Exploring Grace & Worship, Part Two

The second subject for our consideration is worship. Unlike grace, worship is a somewhat harder term to pin down as far as what worship constitutes within the church of God. To begin with, if grace is God’s condescending, unmerited love toward mankind, then worship is man’s humble, ascending love toward God. If we find this an acceptable definition, then it stands to reason that we may not approach the subject of worship in terms of defining what act is considered worship and what is not. Instead, it is the spirit in which an act is performed that would make something worship.

We read in Hebrews, “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff,” Hebrews 11:21. Jacob is actually a valuable case study in terms of worship. Much of what Jacob did during his life, primarily his youth, had little to do with worship, and much to do with chicanery and self-service. Jacob was a conman and master deceiver. A transformative event occurred in the life of Jacob, however, that left him deeply impressed and began a deeper understanding for him of what it meant to be led by the Spirit of God. Fearful of his own brother Esau because of his double dealings with the man, Jacob was encamped when he met a Man, Genesis 32:24. That Man wrestled with Jacob and wounded his thigh, causing the patriarch to develop a lifelong limp, Genesis 32:25.

This physical action had a spiritual corollary. Jacob was self-reliant. He was clever, shrewd and capable as far as people go, and used his wits to outmaneuver his enemies, among whom included his father-in-law and his own brother. God appeared as a Man to humble Jacob and teach him something vital. Focusing on self prevents our actions, any action, from ever being a form of worship. Why? Because a worshipful act has a reliance upon God’s Spirit at its core. Jacob was humbled and forced to lean on the staff that would hold him upright, necessary for every step he ever took. That staff represented God’s preserving power in his life, as the patriarch confessed to Joseph, “The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil,” Genesis 48:16. Jacob in his elderly years acknowledged God’s presence and providence in his life, attributing to Him His due: namely everything worthy that Jacob accomplished was done by God’s power through the humbled and submissive patriarch. Furthermore, Jacob believed God’s word, when He appeared in a dream, saying, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes,” Genesis 46:3, 4.

God assured the patriarch that, before Jacob died, Joseph himself would be at his father’s side, and God would make of Jacob’s sons a mighty and plenteous people. So, in the sure knowledge of what God vouchsafed to him, Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph; but it was not the patriarch’s blessing, rather, it was God’s blessing related through His submitted servant; and this act, this acknowledgement of God’s unfailing fidelity, constituted worship as he leaned upon his staff. As the staff was a visible reminder of what kept him standing and capable of moving forward, so too did it symbolize the agency and power of God in his life, doing through him what Jacob could not do on his own.

Christians sometimes make worship a bland, formulaic term that denotes actually very little. We sing hymns to worship, take the Lord’s Supper to worship, etc. But worship is not (or should not) be relegated to Sunday and to a worship service. There is no list of worshipful things in Scripture. Nothing neat and tidy like that. Rather than a list of acceptable activities, we are confronted with and challenged by a condition. That condition is that worship is an act we commit in the spirit of God’s service. We love God, and when we act, energized by that love, it is worship. We read of David, when his infant son died as a consequence of his grievous sin with Bathsheba, “David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped,” 2 Samuel 12:20. David knew why his son was dying; he did not fault God. Rather, he glorified the Lord’s justice for recompensing the king for his flagrant errancy. Though the king pleaded with God for the child’s life, he believed that he would be reunited with him either in this life or the next, 2 Samuel 12:23. His confidence in God and acknowledgment of his own faults was worship.

Worship is a universal act for the saint. Everything we do may be worship, so long as our actions do not directly grieve the Holy Spirit and are done in the spirit of love for God and a desire to serve and obey Him. We include Him in all our thoughts, and exclude Him from none of our actions. His thoughts on life on this earth, and how we as His children ought to conduct ourselves should animate our choices. God’s love reached us though we did not deserve it; therefore our actions should not be determined by the recipient’s worthiness. God is worthy of the best we are capable of offering, and the best we are capable of offering is our daily, submitted love toward God as we choose obedience to His word and will over selfishness. This is a lifelong commitment, like Jacob and David, who both in turn learned that worship could simply be thinking God’s thoughts after Him, as Johann Kepler once said. 

The good works prepared for us beforehand are worship, Ephesians 2:10. Why? Because every good work originates in the mind of the Holy Spirit; the work and its animating rationale are founded in God’s Spirit, and we simply live in fellowship with Him; our resultant obedience at every turn is an act of worship. Worship is mankind’s ascending love for our Creator and Savior. Therefore the act of worship is both universal and nigh-infinite in its scope. God willing, we all take to heart the loving generosity of our God and worship Him in spirit and truth, John 4:24. Worship doesn’t belong to a place, as Jesus explained. It belongs in the heart and thoughts of the individual that performs it. It must be done in accordance with the truth, and in the right spirit, sans the flesh’s input or influence to corrupt it. Easier said than done, yes. But as the prophet once stated, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts,” Zechariah 4:6. In this spirit Zerubbabel would build the post-exilic temple. We as Christians should desire no less.