Worship: Part 1 – A Wider View of Worship

During the past year, changes in requirements for social gatherings including church services have caused some people to ask, “What does it mean for me to worship?”  The original English spelling of “worship” is “worthship.”  According to The American Heritage Dictionary, “worship is an expression of reverent love and devotion expressed toward a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.”  

We all worship someone or something.  Because we have been created as relational beings, we assign varying degrees of “worthship” to the relationships we establish, whether to God or another person, or to some object or passionate interest.  Those who worship God recognize He is “worthy” of worship because they have come to treasure Him, His divine character, and His loving deeds.

We often associate “worship” with “going to church.” But in this article, we will consider how God is pleased when our worship overflows from our regular “corporate worship” and becomes a comprehensive part of our daily lives.  We will see that genuine worship is grounded in our exercise of good stewardship of the time, talents, and treasures God entrusts to us; and our discipleship demonstrates that we are willing learners and followers of Christ.  In "Worship: Part 2" we consider corporate worship and later, the role of music in worship.

Who and What Is Worthy?
As our Creator, God knows that we are most complete when we worship Him above all our other relationships and passions.  That is why God’s First and Second Commandments, respectively, state that You shall have no other gods before Me, and You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven (Exodus 20: 3-6).  These and all of God’s commands and statues are not intended to steal our joy.  Just the opposite:  Obedience to God’s Word frees us from pride and rebellion.  Amazingly, submission to a loving, gracious, merciful God revealed in the Bible and in His creation opens our eyes to experience His direction, purpose, and joy in life.

The Apostle Paul was set free from prideful legalism and ceremonial piety when He met Jesus Christ, God’s Beloved Son.  Paul’s words express the joy he found in God’s grace, forgiveness, and freedom to truly worship God.  He declared, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1: 21).”  In practical, day-to-day life we are most complete and satisfied when we “love God with all our heart, soul, and mind” as He created us to do (Luke 10: 27). 

When we read and meditate on the living, God-breathed Scriptures, it’s like inhaling “spiritual air.”  Then, we exhale our worshipful praises to Him.  For example, God has given us the Psalms as a book of praise songs to lift our souls.  From wherever place we find ourselves, the Psalms invite us to join in prayerful songs of reverence, confession of sin, intercession for others, and commitment to walk worthy of God’s calling.

Whether we are at work or play, God desires our worship—i.e. keeping Him at the center of our thoughts and activities.  This principle runs throughout the Bible beginning when “God took the man (Adam) and placed him into the Garden of Eden to till (serve) and keep (preserve) it (Genesis 2: 15).” 

We Worship as Stewards
God had equipped Adam our forefather with the ability to serve or steward the Garden.  Adam was to understand that his stewardship of the Garden through his work and his recreation was a form of worship.  Thus, the quality of Adam’s work and his rest were to be a “sweet-smelling aroma” that conveyed his love and worship toward God.  The Apostle Paul explains that we express our “worthship” to God when we learn to worship Him in “Whatever [we] do in word or deed, [doing] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father (Colossians 3: 17).”  We worship God through both how we work and how we rest.

The God who desires our worship and knows that we are most fulfilled when we place Him first has made provision of a weekly rhythm of work and rest.  God’s Fourth Commandment states, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God (Exodus 20: 8-10).  Although the topic of “Sabbath Rest” is not our focus here, the Bible clearly teaches that God has designated one day in each week for us to come aside from our workday routine to worship and enjoy Him, our family, and a time to rest. 

God intends our worship on one day of the week to reflect our character and priorities on the other six days of the week.  Historically, in largely agrarian cultures around the world including Israel and rural America, people worshiped in buildings without air conditioning.  In the heat of summer, rural churches had to open up their windows and doors to the fresh air, carrying the fragrance of plowed fields, the sounds of birds and livestock, and later, the smells and sounds of factories.  All of this is a reminder that our “Sunday worship” should express our willingness to assign greater worth to God than to any other things that can easily compete with God among things we value.  Along these same lines, God is most pleased when we give generously from our material earnings as a testimony that we acknowledge our dependence on Him for income, and our desire that He guide us in using the moneys we retain.

We Worship as Disciples
If worship is an expression of reverent love and devotion to God, how exactly do we know our worship pleases Him?  As noted above, we worship God through the quality of our stewardship of what He has entrusted to us as servant-managers for His glory (Colossians 3: 17).   Although we may not question the importance of good stewardship in our worship, we may still remain unsure of the genuineness of our worship.  For example, do we attend a Christian concert because we are enraptured by the Christian artists?  Or do we switch churches because we are more elated by one of the church’s worship teams?  Are we worshipping God or simply adoring the artists and the entertainment?   This potential confusion is clarified immensely when we include a second concept by which we can identify the quality of our worship; namely, discipleship.   

Those who worship God “in spirit and in truth” can become willing disciples.  A disciple is a willing learner and a devoted Christ-follower.  Jesus made it clear to His disciples that “Follow Me” required their complete devotion.  He said to them (emphasis added), “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”  And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it (Luke 9: 22-24).”  From these words of Jesus, we conclude that Christian discipleship is costly, and requires great personal discipline and commitment.

In Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship, from the Shepherd’s Series (Holman, 1998) study notes for Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship (1937), we read this distillation of Bonhoeffer’s “costly discipleship:”

A Christian must deny self.  This means to be aware of Christ and not of self.  In this we must know that He leads and we are His only by keeping close to Him.  Only when we become selfless, unaware of the pain of our own cross, are we ready to bear the cross for the sake of Christ.  Rather than being a tragedy, such suffering—enduring the cross—for the Christian is in reality the fruit of “exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ (p. 27).”

The disciple, with the inspiration of God’s Spirit and the Scriptures, who is disciplined to be “aware of Christ and not of self” can take up his own cross after the example of Christ who went before us (Hebrews 12: 1-3).  The above study guide (p. 28) adds that, in bearing His cross for us, Jesus modeled for us the meaning of “communion.” As His suffering maintained His communion with the Father, so our endurance is necessary for followers of Christ to maintain communion with God.

Worship for Wonderers
Jesus left little doubt that His call to “deny self, take up your cross, and follow me” would be a difficult one.  Do we realize what Jesus is calling His disciples to do?  Maybe we should take some time to ponder the previous paragraphs for a while.  As we do, let’s reflect on the Gospel message and the Life of Christ.  Do we doubt that we are up for such a calling?  Or, like “Doubting Thomas,” are we unsure of the reality and the deity of the Risen Christ who is calling us?

Recall that Thomas was not with the other disciples when the Risen Christ had appeared to them.  The other disciples therefore were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe (John 20:25).”  Eight days later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples and went directly to Thomas, saying, Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing (v. 27).”

The response of “Doubting Thomas” should encourage any of us who doubt Jesus or doubt our ability to follow Him as a disciple.  Jesus met Thomas’s doubt with a pointed invitation to intimately examine His hands and side.  Having seen and touched Jesus’s wounds, Thomas could only exclaim, “My Lord (Master) and my God (v. 28).” We can see in Thomas’s stewardship (of the evidence of the Risen Christ), his discipleship (he faced his doubts and stayed with the other disciples to examine the evidence), and his communion with Christ (being invited to literally touch the body of Christ and the marks of His suffering), a convergence of the key elements for WORSHIP (professing the deity of Christ: “My Lord and my God.”).

Today, the Risen Christ invites us as stewards of His unmerited favor (grace) to take up our cross and follow Him.  When we suffer as a result of our obedience, the Holy Spirit, our Comforter draws us into communion with the sufferings of Christ.  How can we not join with the Apostle Paul in worshipful praise with his worshipful words:

I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus (Philippians 3: 8-12).

Is He Worthy of Our Worship?
Yes, God is worthy of our worship in congregational settings but also throughout our daily routines of work and rest.  Remember, God seeks those who “worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4: 24).  We must first humbly repent and confess our sin before His righteous throne.  Perhaps God might use this article to lead you to repent of your sin so He can redeem you from the curse and penalty of sin by accepting God’s payment for your sin through the blood of Christ.  For more information on how you can invite Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of your life, see “Steps to Peace with God.”

Thank You for Reading
We have only scratched the surface of subject of the worship of God.  But hopefully, this article has encouraged our readers to dig deeper into God’s Word.  As always, we also hope you will share your Comments and Questions which add so much value to each article (Use link below).

For further reading on how worship of God can be a part of our daily lives, here are a few links to earlier articles in Oikonomia on the subject of worship, work, and recreation:
Looking Up from Our Work
Sports: Exhibit of Stewardship and Worship
Stewardship of Righteousness -- Part Two
Earth Day – Keeping the Earth with an Eternal Perspective
Stewardship: Aligning Work with God’s Providence