act is pretentious, and because we learn to accept people “where they are” we allow the act to go on…(1 Corinthians 4:5)
But after awhile when someone detects “love” to be pretentious, especially when it is a covenant like marriage, with our children, family member or close friend it can be a tremendous heartache.  Because no one wants a relationship, that is predicated on people feeling like they have to spend time with them, or they have to do things for you, instead of having a heart to want to…
This is why a relationship with Jesus Christ and people in general, must derive from a heart that is constantly needing to be cleansed.  If we believe the scripture, “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” who is Love, than to be pretentious before God is to be deceptive in our hearts with Him.  Which means I cannot receive what I need from God to give to others, which could lead me to live a life of pretense, pretending to care when I truly don’t…(Matthew 5:8)
The Lord “called out” Judah because they “turned” to Him because they didn’t want the consequences of Israel, not because they genuinely loved Him.  In others words, to do things for God so you don’t “get in trouble” instead of wanting to please Him by faith, is not loving with a whole heart, but is pretentious.  The fight is to be genuine from our hearts, and come to God when we don’t wanna be faithful or love anyone.  To genuinely love people from the heart, might be the most humbling thing you realize in life, because that takes God’s power to be genuine and not pretentious…(Romans 12:9, 2 Corinthians 8:8)
In His Love, Ld