What is True Worship?
True worship is the reverent honor and homage paid to God. It is the act of honoring and praising God by acknowledging His supreme worthiness, greatness, and glory. The Bible has much to say about what constitutes true worship and provides principles and examples to help us understand how to properly worship God.
At its core, worship is about orienting our hearts, minds, and lives completely towards God. It flows from a heart that is in love with God, astounded by His greatness, and grateful for His grace. True worship engages our entire being in expressing our wonder, devotion, and submission to our Creator and Savior.
The Inner Posture of Worship
More fundamental than the external expressions of worship is the inner posture of the worshiper’s heart and mind. Jesus emphasized that true worshipers would worship God “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Worship must originate from our regenerated spirit that has been renewed by the Holy Spirit to love and obey God. It also has to flow from an honest appraisal of who God is according to the truth He has revealed about Himself in Scripture.
This inner focus helps us avoid the danger of merely going through the motions of worship without our hearts being authentically engaged. Outward expressions of praise, joy, contrition, awe, and devotion that do not flow from an inner conviction about God’s supreme worth easily become empty rituals devoid of true meaning. As important as corporate worship services are, we are called to worship God in spirit and truth in all areas of our lives all throughout the week.
The Motivations for Worship
What motivates true worship? At the most fundamental level, we worship God because He alone is worthy of worship. He is the Creator of all things, including us. He is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, completely holy, perfectly righteous, infinitely gracious, and supremely loving. God alone possesses intrinsic divine glory, perfection, and beauty that demand our worship.
Revelation 4 gives us a glimpse of heavenly worship that is centered on exalting God’s holiness, glory, worthiness, and power. The angels and living creatures before God’s throne cry out “Holy, holy, holy” and extol Him as the One “who was and is and is to come” and who is worthy to receive glory, honor and power because He created all things (Revelation 4:8, 11). This awe-filled worship flows from a captivation with the surpassing greatness of God.
Our worship also flows from gratitude for who God is and what He has done for us. We glorify God for His amazing grace toward us as undeserving sinners through the gift of His Son Jesus Christ to save us (Ephesians 2:1-9). His merciful forgiveness, adoptive love, generous kindness, patient forbearance, and steadfast faithfulness to us stirs up heartfelt praise and thanksgiving to God. We worship God for His goodness and love.
The Acts of Worship
While worship begins with a heart of love for God, it naturally expresses itself in reverent words and actions that glorify Him. The Psalms provide numerous examples of worshipers offering heartfelt praise, thanksgiving, and adoration to God through prayer, song, music, poetry, singing, kneeling, bowing down, lifting hands, dancing, and loud shouts of joy.
In the New Testament, we see Jesus’ followers worshiping Him through prayer, singing hymns, listening to preaching, giving financially, and celebrating the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42-47; 20:7). Paul urges Christians to be “filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:18-19). So worship appropriately engages both our spirits and our bodies in bringing glory to God.
However, Jesus strongly warned against hypocritical external displays of worship that do not reflect genuine love and obedience toward God in the heart (Matthew 15:7-9). He condemned merely ritualistic worship practices that substitute going through the motions for authentic devotion and submitting to God’s commands. The styles and forms of worship can vary significantly, but true worship engages the entirety of our being with sincerity and passion for the glory of God.
The Object of Worship
The Bible makes it absolutely clear that God alone is to be worshipped. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness to worship him, Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’” (Luke 4:8). Idolatry, which is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, is about lavishing worship on anything other than the one true living God. Yet tragically, Scripture is filled with examples of God’s people committing spiritual adultery against Him through idol worship.
In our culture today, idolatry may not always take the form of bowing down to statues or images. But whenever we love, fear, or serve the creature more than the Creator, we are committing idolatry (Romans 1:25). Money, relationships, careers, pleasure, entertainment, sports, political causes, and innumerable other things can become idols if they capture our hearts and rule our lives more than God does. Worship directed at anything or anyone other than God is misplaced. God alone is worthy of our absolute, exclusive worship.
The Centrality of Christ
While worship in the Old Testament focused on exalting God the Father as the supreme Creator and Lord, worship in the New Testament centers specifically on Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus said that true worshipers “will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23). But Christ is at the center of how we now approach God the Father in worship.
The book of Hebrews begins by declaring that while God spoke through the prophets in the past, “in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of His nature (Hebrews 1:1-3). The writer then goes on to describe how Jesus is superior to the angels and worthy of the worship that only God deserves (Hebrews 1:6-14). Believers now come to God through faith in Christ, led by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:18; 3:12). Our worship is in spirit and truth because Christ is the truth (John 14:6), and the Spirit guides us into knowing and honoring Him.
Worship services in the early church consistently focused on Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper, a sacred act of worship, is a proclamation of His death until He comes again (1 Corinthians 11:26). Paul describes early Christian worship services as centered on the preaching of Christ, instructing one another about Christ, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs together with gratitude in our hearts to God for Christ, as well as participating in the ordinance of communion together (Colossians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Our public worship and our daily living are now radically Christ-centered because Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
Worship that God Accepts
How does flawed and fallen humanity offer worship that is pleasing and acceptable to our holy God? The fundamental requirement is coming to God through faith in the atoning work of Christ rather than relying on our own merits and deeds. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Without Christ, our worship is offensive to God. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36).
When we approach God through saving faith in Christ, our position before God radically changes. While we were once alienated from God as His enemies, we are now favorably reconciled to Him and adopted as His dearly loved children (Colossians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:5). God now accepts our worship because we belong to Christ and are indwelt by His Spirit. The holy righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, which makes our worship pleasing to the Father (2 Corinthians 5:21).
However, for believers there is another important aspect to worship that God accepts. Jesus said true worshipers would worship “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Worshiping “in truth” means more than just accuracy in our beliefs about God. It also means approaching God with sincerity, integrity, and purity rather than hypocrisy. Repeatedly in Scripture, God rejects worship from His people when it is mere external ritual divorced from repentant hearts that desire Him (Amos 5:21-24; Isaiah 1:10-20; Hosea 6:6).
So worship that God accepts must flow from a regenerated heart that sincerely loves and treasures God above all rivals. It engages both our spirit and our body in revering God for who He is, being grateful for what He has done, and obeying what He commands. We must worship “in spirit and in truth” because God cares profoundly about both.
The Importance of Corporate Worship
While worship is a way of life for Christians and not just an event we attend, gathering with God’s people for corporate worship remains vitally important. The writer of Hebrews instructs us not to neglect meeting together but to encourage one another faithfully, especially as we see the Day of Christ’s return approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
In Acts 2, the early church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer together (Acts 2:42). Paul urged the Ephesian church to be “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19). Believers are edified and strengthened in their faith when they gather to hear God’s Word preached, to pray, sing, take communion, and fellowship with other Christians.
The book of Revelation provides a glimpse of heavenly worship that emphasizes the corporate nature of our worship. Angels, elders, living creatures, and believers from every tribe, language, people and nation are pictured worshiping God together with one voice (Revelation 5:8-14). While we can worship God privately at any time, God also commands us not to neglect assembling together for corporate exaltation of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Worship in Both Spirit and Truth
What are some key principles for worship that is pleasing to God? First, we must worship God both inwardly and outwardly. Our spirits must be awed by the greatness and glory of God, thankful for His grace, and willing to submit to Him as Lord. But this heart devotion should also express itself outwardly through prayer, song, bowing down, dance, listening to preaching, and other fitting gestures and activities. God cares greatly about the inward motivations of our hearts as well as the outward expressions of our worship.
Secondly, we must worship God in ways He has prescribed in His Word. While some freedom in stylistic forms and creative expression is permissible, the regulative principle of worship states that our worship should include the central constitutive elements God has commanded: reading and preaching the Word, corporate prayer, the Lord’s Supper, singing praise to God, and bringing tithes and offerings. God cares greatly about the content and elements of our worship services in addition to our inward heart motivations.
Thirdly, all our worship should focus on Christ, through whom alone we can approach God. We worship God the Father in spirit and truth when we come through the Son by the Spirit in faith, awe, gratitude, and obedience. Our worship also focuses directly on Christ, who is now at the center of how believers relate to and glorify God. Worship that pleases God is Christ-centered.
Lastly, worship should engage our entire being – both body and spirit. It is not just an intellectual exercise but an experience that captures our hearts and moves us to verbal expressions and physical postures of praise. Gathering with God’s people supplements our private worship with corporate unity in magnifying Christ. Worship is the joyful, humble, whole-being exultation of the infinite worthiness and greatness of God. May our lives increasingly reflect hearts that worship God in spirit and truth.
