What Is Worship

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

John 4:23-24

What is worship? Some would say it's the first few minutes of a Sunday morning service, some would call it adoration of a deity, some would even ascribe a contextual parameter around the word, which they would be correct in doing. Worship truly is defined by the worshiper, and who or what the object of worship is. What I aim to analyze in this article is, what Jesus meant when in the Bible He said, God is looking for people who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, and how that relates to the Christian and secular realm. Does it separate and divide? Is there a definitive answer? I believe there is, and we will discuss it below.

So to began, I will pose yet another question, what is the purpose of life? Many philosophers and knowledge seekers, and even occasionally a drunken person, have pondered this very question. For those of us, who believe in the Bible, that question was never an issue. Perhaps from time to time, I have wondered what the purpose of my own life was, but life in general has one common goal according to God, and that is, worship. More God, less of us, this is what God desires, as you can see, this idea is in stark contrast to what the world and society tells us today, where self exaltation is the meditative path to enlightenment, and believing in self, is more important than anything or anyone. The Bible says exactly the opposite, that despite being all loving, God is a jealous God, and He wants and desires greatly that all people worship and experience what, and who He is, and Him alone. From the very beginning God, has acted on His own behalf, to the glory and magnification of Himself, through His creation. We even see this in the book of Matthew chapter 6 when Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray, it is a prayer repeated often, but few, I think, realize it's powerful example, notice what it says at the very beginning, Matt 6:9-13 says "This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.^"

The very first thing, the highest priority, above self necesity, above human need, above all, is exalting God, and worshiping Him, then comes the rest of the prayer.

Fortunately for us, this glory includes saving the world, and offering eternal love to all who would fall before God, and admit our state of error, and worship Him. I'm going to paint a different picture than, maybe what your used to, but there is definitely a personality, and a character of God that many people miss, in today's culture of Christianity.

In the Old Testament, prior to Jesus' encarnation, there was a very different view on worship and redemption. The bible portrays sacrifice, as being the means of atonement by which God would forgive mans sins against Him. There was a constant need, for ritual and works that showed, or proved rather, to God, that man was in fact repenting of what he had done, and only by something innocent dying, did God see this as a replacment for us. This process was repeated over and over again, as man constantly falls prey to his own desire, and his own way of life, thought to be better than what God had to offer, and that was a free choice to make, but it included natural consequences. This of course resulted in God coming down to earth Himself, and living a perfect, selfless life, then dying for all, to pay once and for all for our mistakes, if we would worship Him, as the one true God in existence. To understand worship, you have to understand sin. How does that correlate? Well in order to worship in "Truth" as Jesus said in the book of John in chapter 4, as we see in the verse at the very top, you have to truly understand your current state of being, versus God's. In other words, who do you think God is? And who do you think you are? Defining these two questions is the first step in being able to truly worship someone. I will give you an example completely outside the realm of Christianity. If someone claimed to idolize a sports star say maybe a basketball player, and they said they practically worshiped them, wouldn't it seem obvious, for them to know the players name, and what sport he played? And who that person was? It would be ridiculous to assume worship of something without knowing who or what the object you were idolizing was. In the same way Jesus says that God is looking for people who truly understand who they are in relation to who the person of God is. This makes sense right?

Then Jesus adds "in Spirit". So the next step is not recognition or acknowledgement, but submission. Submission is what separates angels from demons. You see, in the Bible it says to those who would say "we believe in God", that even the Demons believe in God, and tremble. The difference is as simple as seeing a chair in the middle of a room, and knowing that it is in fact there, but maintaining your distance and refusing to go and sit in it, and allow it to support you, and trusting it, versus, seeing the chair, and realizing that you cant stand forever, so you go and sit down, and you enjoy the comfort and support of something that will never let you fall, or grow weary. This is exactly how God invites us to Himself. He is our strength, He is our chair, and He wants all to come and sit, and enjoy, as He says in the Bible, "taste and see, that the Lord is good".

Now once both recognition and acceptance is assumed, we can begin to understand our purpose in life, and worship the author of our salvation, in both spirit and truth.

So my next question is what exactly does true worship entail? Is it only singing? Is it saying something with your mouth? The Bible teaches that it is a lifestyle, a continual surrendering to the God of this universe, in everything we do, to include our emotions, feelings, and ideas, that are so constantly decieving, in comparison to His way, which is according to the Bible much higher than we can even imagine.

Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We can't even begin to fathom the greatness and depth of God's love for us, it is beyond our ability.

As a christian, you are supposed to be representing this great and mighty Lord of all creation. Look at it this way, every time a commercial about something airs, it gives credit and glory to the product being sold, and commercials vary in great diversity, but all have a common goal, selling a product. We as Christians are supposed to live the product, because if you believe, you are the product, we are to be ambassadors of the one true God, are we worshiping and giving Him the credit He deserves, in our daily lives outside of church, and outside the realm of our christian security?

First we have to understand, and bring to consciousness, who we are in relation to God. We are nothing, without His mighty and loving intervention, from dust we come and to eternal suffering we go, without Him there is no earth, no love, no friends, no food, and no life! Believing in Jesus as God, entails believing in what God has done for us,and how much greater than anyone He truly is, and understanding that sin is separation from God, a separation only bridged by a cross, and a true and spiritual dedication to Him. When you bring all of these facts together you see a grand picture of a God so mighty, He could smash our universe with a thought. It is in recognition of this greatness that we worship in truth, and Spirit comes when we invite Jesus into our hearts, to become a new person, truly born again, with a new consciousness of reality. Worship is so much more than Sunday morning singing, it is the continual and daily renewal of our dedication to the person of Jesus, and what he taught, this is where obedience to what He said stems from. To a Christian, life is not a chore, but rather a joy, because we know what God has done for us, and we worship and adore Him for it. Whether falling down on your hands and knees upon realizing how great and powerful God really is, or singing songs of Joy, and adoration for what God has done, worship in Spirit and in Truth becomes a way of life.

If we embrace this way of life, that Jesus taught, we will see a dividing aspect of the Bible that, people always shy away from. This Truth and Spirit, which is in effect Jesus, will set an everlasting partition between Christians and the world, it will be uncomfortable and it will cause people to see Jesus and what He taught, rather than Christians and our continual mistakes. It's not meant to segregate by right, but rather segregate by purpose, so that the world can come to their own "recognition of the chair", and choose clearly, free of mans errors, to trust or not to trust, this is the question.

Josiah