This blog will explain what TRUE WORSHIP is. What I tell you in this blog is merely one aspect of worship. I posted this in another forum in response to someone’s inquiry. But since it seems to be one complete thought in and of itself, I figured it’d make a good blog entry with a few modifications.
The thing I noticed about the other forum wherein this question was raised is not many people commented on this subject. So I had to ask the questions: Is it because people are disinterested in worship? Or maybe it’s because they don’t have much knowledge of the subject? In other words, maybe not many people have thought about it. Or maybe they’ve just followed the social norm without giving it much thought over the course of their life?
Whatever the reason, I felt the need to add some thoughts on the subject which I arrived at from my past studies. So, let’s start with the word hypocrite, and then look at a proof text on the subject of worship.
Jesus used this word a number of times in Matthew 6. He also used it a lot in Matthew 23. The first fact that’s important to know about the word hypocrite is it’s a legal term. The second fact that’s important about this word is it doesn’t mean what we moderns think it means. In other words, hypocrite didn’t mean to Jesus what it means to us today. Here’s a prime example of Jesus’ use of this term (in a parable):
50 …the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24 – emphasis added)
The third fact you must know in order to make sense out of this historical narrative is the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees were public officials. So, Jesus was addressing public officials rather than the public in general. What was Jesus telling them? Here’s the point: Jesus was condemning them to death because of their corruption. The legal term hypocrite means capital criminal. If you don’t believe me because the harshness of Jesus’ words goes against your better nature, then go look up the meaning of this term in the standard scholastic reference books (like TDNT) as well as ‘rabbinic literature’.
In light of the above explanation, what do you think the difference is between our modern understanding and Jesus’ meaning of hypocrite? An even better question is this: What do you think Jesus is saying about people who worship hypocritically?
Now let’s take a look at the word worship. Here’s what I consider to be one of the proof texts on worship in the NT:
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12 – emphasis added)
Can you see why I say that is a ‘proof text’ on worship? Right there the Apostle Paul is telling us plainly what worship is. And he’s telling us what spiritual worship is. It’s a service. That raises all kinds of questions that I won’t get into here but which you can research yourself. So what exactly is Paul telling us is our ‘spiritual service of worship’?
Simple:
PRESENT YOURSELF A LIVING SACRIFICE
HOLY AND ACCEPTABLE UNTO GOD.
That’s what. And what does that mean? Now it gets a bit complicated if you don’t know the contents of the OT, esp. the Mosaic law. It also won’t mean much to you if you don’t know the different terms used for worship in the NT and LXX. So you’re going have to look them up in the Greek NT and then in the Greek OT. Then you’re going to have to look them up in the Hebrew OT, as cross-referenced in the LXX concordance (where you look up the Greek OT words). Then, after you do that you will be able to distinguish between the various words, and narrow down what Paul is specifically telling us here in Romans 12:1-2.
But let me save you all that trouble! (You can check up on what I’m telling you by doing that research for yourself.) ‘SPIRITUAL SERVICE OF WORSHIP’ IS THE SAME IN PRINCIPLE AS ANIMAL SACRIFICE. I get that from the NT Greek word translated ‘service of worship’. It is latreia (in the Greek). It’s what the priests did when they offered animal sacrifices. Paul is saying, you are the sacrifice, and you are making the offering to God. But instead of being butchered, you’re a living sacrifice. A well-established fact in the OT is that the animal sacrifices were butchered.
Now let’s take that a step further. What constituted an animal sacrifice in the OT? Go look it up for yourself in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. You’ll see that an animal sacrifice was to be physically unblemished (among other qualifiers). Which makes it a holy (set apart) and acceptable sacrifice. Why is it holy and acceptable? Because it fulfills God’s legal requirements for sacrifices. In other words, the sacrifice is selected by obeying God’s law of sacrifices.
Now, without getting into all the details, there’s a principle in that which translates into Paul’s statement in Romans 12. The principle is, A SACRIFICE THAT FULFILLS THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF GOD’S LAW IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD. See how simple this worship/service is?
So, without belaboring the point let me jump to the conclusion. I believe that Paul is telling ‘Christians’ that their ‘acceptable service of worship’ is being people that God considers acceptable (holy). Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 2:5&9. The question that now begs to be asked is this: How does a person become a holy person? Suffice to say it’s the same way an animal becomes holy: BY FULFILLING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF GOD’S LAW. But for us humans, it’s not the law of animal sacrifices. Instead, it’s the law of being like Jesus. I jumped there right away because that’s the NT summary of the result of proper obedience to God’s Law. We become like JESUS OUR ROLE MODEL (see the book of Hebrews).
One last thing on that subject. Evangelical theology dictates that Jesus is the only one who fulfilled the terms and conditions of God’s Law. Okay, I’m fine with that. That’s why God raised him from the dead. It’s also why Jesus now ‘intercedes for the saints’ at the highest position of honor and authority in God’s presence. But that is only half the story for us. Jesus’ sacrifice of himself merely opened the door for us to be re-united to God (after Adam’s bad decision in Eden).
But, what Jesus did on the cross in no way makes us pragmatically holy. In other words, Jesus’ obedience to God’s law is not our obedience to God’s law in our daily lives. Instead, in order for us to “walk in a manner worthy of our calling”, we too must obey God’s law just like Jesus did. So, in order to be ‘a holy and acceptable living sacrifice’, we need to be pragmatically holy. And that holiness comes through obeying God’s law. It’s as simple as that!
So, what is worship?. It’s service. That service is obeying god’s law as one of God’s people, who are such because Jesus ‘paved the way’ for us through his atoning death.
That’s what my studies showed me about TRUE WORSHIP. Remember what makes it ‘spiritual’: God’s Law. In other words, our obeying God’s law is what makes it spiritual, because we bring God into our lives by obeying His law. God is what makes the whole thing ‘spiritual’. Compare that with our obeying man’s law. Had God not given us His Law, we otherwise would not know what holy is. To reiterate: Our obedience to God’s law is what makes our obedience spiritual (compared to obeying man’s law). It’s pragmatic because we daily obey God’s Law.
That’s what I find as the NT definition of worship. It has nothing to do with emotions or social custom. It has everything to do with obeying God’s law.
Hope you enjoyed reading this summary of worship. See you in the next blog!
(A big thanks goes out to my good friend Jim for editing this blog for grammar and content!)
Reality Bible 