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Our Worship Must Be God-Directed

The story is told of a man who entered an elaborate church edifice desirous of worshipping God. While observing the religious activities of the congregation, he was moved to tears by the beautiful harmony of the choir and his soul felt borne to heavenly heights as the organ breathed its soothing notes. He listened intently to a lesson on “Doing good to all men” and uttered a silent “amen” to a beautifully read prayer. He not only left the sanctuary with a good clean feeling, but praised the beautiful structure in which he had worshipped God that day. He thought within himself, “Surely God was pleased with my worship today” — or was He?

Jesus reveals to us the practicing of God-directed worship by making three observations in John 4:21-24:

• The place of worship is of no significance, for Jesus said, “…. the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father,” (John 4:21). Men can worship God under a tree in Africa just as well as in a building in the USA.

• Jesus said that we must worship God “in spirit,” because “God is Spirit.” (John 4:24). The phrase, “in spirit” denotes an attitude towards worship that comes from the spirit of man, or that which is a product of his intellect, will and emotions. Such worship cannot be done without thought, intent and effort. When man worships “in spirit,” there is fellowship between two spirits — “God is Spirit” — man worships “in spirit.”

• The same Jesus who said that worshippers must worship “in spirit,” also said that they must worship “in truth.” The phrase, “in truth” means according to the revelation of God who is absolute truth (John 17:17). The object of one’s worship surely has the right to say how He wants to be worshipped. The one true God of the universe has revealed himself to man in written form — the medium which we know as “the Scriptures” (Mark 12:24; Mark 14:49). A disrespect and disregard for His will leads men eventually to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

Determining worship that is “in truth” must be done by looking to the New Testament and carefully observing the instructions given to Christians. For example, the New Covenant does not instruct Christians to keep a seventh-Sabbath day, nor to sacrifice animals and observe feast days, because we are no longer under the Law of Moses (Colossians 2:14-17; 2 Corinthians 3:6-18). Therefore, finding the kind of worship that was acceptable under the Old Covenant is no authority for our practice today. The Old Law was made with Israel (Jews) – not with Gentiles (Deuteronomy 4:1-13; Deuteronomy 5:1-22). Additionally, we are under a “better” covenant with “better” promises (Hebrews 8:6) that was established by a “better” mediator (Hebrews 9:15) and ratified by a “better” sacrifice (Hebrews 10:11-12).

The emotions of a man’s heart does not change erroneous worship into “in truth” worship. God does not change His requirements to suit the feelings of man. It is also true that a man can worship by a true act, but only worship merely in form — with no feeling and not with his spirit. Each action would be just as wrong and there can never be a choice between two wrongs — one is no better than the other.

Let’s remember that worship that is pleasing to God is not done ignorantly nor accidentally — it is God-directed “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).