Prescribed Way to Worship God?
March 5, 2000
Dear Friends:
I received an email from a good friend this week that asked a very simple, but profound question. The question was what is “the prescribed way to worship God?” There are a lot of possible responses to this question. Below are a few verses to ponder for the week with a little commentary.
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27) You will note a decided emphasis on works in these verses. It is important to understand that works should flow from our faith in and love of God rather than a belief that we can save ourselves by works. We should also know that there is no way to “fool” God. We must worship from the heart.
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecc. 12:13) A thought from King Solomon who had seen all that this world had to offer. Fearing or reverencing God is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7)
“The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him”. (John 4:23) To me this verse means we should worship God in the manner he wants with our whole being.
“He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8) True worship does not take place in a vacuum. True worship has to consider the needs (spiritual and otherwise) of other men. We cannot “do justly” or “love mercy” without other men.
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” (Hab. 2:4) One of the key verses in the Bible from which we are taught that all men are justified by faith.
“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.’” (Mark 16:15,16) Belief brings a responsibility to act on what we know to be true. Here, the believer is told of the requirement for baptism.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22:37-40) As we learned in Sunday School as a child, if you do these two things, all of the others will fall into place.
“…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33) As a matter of priority, we must put God first. Anything that comes between us and God is an idol.
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22) If we truly believe, we will do. You can’t be a believer and not a doer.
There are many other verses that we could bring up on the subject. I can only summarize by saying that to me, worshipping God is not so much about what we know or what we do as much it is about what we become. What we become is determined by the grace of God as it works on our knowledge of Him, our faith in Him, and our love of Him and each other.
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