Defining Worship
What is the appropriate venue for worship? What is taking place that creates worship? For the Christian, how do we define true worship? We use the word a lot, but really, what is worship?
The word “worship” gets used most often to describe the musical portion of a Sunday service. It’s not hard to understand why. That’s when, for many, they “feel” the most, during the song service. It’s the atmosphere we expect for “worship”. But seriously, feelings are mostly about me (or you), not about God. When does God consider that he is being worshipped?
Interestingly, First-Day of the week (Sunday) services are not talked about much in the New Testament. We see in Acts 2:42 how they had fellowship, broke bread together (Lord’s Supper), prayed together, shared as people had needs, but none of this is called worship. n Acts 20:7 we’re told “on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread (Lord’s Supper),” Paul talked to them. Sounds more like our typical Sunday gathering, as they had communion and a sermon. But again, it is not called worship. In fact, when we look back at when Jesus met in a synagogue during his ministry, or later when the apostles preached in a synagogue, these gatherings are never called worship. The linking of a Sunday service to what we call worship appears to be a later development.
We don’t see music mentioned much in relation to Christian gatherings, odd as it may seem, and when Ephesians 5:19 says to be, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord” even here it fails to call this “worship”.
So, let’s adjust our perspective. When we look at the Hebrew word “Avad” (Abad) we find that like so many other Hebrew words it has a fuller and broader meaning. It means “to serve” or “to work” and can mean “to worship” also (Listening to the Language of the Bible, Lois Tverberg).
One of the commandments, the Israelites were told, “Six days you shall labor (Avad), but on the seventh day you shall rest (shabbat, to cease from Avad)” (Exodus 34:21). Imagine it said this way, “Six days you shall worship, but on the seventh day you shall rest from worship.” What? Can this be true?
Then we turn to the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 12:1, where he says, “I appeal to you therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Wow, suddenly the word shows up! And not in the context we might expect. It appears that our true “worship” occurs when we honor the Lord through the lives we live during the week, in the words we use, the work we do, the example we set, the relationships we cultivate, the way we use our resources to help others, including sharing the good news of Jesus! That is when God feels the delight of worship: when we exercise our faithful discipleship!
What we do on Sunday as we sing, learn, give and encourage, remembering Jesus’ sacrifice – this is needed and fuel for the true worship we provide Monday through Saturday. Hasn’t this been a problem in the modern church, thinking we “worship” on Sunday, then we go live our own lives during the week.
One last scripture. When God told Pharaoh through Moses to let his people go “worship” in the desert, it always sounded like a trick (Ex.8:1). “Let them go worship, then they’ll return.”
But when we realize the word used is “Avad” and it also means “to serve” the Lord, it translates a different idea.
Cross Point: Worship = Avad = To Serve. Hey Christian: go worship the Lord!
The word “worship” gets used most often to describe the musical portion of a Sunday service. It’s not hard to understand why. That’s when, for many, they “feel” the most, during the song service. It’s the atmosphere we expect for “worship”. But seriously, feelings are mostly about me (or you), not about God. When does God consider that he is being worshipped?
Interestingly, First-Day of the week (Sunday) services are not talked about much in the New Testament. We see in Acts 2:42 how they had fellowship, broke bread together (Lord’s Supper), prayed together, shared as people had needs, but none of this is called worship. n Acts 20:7 we’re told “on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread (Lord’s Supper),” Paul talked to them. Sounds more like our typical Sunday gathering, as they had communion and a sermon. But again, it is not called worship. In fact, when we look back at when Jesus met in a synagogue during his ministry, or later when the apostles preached in a synagogue, these gatherings are never called worship. The linking of a Sunday service to what we call worship appears to be a later development.
We don’t see music mentioned much in relation to Christian gatherings, odd as it may seem, and when Ephesians 5:19 says to be, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord” even here it fails to call this “worship”.
So, let’s adjust our perspective. When we look at the Hebrew word “Avad” (Abad) we find that like so many other Hebrew words it has a fuller and broader meaning. It means “to serve” or “to work” and can mean “to worship” also (Listening to the Language of the Bible, Lois Tverberg).
One of the commandments, the Israelites were told, “Six days you shall labor (Avad), but on the seventh day you shall rest (shabbat, to cease from Avad)” (Exodus 34:21). Imagine it said this way, “Six days you shall worship, but on the seventh day you shall rest from worship.” What? Can this be true?
Then we turn to the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 12:1, where he says, “I appeal to you therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Wow, suddenly the word shows up! And not in the context we might expect. It appears that our true “worship” occurs when we honor the Lord through the lives we live during the week, in the words we use, the work we do, the example we set, the relationships we cultivate, the way we use our resources to help others, including sharing the good news of Jesus! That is when God feels the delight of worship: when we exercise our faithful discipleship!
What we do on Sunday as we sing, learn, give and encourage, remembering Jesus’ sacrifice – this is needed and fuel for the true worship we provide Monday through Saturday. Hasn’t this been a problem in the modern church, thinking we “worship” on Sunday, then we go live our own lives during the week.
One last scripture. When God told Pharaoh through Moses to let his people go “worship” in the desert, it always sounded like a trick (Ex.8:1). “Let them go worship, then they’ll return.”
But when we realize the word used is “Avad” and it also means “to serve” the Lord, it translates a different idea.
Cross Point: Worship = Avad = To Serve. Hey Christian: go worship the Lord!
Posted in Cross Points