Worship: Part 3 – Tensions and Contentions

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 
He was with God in the beginning. 
Through Him all things were made,
and without Him nothing was made
that has been made.
In Him was life,
and that life was the light of men. 
The Light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
                                       -- (John 1: 1-5)

With these inspiring and worshipful words, the Apostle John exalts Jesus Christ as the Eternal God, and Creator.  Yet even in his worshipful introduction, John alludes to a spiritual warfare.   The “Light of Truth revealed by the written Word and Jesus Christ, the Living Word (v. 14), is being opposed by the “Darkness.”

Today, the world is becoming spiritually darker and darker.  Like the beautiful flowers of our Prickly Pear Cactus that are surrounded by sharp spines which wasps and bees must avoid; so, God’s creation in all its beauty and wonder still bears the marks of God’s curse of sin.  Like the visiting bees and wasps, we must move carefully to avoid sharp pricks in a creation governed by Satan, the enemy of our souls.   Yet as John promised, the Light of Truth still shines, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1: 5).  God is still calling Christ-followers to worship and serve Him as lights” in the midst of a spiritually dark world.  But what does it mean to worship God as He desires-- in spirit and in truth?

Part 1 on the subject of Worship was entitled “A Wider View of Worship.”  Beyond “Sunday worship,” God invites our worship to be interwoven with our work, recreation, and rest as a “sweet-smelling aroma” from our lives to Him. 

Part 2 addressed the “Value of Corporate Worship” and ways we should prepare ourselves to respond to God’s ‘Call to Worship.”  But, in reality, and as we noted from the reference to “light” and “darkness,” our individual and corporate worship is often threatened by “tensions and contentions.”  Why is this true, and how should we respond?

As certain as we engage in work and worship, we will experience pain, tensions, and contentions.  According to God’s Word, we all have a sin nature.  We tend to protect our own self-interest when we face spiritual attacks from
(1) our flesh (“carnal mind,” Romans 8: 5-8),
(2) the world’s way of thinking (1 John 2: 15), and
(3) Satan and his minions (demons) (Romans 7: 7-25, Ephesians 6: 12). 

Freedom to Worship
But there is good news for those who have responded to God’s call to salvation in Christ.  (See “Steps to Peace with God.”)  According to Romans 8: 1-2, and 9, the governing principle (law) of a life redeemed by God and ruled by His Spirit sets us free from the governing principle (law) of sin and death. 

Jesus Christ took our place, suffered the penalty of our sin, and satisfied the wrath of God’s judgment (Romans 8: 1-4).  Born again, Christ-followers are set free from the penalty of sin which is death (eternal separation from God; Romans 6: 23).  But, like unregenerate sinners, born again sinners still have natural bodies and carnal minds that are prone to sin (Romans 8: 5-8).  Therefore, freedom from the power of sin is a promise only possible when Christ-followers practice the spiritual disciplines of (1) private prayer, (2) regular private time in God’s Word, (3) regular corporate worship and fellowship with others of like faith, and (4) stewardship of our time, talents, and treasures for the sake of Christ and His kingdom (See Ephesians 6: 10-18 and Hebrews 10: 22-25).  Christ’s disciples recognize the need to practice these spiritual disciplines if we want to stand firm against spiritual attacks from the world, the flesh, and the devil.  One day when we are with Christ, we will be free from the presence of sin.  More about that later.

Having provided background on “spiritual warfare,” we can understand more clearly why our tensions, contentions, and pain can affect our worship.  The connection between these and worshiping God is very direct.  According to the Bible, “worship” involves sincere acknowledgment of God’s worthiness and holiness expressed in solemn reverence toward Him in spirit and in truth.  Specifically, worship of Jehovah God, Yahweh, acknowledges and demonstrates our faith that He is the only true God (First Commandment, Exodus 20: 3) and that Yahweh alone is worthy of our adoration and obedience (Second Commandment, Exodus 20: 4-6).  However, when Christ-followers individually and corporately worship God, they can immediately become targets of the spiritual attacks described above.

Facing Spiritual Opposition
Satan is a hateful adversary of both God and every one of God’s children (1 Peter 5: 8).  He deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3).  Ever since then, Satan and fellow fallen angels continue to lie, accuse, and deceive Adam’s descendants (John 8: 44).  According to Ezekiel 28: 14 (NLT), here’s how God addressed Satan,
I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian.
You had access to the holy mountain of God
and walked among the stones of fire.

But, although he was a glorious angelic being, Satan was unsatisfied and unwilling to submit in service to God.  His boastful claim is recorded in Isaiah 14: 14:
'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.'
 
Isaiah 14: 15-16 records God’s rebuke of Satan, or Lucifer (2 Corinthians 11: 14, ‘angel of light’) and His pronouncement of Satan’s eventual doom:
Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
to the recesses of the pit.

Given the hatred of God by our Adversary, we can understand how Satan, the ‘Prince of the power of the air,” becomes outraged when we worship God.  Although we are saved from the penalty of sin, we must still battle against the power of sin.  The Apostle Paul, reminded first century Christians, …we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6: 12).   

The Apostle Paul warns that our real enemy is spiritual, powerful, wicked, and institutionalized.  How then should Christ-followers worship in a world where we are bound to face pain from spiritual tensions and contentions?

Tensions and Contentions
We will divide spiritual tensions into various categories even though attacks may come simultaneously from more than one category.  We hope you will identify those which create tension, contention, and pain in your life; and then, respond by practicing the spiritual disciplines noted above.

An Obvious Tension: “Sabbath”
According to Genesis 3: 1-5, the Serpent tempted Adam and Eve to ask, “Is God really good, or is He withholding something better from us?”  Ever since that time, we’ve been asking the same question.  Is God really good?

For example, does God really expect me to keep a commandment like resting from work on the Sabbath (Exodus 20: 8-11)?  How we respond to God’s call to regular “Sabbath rest” is a great indicator of whether we love God (John 14: 21) and truly believe God is good and that He cares about us.  As you read this, you can probably feel the tension between keeping God’s laws out of a sense of duty versus keeping God’s commands out of a desire to be pleasing to Him and to receive the blessings God has for those who follow Him.

Herein lies one of the tensions that Christ-followers face. The world system of thought and practice suggests that one day a week is wasted if we don’t use it to advance ourselves and our society.  Granted, it is true that for some to observe Sabbath, many others must be at work as merchants, attendants, utility workers, medical professionals, first responders, and many more.  But God simply asks us to follow His example of setting aside a day or parts of several days each week to rest and be renewed in mind, body, and spirit.  Let’s look deeper into what God has in mind in His Sabbath command by asking some personal questions.

Do I love God with all my heart and soul and strength, and with all my mind (Luke 10: 27)?  Do I really believe God created me, knows me, loves me, and knows what is best for me?  How can I honestly know the answer to these questions unless God gives me opportunities to demonstrate it by the choices I make?  If my answer is “yes,” then I ought to believe God has much to offer me when I set aside a day or the equivalent time each week for worship, spiritual refreshment, and rest.  And, when I “taste and see that the Lord is good,” I become even more willing to resist the pressure to stay in the “fast lane” for one “extra day” of the week so I can “get more done.”

When we “keep Sabbath” at least in principle, consider also that “Sabbath blessings” can accompany us like a pleasant fragrance into other dimensions of our lives.  For example, we may begin to insert “mini-Sabbath rests” into free times during our busy weekday schedule.  Here, we invite God into our private thoughts and reflections on His Word.  Conversations with our Father in Heaven can be sweet as we listen to a praise or worship song, recite and meditate on passages from His Word, and respond to God in prayer.  The spiritual fruit of abiding in Him more consistently can impact how we think and face the pressures and tensions outside of those times.  And, we may find ourselves having less and less tension between a legalistic “Sabbath keeping” and more and more of a desire for fellowship with our Heavenly Father who loves for us to walk with Him.

Tensions between “Seen and Unseen”
In spite of how we observe the Sabbath principle, our day-to-day priorities and efforts to “stay ahead” or “make a living” often compete with eternal purposes and promises of God.  Consider the “Tensions Arising from Competing Priorities” listed in the adjacent table.  Note that we are not suggesting one alternative is “bad” or that the two cannot be balanced when our choices are well grounded from a biblical perspective.  Yet, these contrasts point to some of the real tensions that surround us regularly.  The question is, “How will we respond?”

Tensions from a Culture in Turmoil
Our Western culture has become increasingly divergent from a Judeo-Christian foundation.  Historically, this biblical foundation has been the basis for the belief in objective truth and moral accountability to God which in turn have contributed to the advancement of science and techology, and government by the people.  Unfortunately, as a result of moral decline and the deterioration of the family, dysfunction in the evangelical church, and loss of quality of our educational systems, an increasing proportion of the citizenry has become ignorant of our history and opposed to Judeo-Christian beliefs.  Christianity has become a minority counterculture in which followers are increasingly encountering tensions and even pain and death when they take a stand for their faith.



We have listed several “Tensions from a Culture in Turmoil” (see above) to illustrate a range of contemporary challenges.  Very likely, you can relate to at least some of these.  Maybe you can recall the tension and even emotional pain that accompanied your experiences.  Thankfully, there is clear biblical instruction for how to engage with a hostile person or culture.  The Apostle Peter instructs us to do the following (1 Peter 3: 15-17):
(1)  BE HOLY: “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts”
(2)  “BE READY“ to make a defense” when asked about your hope
(3)  BE POLITE: answer “with gentleness and reverence”
(4)  BE HONEST: “keep a good conscience” to avoid slander
(5)  BE WILLING to “suffer for doing right” than wrong

As our culture becomes increasingly opposed to the testimony of the Gospel of Christ, believers must become more practiced in applying the spiritual disciplines we have noted above.  Christ-followers who integrate worship into their busy lives as described in Part 1, “

A Wider View of Worship,”  and understand the “Value of Corporate Worship,” as described in Part 2 of this series on “Worship,” will be the most effective ambassadors for the Life Christ offers to our increasingly hostile world.

Tensions from within the Church
Surely, with access to biblical instruction in Christian conduct, Christian believers ought to find corporate gatherings a welcome relief from the tensions and contentions of our secular world.  But this is not always true.  As we noted above, every Christ-follower is continually beset with a natural body and a carnal mind that is prone to sin (Romans 8: 5-8).  What’s more, when the Adversary of God and of every believer sees us gather for corporate worship, study, and fellowship, he is eager to create discord to undermine and destroy the body of believers.

It is painful for us to list some of the sources of tensions and contentions that commonly arise within churches today.  However, just as in our complex and dangerous world today, our defense against our spiritual enemy will not be effective if we fail to identify him.   As we noted earlier, our spiritual enemy is Satan who creates tensions and contentions within our culture and within our individual God-given desires.

When local churches lose sight of their God-inspired, Spirit-empowered mission as described in Acts 2 and as we discussed in “Worship: Part 2 – Value of Corporate Worship,” then tensions and contentions can easily arise over mishandling of doctrinal issues or distractions over personal preferences.  Below is a short list of “Tensions within the Church” that are not uncommon today.  If you are a regular church-attender and many of these are unfamiliar to you, praise the Lord. 

Our list is short but it will be sufficient to illustrate our point.  Sadly, one of the major sources of the tension and contention in churches today is not a new one; namely, the choice of music deemed suitable for worship.  Astute readers of this series will realize that we have been repeatedly delaying this topic since the end of Part 1.  However, we believe God's Spirt has been pressing us to consider the wider context of what it means to worship both individually and corporately in a world of great tensions and contentions.  Please keep these in mind when you move on to Part 4, "Musing about Church Music." Music often is a major cause of tension and contention in churches today.

“Good” from Tensions and Contentions
No one should deny that Christ followers who are resisting attacks from the flesh, the world, and the devil will face tensions and contentions.  But, like the beauty of cactus flowers in the midst of thorns, there is much good that can come from these trials.  James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, wrote what seems like shocking words to persecuted Christians scattered throughout the world:
Dear brothers and sisters,
when troubles of any kind come your way,
consider it an opportunity for great joy.
                                                -- James 1: 2 (NLT)

Really? Is James really saying there is “Great joy” in the midst of trials?  How can this be?  James continues with God’s answer:
For you know that when your faith is tested,
your endurance has a chance to grow.
So let it grow,
for when your endurance is fully developed,
you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
                                                -- James 1: 3-4 (NLT)

The Epistle of James is an “instruction manual” on how to be victorious over the pain, tensions, and contentions of the natural world.  James addressed both his immediate 1^st century readers living under persecution and all of us as disciples of Jesus today.  If you know the challenges of being prideful, or double-minded, or “loose tongued,” or impure in your thought life, or covetous; then, you know first-hand the weight of the tensions and contentions that come from the flesh, the world, and the forces of evil beyond flesh and blood.  Thankfully, the Epistle of James addresses each of these and more with practical answers.

Glyn Evans, in his devotional book, “Daily with the King” (Moody, 1989), writes (June 8):  The pain that comes to us in following Christ is the pain of change.  It is the change from living naturally to living spiritually.  It comes, as Blaise Pascal says, from the ungodliness that is still left in us.  The greater our resistance to this change, the greater our pain will be.  Evans adds that, only in Heaven will there be “no more pain” because every will has been brought into complete harmony with God’s will; thus, the tension of wills, which is the source of pain, will be gone.

Complete freedom for Christ-followers from the presence of sin will only be possible when we are with Christ in Glory where God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21: 1-4).  But meanwhile, as Jesus promised, In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world (John 16: 33).

Care to Comment?
How has this article affected your thinking about spiritual challenges or spiritual battles?  Is there an error in our thinking, or a missing point that you would like to add?   Often, readers who take time to use the “Comment” link below add much to the value of an article.  Or, if you’d like to comment privately, just email to silviusj@gmail.com   Thank you for reading.