Worship? What is it?
- Tony Vance
- Mar 27, 2015
- 3 min read
Worship, what exactly is it? “Homage rendered to God which it is sinful (idolatry) to render to any created being (Ex 34:14; Isa 2:8). Such worship was refused by Peter (Acts 10:25, 26) and by an angel (Rev 22:8, 9).” (Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary: And Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature) Dictionary.com, defines it as, “reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.” Honor and homage rendered to a supreme entity, one deserving of such adoration, can only be God. In the giving of the Ten Commandments, we see the first commandment as such, Exodus 20:3 (KJV) “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The next commandment, carries the theme further, Exodus 20:4-5 (KJV) “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” In God’s commands we have the essence of worship, bowing and serving.
Bowing is our prayers, singing, praising, and all forms of rendering unto God his just due (and I’m not naïve to believe we give him it). John Talley, Worship Pastor at Agape Fellowship in Pinson, Alabama, describes this type of worship, in his own words, and the reward that he receives from it.
“Want to know the reward? When you put together a worship set and your brother prepares a message and God's hand is so evident because there's a harmony in what y’all prepared "without knowing what each other prepared". It's having that WWII veteran comment about how he loves when you make that guitar talk. It's the look you get when you ask that poet, artist, or dancer to contribute when they realize their art can lead people into worship. It's when someone within your church family walks through having an illness in the family or a death and knowing that "He Knows My Name" or "How Great Is Our God" is medicine for their soul.
It's communing with our heavenly Father in a room full of people in a way only I get to... I get to play guitar...and sing... before His throne...and y’all can come with me! That's the reward of being a worship pastor. It always rolls back to our basic commandments. Loving God and loving others. I'd do it for free. Heck, I have done it for free.” WOW!
Again, I think God has told us worship is bowing and serving, or as John Talley so succinctly put it, in his description of the essence of worship, “Loving God and loving others.” The heart of worship boiled down to its core elements. In Matthew 22:37-39 (KJV) “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. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” We see Jesus focusing on the, “Loving God and loving others,” aspect of worship, which maybe is the totality of worship. Interesting, in Luke’s Gospel we see Jesus asking a question of someone who wanted to obtain eternal life, Luke 10:26 (KJV) “He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?” To which the questioner replied, Luke 10:27 (KJV) “And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” The answer was similar to what Jesus had said, so even an unregenerate person could see the truth.
I think I have discovered, which I think was not hidden, the simplicity of worship. We have layered so much stuff onto worship, we lost the truth of worship. Worship is bowing before God, giving him your devotion, and serving your fellow man. Or as John Talley said it, “Loving God and loving others,” our call, our purpose, our devotion.