What is worship?

Is it singing? Or is it more? Is it doing things for God? Or is it more? Is it telling God how great He is, or is it more? We are commanded many times to worship our God in the Bible, so how important is it that we have a clear understanding of what it means? The dictionary defines worship as “reverent honor and homage paid to God.” This gives us a rough idea at the word, but what does the Bible say?

I think the best verse to describe worship that God wants, is found in Romans 12:1: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” Other translations say “-which is your reasonable service” (NKJV). Here, Paul is pleading with his Roman brothers in Christ to worship the way God wants us to. And the formula to do so: present our bodies as living sacrifices. We must give our bodies, all of us, every thought, every action, every motive, every intention, completely, entirely over to God. Instead of presenting a lamb to God like they did in the Old Testament, God wants us to present ourselves. But He wants us holy, set apart, pleasing and acceptable to Him. In the OT, only spotless lambs would be acceptable and pleasing to Him. So likewise, for true worship, He wants us to be holy and set apart from the world and sin. But here’s the even tougher part, since He wants a living sacrifice, we must continually present our bodies to God like this as long as we are still living. Every day, every minute, we are giving ourselves as an offering to Him. The worship God requires takes everything. The worship God is after is continual.

Paul explains what it means to present our bodies as a living sacrifice by contrasting it with the alternative. He says, “do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13). “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” (6:16). “For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (6:19). And this is all possible [and necessary], because we have been set free from sin (6:18,22).

I also found some other imperative things in Scripture about worship. Worship must be our immediate response to God (Matthew 28:17). Our worship should be continually offered (Hebrews 13:15). Our worship should be accompanied with a healthy dose of fear and reverence (Revelation 14:7), yet we must worship with gladness and joy (Psalm 100:2). We must not worship any other gods, because God, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14). We need Christ’s help to worship God (Heb 13:15). And in John 4, we find out the way in which God desires his worshipers to worship Him. “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).

Wait, so what exactly does that mean? “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth”? To answer, I’ll quote a commentary I read: “To be acceptable to this infinite Spirit, the worship must be of a spiritual nature - must spring from the heart, through the influence of the Holy Ghost: and it must be in Truth, not only in sincerity, but performed according to that Divine revelation which he has given men of himself. A man worships God in spirit, when, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, he brings all his affections, appetites, and desires to the throne of God; and he worships him in truth, when every purpose and passion of his heart, and when every act of his religious worship, is guided and regulated by the word of God” (Adam Clarke’s Bible Commentary).

“Worship is recognizing God for who He is; it is ascribing worth to Him; it is God’s people telling Him about the worth they see in Him. In fact, worship could very well be thought of as ‘worth-ship’” (Don Weaver, Worship: The Heart’s Response to God). So if it’s a response to how worthy God is, let’s ask ourselves: How worthy is God? How much worth do we actually see in Him? Is He worthy enough to give everything to? Is He really worth that much to us? And how do we tell Him of His worth? Paul and John explain that the way God wants us to tell Him and show Him that worth is practically giving Him our everything. Who ever said that Christianity wasn’t demanding? The worship God demands, seems pretty demanding. Sounds like He demands everything. Everything, every second. But, as Paul said, “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). It’s our reasonable, logical service.

So let’s give God what He deserves. Think of how much He has given us, of which we don’t deserve any. Let’s seek God in worship and He will show us even more about Himself and how we should live for Him. C.S. Lewis said, “It is in the process of being worshiped that God communicates His presence to men.” I think there is a lot of truth to this, like He promises in His word, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). And let’s remember Hosea 6:6 - God is really after a heart of worship more than the actual worship itself. I hope this glance at worship helps us get a bigger picture of worship for an even bigger God.