What is worship?

If asked, many Christians would say that singing praises and hymns is their time of worship. Most would add prayers that thank and praise God. Is that enough?

Years ago I heard a sermon series by John MacArthur on worship. It was so convicting that for a short time I wondered if I was even a Christian. Today’s devotional verses remind me of that sermon.

Actually, it wasn’t just the verses but comparing them in two versions. I generally use the NKJV, but the NIV is a dynamic translation that is based on the oldest manuscripts. There are similarities but one big difference in these two versions. The NKJV says, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”

The NIV says, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’”

My search found that the Greek word translated serve in one version and worship in the other is from a word that means “a hired menial” and is used 21 times in the New Testament. It is translated as “serve” or “worship” or “do the service” or “worshiper” and means “to serve for hire” or “to serve, minister to, either to the gods or men” and is used alike of slaves and freemen. It can also mean “to render religious service or homage, to worship” or “to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for worship” and “to officiate, to discharge the sacred office.”

In other words, worship and service are the same thing. Whatever I worship, I must also serve, and whatever I serve could also be the object of my worship.

Someone told me that we worship that which we think about the most. Another says that those who think too highly of themselves are usually self-serving. Like MacArthur’s series of sermons, these thoughts are very convicting.

The reading today (from Ears from Harvested Sheaves) tells me to not forget the first part of these verses. It again has two different translations. One says, “Let us be thankful” and the other says “Let us have grace.” Again I go to my study tools to find out that it literally says “Let us have grace” which fits better with the rest of the verse which tells me that it is by grace that I can serve God. While thankfulness is important, it does not enable me; grace does.

The author of this reading says, “Grace is the very foundation of the kingdom which cannot be moved. It is all of grace, from first to last. By grace we are saved; by grace we are called; by grace we are what we are.”

To worship and serve God, even to be thankful, I need grace. Grace is God’s blessing. Grace is His gift to me of Jesus Christ. Grace is seeing Jesus as He is and being changed by what I see into His image. Without grace, I worship and serve myself.

I started this reading worried and anxious because I know that I neither worship or serve God as He deserves. I fall short. Yet realizing I fall short does not mean that I should try harder. It means that I should confess my failures, be forgiven and cleansed, and let God, by grace, do His work in my life. Trying to do it myself is self-serving; letting Him do it is worship.