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How should we worship?
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This is a question that has been
asked for years and a topic of conversation among religious
people for equally as long. With such a long time for study
and examination you might think that all the religious in
the world would have come to a consensus on what proper
worship is. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Does that mean that the truth
cannot be arrived at or that one cannot know the truth? We
need to remember the words of Jesus when He said, “You shall
know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John
8:32). And even if we could not find a general agreement
among religious people, what would that prove? We need to
remember what the apostle Paul said in Romans 3:4, “Rather,
let God be found true and every man be found a liar…”.
So, let’s notice a conversation
that happened long ago on this topic of worship. The
conversation is found in John 4:20-24 between Jesus and a
woman of Samaria and it begins like so many conversations
between religious people. Notice that the woman identifies
their differences; “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain
and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place when men
ought to worship.” Jesus responds by saying that there is a
time coming when the proper place of worship will be neither
in this mountain nor in Jerusalem. In other words, “both of
us are incorrect”..
In v.23, Jesus explains further
about this new kind of worship. He says the time is coming
when the “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth”. First, we learn that “true worshippers” can
exist. Second, we know what defines a true worshipper: “to
worship in spirit and truth”. Jesus goes on to say in v24
that “God is a spirit and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and in truth”. That is, this kind of
worship is not an option. If you want to be a “true
worshipper” you must worship in spirit and truth!
Now, we need to try to identify
what worship “in spirit and truth” means. To worship “in
spirit” seems to have some corresponding meaning to the fact
that “God is a spirit”. Would that mean that since God is a
spirit then we need to approach him with our spirit? If so,
how would one do that? First, we know that we are commanded
to serve God will all our being. Matthew 22:37 tells us to
love with all our heart, mind, and soul. Paul tells us to
glorify God in body and spirit which are His. Further, we
know that worshippers in the Old Testament corrupted their
worship by being content with the proper form while not
being completely devoted or sincere in their hearts. (Isaiah
1:11-17, Matt.23:23). Therefore, the idea that “worship in
spirit” means to worship with our inner man, our full heart
in sincerity would be what Jesus is talking about here.
Examples of how this may be applied would be for us to be
awake during the sermon, singing with the understanding, ( I
Cor.14:15), and listening to the prayer so we could say the
“amen!” meaningfully..
But what does “worship in truth”
mean? This is best understood by the passage where Jesus
prays for His apostles in John 17. In that passage, He asks
the Father to “Sanctify them according to Thy word, thy word
is truth.” It is certainly understandable that all worship
of God should be according to what He has commanded of us in
His word. What we do know of what God requires of us in
worship if He hasn’t told us in His word? Nothing! It is
the means by which we can know all things about Him and what
He asks of us.
There is one last passage that
we want to look at before we finish this article. This
passage is an interesting one to use to illustrate the
correct meaning of our analysis of John 4:23,24. In Matthew
15:8,9, we see the opposite situation as depicted in John
4:23,24. Jesus tells the Jews that they have been like those
of Isaiah’s day and He even quotes the prophet by these
words, “You worship Me with your lips but your heart is far
from Me. You worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the
commandments of men.” Notice that they were not worshipping
in spirit because their hearts were far from God. They were
not relating to God on a spiritual level, with their inner
man. Further, they were not worshipping according to the
teaching of God. The context of this passage particularly
emphasizes this point. This whole discussion arose due to
the contrast of the tradition of the Jews versus the
commandments of God. By teaching their traditions, the Jews
had supplanted the commandments of God and elevated them
above God’s law. As a result, their worship had become vain
or useless and what is worse: a waste of their time.
We need to see from these
passages is that it does make a difference how we worship
God and what we do in our worship of Him. In Part II of this
article, we will describe the items and acts of the worship
of the church as described in the New Testament.
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Park Road church of
Christ
