Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time because they have practiced evil deeds (Micah 3:1-4).
With what shall I come to the LORD and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:6-8)?
This study will hopefully serve to shed some light on a pattern throughout the Bible of which I first took notice thanks to Dr James White's debate on icons and proper worship against Patrick Madrid (see also here). Dr White during his opening statement pointed out the repeated theme that worship and service to God, or a false god, are frequently conflated and used nearly interchangeably throughout Scripture. His point was to remove the credibility of the Roman Catholic position that seeks to insert a distinction where none exists to justify idolatrous Roman practices. Roman Catholicism has long attempted to distinguish between acts of piety and worship offered to God, which they call acts of latria, a Latin derivative of the NT Greek word latreuo (Strong's number 3000), and acts of piety and veneration offered to Mary and other dead humans, which they call acts of dulia, a Latin derivative of the NT Greek word douleuo (Strong's number 1398). Dr White's point was that, in the eyes of the authors of the Bible, one cannot worship him whom one does not serve.
What does it mean to worship God? Whole books have been written on the topic, which I will not attempt to recapitulate here. The same is true of service to God. Such things can take so many different forms and ways that it would be hopeless for one individual to try to list all the possibilities. It is often taken for granted in modern Reformedigelical circles that worship is what one does on Sunday morning, when one enters the place of worship, the sanctuary, and one sings songs of "praise and worship". Really sharp people will acknowledge that worship is also done in public reading of Scripture, the sermon, giving, and praying. Yet in most of our minds, worship of God is confined to the church building, a physical location that is special. Yet as King Solomon wisely prayed at the dedication of the Temple in 1 Kings 8:27, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!"
Is not worship the intentional glorification and magnification of God? John the Revelator was convinced it was, as he describes what he saw in Revelation 4:8-11:
"And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.' And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 'Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.'"
Yet further study into the way that Scripture deals with worship and with service will cause us to back up and ask how the notion of service relates to the notion of worship. What does it mean to serve God? Stated basically, it would be to do things that God has commanded, for the sake of pleasing Him. How does this differ from intentional glorification and magnification of God? Scripture appears to indicate that there is not in fact much of an appreciable difference at all.
Our examination of this will begin in the Old Testament, with two Hebrew words that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, communicate the concepts of worship and of service.
- 'abad (Strong's number 5647) and its various forms is most often translated as "serve".
- shachah (Strong's number 7812) and its various forms is most often translated as "worship" (and also "bow down" in other situations such as showing respect to kings and honored guests that don't involve worshipful piety to supernatural beings or beings thought to be supernatural).
The LXX's translations of shachah and 'abad are important in a few ways.
1) They show the 2nd century BC attitude that at least the knowledgeable Jews who actually produced the LXX had toward the issues of worship and service. In their mind there was an enormous overlap between service of God (or a god) and worship of God (or a god). These were descendants of people who had been chastened and disciplined by the powerful hand of the Lord God Almighty for this very thing - the issue of the worship of and service to foreign gods. Such a vast number of these warnings from the Scripture which we can see in this study are admonitions against worship and service of false gods and exhortations to render worship and service to YHWH, the one true God.
2) The LXX, despite its faults in its modern textual reconstruction, was the Bible of Jesus, the apostles, and the earliest Christian church. While there are those who would say the LXX is not an excellent translation, it is plausible that the textual transmission may have degraded its quality to some extent over the course of 2000+ years, and that the LXX of Jesus' time was better. All this sort of conjecture aside, Jesus and the apostles thought it was sufficiently good to quote from it extensively during their earthly ministries, and no recorded account mentions their disapproval or desire to correct it.
Specifically, my study of the LXX revealed that 'abad is translated by latreuo over 50 times and by douleuo at least 32 times, and the circumstances of each demonstrate a large overlap in the meanings they intend to give.
3)The LXX usage of these words forms the background for the usage of latreuo and douleuo in the New Testament and moreover, as we will see, creates some very interesting situations where NT authors quote LXX verses where these words occur.
Of particular interest are two passages I noticed in which 'abad occurs twice within the same context and is translated once by latreuo and once by douleuo while expressing the exact same concept. They are 2 Kings 21:3 and 21, and 2 Chronicles 7:19-22.
2 Kings 21
1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hephzibah. 2He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. 3For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped (shachah = proskuneo) all the host of heaven and served (abad = douleuo) them. 4He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will put My name." 5For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger. 7Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever...
19Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. 20He did evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. 21For he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and served (abad = latreuo) the idols that his father had served (abad = latreuo) and worshiped (shachah = proskuneo) them. 22So he forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.
The passage describes a father and son, two separate kings who engage in idolatrous worship and service of false gods. Is it even possible to distinguish between their acts of service and their acts of worship, to these false gods? How does one begin to differentiate between the motivations? Would anyone argue that Manasseh intended with a given act only to worship Molech (but not to serve him) and with another given act only to serve Molech (but not to worship him)? And it would seem that the translators of the LXX couldn't really think of a good reason either. How else to explain this co-mingling of terms? Surely reckoning it to the forgetfulness of the translator(s) and all the subsequent editors is implausible, especially for a concept so important to the 2nd-century BC Hebrew mind as idolatry!
2 Chronicles 7
17"As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 18then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, 'You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.' 19"But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve (abad = latreuo) other gods and worship (shachah = proskuneo) them, 20then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21"As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?' 22"And they will say, 'Because they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped (shachah = proskuneo) them and served (abad = douleuo) them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.'"
This passage is a quotation from the mouth of YHWH during the commissioning of King Solomon. It is perhaps more striking even than the 2 Kings 21 passage in that the occurrences of the two word combinations are so close together. Here we see the LXX translators applying latreuo during God's warning to Solomon, and then douleuo during the prophetic future retrospective of why the Lord would have brought punishment upon Israel.
New Testament
Let's move to the New Testament to take a look at all but two of the occurrences of the forms of latreuo and douleuo in the New Testament. What we will see is a few major themes recurring throughout the various usages of the words. Broadly speaking, a word can have multiple possible meanings in a given period in which that version of language is being spoken and written. Take for example the English word "green". It can mean a color in general, a mood ("green with envy"), a physical sensation ("turning green" due to motion sickness), money, a section of a golf course, or an open grassy area in a town or city. What "green" means in a given sentence is dependent on its surrounding context. Thus, we can say that the communication of the concept of "money" is in the semantic domain of the word "green" in 21st-century American English.
Returning to the topic of the two Greek words at hand, we will find in all the usages of the words in the New Testament a few different semantic domains for each. Many factors of course go into the translation of Greek words like these into English, not least of which is brevity and concision. Is it really best to insert a dissertation in English to cover all one's bases when latreuo appears in the text? No - such a thing would make reading the text and following the thought nearly impossible. Rather, far better to choose from the context what word best fits the meaning in English and trust that the reader who really wants to wrestle with the text at that deeper level will do the work of going to the original language and lexical and syntactical aids.
Thus, in reviewing all the usages of each word and its forms that I could find in the New Testament, I noticed a few different themes emerging as justifiable and understandable meanings. For example, latreuo can mean "to worship", as one worships God Almighty. It can also refer in a few cases to "service" in the Temple - offering prayers, performing sacrifices.
Douleuo, for its part, is often used to indicate a status of slavery to a human master. But it also is used to indicate a status of being consistently surrendered to God and showing it in one's actions.
The following is a list of all I could find of the NT occurrences of the two words, followed by brief comments pertinent to my thesis. To substantiate my contention, I need to show that the semantic domains of each of these words bleed into the other to the point that whenever the terms are used to point to a human's relationship to God, they are for all intents and purposes interchangeable. Not all of the usages have to correspond to that; a significant portion will suffice.
Latreuo in the NT
Luke 1:74 - To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear
--Serve God, but not worship Him? Or both?
Luke 2:37 - and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.
--Whom was Anna serving? Was it not God? Did she also worship Him?
John 16:2"They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service (2999 - latreia) to God.
--An act of service, but strictly distinguished (in the minds of the killers of Christians) from worship?
Acts 7:42 - "But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?"
--Did God deliver the idolatrous Hebrews up only to serve the host of heaven? Did they not worship the host of heaven too? See also the comments on an earlier portion of Acts 7 below.
Acts 24:14 - But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets... --Did Paul not also worship God?
Acts 26:7 - the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews.
--Daily serving God, but strictly distinguished (in the minds of the Messiah-rejecting Jews) from worship?
Acts 27:23 - For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me...
--Did Paul not also worship God?
Rom 1:9 - For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you...
--Who among preachers, whether on the box on the street, or in the pulpit, would say that their preaching of the gospel of Jesus is not worship?
Rom 1:25 - For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
--Is this not a case of Hebrew redundancy, which we see often in the Old Testament?
Rom 9:4 - who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service (2999 - latreia) and the promises...
--What is done in the temple? God is worshiped, is He not?
Rom 12:1 - Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship (2999 - latreia)...
--The NAS adds "of worship" here, thus accurately (according to my contention in this article) reflecting the mixture of the notions of worship and service throughout the Bible.
Php 3:3 - for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh...
--Note here the rendering "worship", whereas most of the time the word is translated "serve" or something similar.
2Ti 1:3 - I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day...
--Did Paul not also worship God?
Heb 8:4-5 - Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, "SEE," He says, "THAT YOU MAKE all things ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN WHICH WAS SHOWN YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN."
--The priests in the tabernacle engaged in service of a worshipful, pious nature.
Heb 9:1 - Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship (2999 - latreia) and the earthly sanctuary...
--Again, note here the rendering "worship", whereas most of the time the word is translated "serve" or something similar.
Heb 9:6 - Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship (2999 - latreia)
--Same comment as Heb 9:1.
Heb 9:14 - how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
--Shall our conscience be cleansed also so as to worship the living God?
Heb 10:2 - Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
--Here, those who engage in latreuo are translated as "worshipers", and of course such people also serve God.
Heb 12:28 - Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe...
--Shall we not also offer to God acceptable worship?
Heb 13:10 - We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
--The priests in the tabernacle engaged in service of a worshipful, pious nature.
Rev 7:15 - For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.
--If we read the account of the throne room of God in Revelation 4-5, it becomes clear that is also worship.
Rev 22:3 - There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him...
--Yes, in the eternal state, His people shall serve and worship Him.
Douleuo in the NT
Mat 6:24 - "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
--This evokes the imagery of the OT and idolatry, where instead of one bowing down to idols made of stone or wood, one bows to money and the influence, power, and created things money can buy. Would anyone argue that, while one cannot serve two masters, one can indeed worship two masters?
Luk 15:29 - "But he answered and said to his father, 'Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends.
--This falls within the meaning of service to a human 'master'.
Luk 16:13 - No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
--See comments on Matthew 6:24.
Jhn 8:33 - They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?"
--This falls within the meaning of service to a human master. (Interestingly, the Jews who said this are engaging in disingenuous exaggeration. The entire nation was subjugated to the Roman Empire, which they knew full well, but ignored in order to sinfully argue against Jesus.)
Act 20:18 - And when they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, 19serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews..."
--Did Paul only serve the Lord? Or did he also worship Him? Were his tears and trials only acts of service to God? Were they not also of worship?
Rom 6:6 - knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin
--The entire sixth chapter of Romans is a textbook case for the conflation of the concepts of service and worship.
Rom 7:6 - But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
--We serve the Lord in newness of the Spirit. Do we not also worship Him in that same newness of the Spirit?
Rom 7:25 - Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
--Coming as it is on the heels of Romans 6, I don't believe a strong argument can be made for divorcing service and worship in this text or its surrounding passage either.
Rom 9:10 - And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER."
--This falls within the meaning of service to a human 'master'.
Rom 12:11 - not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord
--Shall we not also worship the Lord in fervent spirit?
Rom 14:18 - For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
--Is refusing to cause a brother to stumble and thus bring division and lack of love into the body of Christ merely an act of service to Christ? Is it not also worship?
Rom 16:18 - For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
--See my comments on Matthew 6:24.
Gal 4:8 - However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
--Here the Apostle Paul juxtaposes slavery to God and slavery to weak and worthless things of this world. Is this not an issue of comparative worship as well? For who, if we serve those elemental things, is foremost in our minds and hearts?
Gal 4:25 - Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children
--This denotes figurative slavery to sin.
Gal 5:13 - For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
--This falls within the meaning of service to a human 'master'.
Eph 6:7 - With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.
--This verse plays off the meaning of service to a human 'master' to illustrate the idea of serving God. Is service to the Lord exactly like serving a sinful human master? Or is there also an element of worshipful piety to it?
Php 2:22 - But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.
--This falls within the meaning of service to a human 'master'.
Col 3:24 - knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
--But you don't worship the Lord Christ?
1Th 1:9 - For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God
--Here is a clear and obvious allusion to the choice every human has, and a powerful theme throughout the Old Testament, as we've already seen - one can worship and serve God or a false god. Does one not turn from false gods for the purpose also of worshiping the One True God?
1Ti 6:2 - Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles.
Tts 3:3 - For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
--See my comments on Matthew 6:24.
Now I'd like to zero in on two very interesting instances in the New Testament.
Acts 7:7
6“But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED (douloo) AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. 7“ ‘AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY WILL BE IN BONDAGE (douleuo) I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,’ said God, ‘AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE (latreuo) ME IN THIS PLACE.’
This verse, part of Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin, pairs in an interesting fashion with the two OT verses it quotes from: Genesis 15:14 and Exodus 3:12.
Gen 15:14's occurrence of abad the LXX translates with douleuo, and Acts 7:7 ratifies that word choice.
-Gen 15:14 - But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve (abad, douleuo), and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
-Acts 7:7a - "'AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY WILL BE IN BONDAGE (douleuo) I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,' said God..."
Exodus 3:12's occurrence of abad the LXX translates with latreuo, which is what Acts 7:7b uses.
-Ex 3:12 - And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship (abad, latreuo) God at this mountain."
-Acts 7:7b - 'AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE (latreuo) ME IN THIS PLACE.'
We notice that the NASB translators did not remain consistent between the two occurrences of latreuo, but note the positively Hebraic parallelisms here, the repeated ideas - in the first half of Acts 7:7, the service to the foreign captor, and in the second half, the service to God the redeemer. Stephen presents them as the same concept but uses different words, paralleling the two - first, the Hebrew people were serving Egypt, then God will bring them out, then they will serve God.
The same Hebrew word (abad) is used in Genesis 15:14 and Exodus 3:12. Thus, in the original concept, God sets the parallel - the people will (abad) in Egypt, then they will (abad) God. Yet Stephen, in the 2nd (abad), translates it into Greek with a word (latreuo) that in the slight majority of NT occurrences means "worship", but that also contains within its semantic domain the concept of service. As we have seen, that is not unique in the NT, but this explicit blurring of the lines between abad and latreuo in this instance is especially significant.
Luke 4:5-8
This passage, which is reflected in Matthew 4:10, presents another pertinent consideration in its usage of latreuo.
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE Lord your God and SERVE Him only.'"
Here, in response to Satan's suggestion that Jesus proskuneo (worship) him, Jesus quotes to Satan Deuteronomy 6:13 - "It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear," and, in a helpful and fascinating turn while quoting the LXX, mixes in a bit of exegetical gloss (very possibly throwing in a mixed quotation, or less probably, restoring for later readers a section of the Deuteronomy text lost in transmission beforehand). The Deuteronomy "original" has abad (LXX: latreuo) translated as "serve", while Jesus seems to replace the LXX text's primary proscription (that of worship, for which purpose Jesus uses proskuneo) and then to throw in an extra "and Him only shall you serve" (for which Jesus uses latreuo).
Jesus here further deepens the conflation of issues which I have been pointing out in this study by quoting the Deuteronomy passage with abad and translating it as latreuo, using latreuo to communicate the concept of service, and proskuneo to communicate the concept of worship.
This study is all too brief, but I will include a table of as many of the relevant occurrences of these words, word groups, and their translations as I was able to find and notate during my examinations. I fully admit that I am no scholar of Greek or Hebrew. I understand a decent amount about grammar, how context and lexica work, and translation, and believe that this issue is not so complex as to elude the understanding of one such as I.
We have to ask ourselves - given what we have seen, would someone who posits a hard and fast distinction between worship and service to God be expressing a viewpoint corresponding to the viewpoint of the Scripture? I do not believe such a distinction is supported by the Scripture's teaching. What do we conclude, then?
Let us keep in mind, with reference to this precise question of how a Christian is to spend his time, that pointing out that worship of and service to God are pretty much interchangeable merely points us to a broad reality, a category if you will. There exist plenty of direct commands in Scripture as to whether and how a Christian is to relate to other Christians in his local area. He is to meet regularly with (some of) them. They are to know who each other are (ie, some sort of known membership is to exist). He is to submit to his elders who watch over his soul as those who will give an account and are servants of their flocks (as opposed to their Fathers or lords [Matthew 23:9, Mark 10:42]). He is to spur these others on toward love and good deeds. He is to partake of the love feasts and Eucharistic celebrations with them (1 Corinthians 10:14-17 and 11:17-32, Acts 2:42 and 46).
Seeing the biblical nature of worship and service allows us to take a step back to evaluate the traditions we have been handed as part of, generally speaking, Reformedigelicalism. It is taken as a given that we are to be found in a building (or, as some grudgingly grant, a house) on Sunday morning for Sunday School, and then that everyone gather in a large hall of some kind for hymn singing, prayer, Scripture reading, offering, sometimes a brief celebration of one half of the Lord's Table (namely, tiny cups of juice and tiny crackers alone instead of a love feast and a celebration with one loaf and one cup), and a sermon. Is that what it means to worship God? Is that what it means to serve God? Are any of these things required in just that way? Those who would affirm such must show that requirement in Scripture and not assume it on the basis of tradition. For example, just because the Scripture says that elders are to be able to teach and that the job of elders is to preach, does that mean only the elders should preach? Does that necessarily mean standing at a pulpit or on a stage in a physical location that has the word "church" on a sign out front? Where is that requirement found in the pages of the Bible? Take another example - while the NT clearly teaches Christians are to gather in the way I described above (and there's more to it than a few brief sentences can express), must that gathering be in the same building? And must it be every week? What of one's relationship with other local believers who are zealous for good works?
This is not to say that it is wrong to meet in a church in the way I've described, even regularly. I would like to suggest, however, that an unwillingness to examine what the Lord might have us do in this present culture with respect to how we spend our time as gathered Christians can lead to a bunker mentality and to actions consistent with those who feel themselves under siege, rather than those who have been charged to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded, those who follow the God-man who came to destroy the works of the devil. If we can think in ways more consistent with the biblical teaching as I've revealed it here, we can start to break out of the chains of tradition and see more clearly the value of, to take an example near and dear to my heart, the Church Repent project. Just think about it - when is the last time your church blessed another local church and did something that was intended to bring them a lot closer to Jesus? Has your church avoided doing it because there's no time, and is there no time because Sunday morning is always occupied with the same liturgy, list of activities, and way of doing things? When is the last time your church's presence was noticed outside of its own walls? The last time more than one or two of your church's members went out into the world to share the Gospel? Is that doing the works we did at first?
What if, instead of a Sunday night service, your church committed to perform an act of outreach on a regular basis to the world around it? Now brace yourself as I talk like a crazy man - what if, instead of a Sunday morning service, your church committed to do that outreach?
There comes a time when the Lord is no longer interested in or pleased by acts of worshipful piety as we usually think of them.
Amos 5:18-24 -
Alas, you who are longing for the day of the LORD, for what purpose will the day of the LORD be to you? It will be darkness and not light; as when a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him, or goes home, leans his hand against the wall and a snake bites him. Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?
"I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
Mark 7:5-13 -
The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?" And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'
Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."
He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. "For Moses said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER'; and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH'; but you say, 'If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),' you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."
Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself. One shows love to God by worshiping Him and serving Him, as we've seen above. One shows love to God by obeying what He has said in His Word. One shows love to neighbor by doing loving acts for that neighbor. Ask yourself - is your church, when gathered together, doing anything to love neighbor? If not, can we indeed be sure that we are not offending God in our worship by ignoring that which He finds more important for the sake of fulfilling that which we wrongly think to be a requirement? Were not the priest and the Levite on their way to "more important" things, service at the temple, when they passed by the wounded traveler in Luke 10?
Of course there will be opposition to anyone who thinks that his/her church should intentionally engage the culture with significantly more vigor and Gospel focus. There are many throughout this land who attend Sunday morning services for reasons other than wholeheartedly giving worship and thanksgiving to the great God and Savior Jesus. Those whose hearts are lukewarm or even cold toward the Gospel, who fill a seat and perhaps even give monetary offerings, performing lipservice and eyeservice so as to be seen as a good citizen, a good American, a good employee. Their motives may be less sinister, centered merely on setting a good example for their children, because going to church on Sunday is what you're supposed to do, and they want their kids to be around "good people". When confronted with the initiative to obey Jesus in a way outside the comfort zone of sitting in a pew, standing at the right times, sitting at the right times, and not snoring too loudly during the sermon, how do you think a person whose heart is still dead in sin and who is still a rebel against and an enemy of God will react?
Then there are those the likes of whom challenged and eventually murdered Jesus - the tradition-bound legalistic Pharisee, to whom "the way we've always done stuff" is sacrosanct for no other reason than that it's the way we've always done stuff (and in many cases doubtless because the status quo affords them high social standing). Such people have been known to commit all sorts of dastardly sins, such as gossip, backbiting, needless dissension, and power-play politics, in opposition to godly men and women who desire to do nothing more than introduce a change to the music during Sunday morning worship or use the ESV at times instead of the KJV! How much more if the church they attend should suggest a modification to their church government structure, so as to set in place a more biblical system? What will the response be, should someone urge his church to go to great lengths to obey Jesus, presenting biblical arguments for why "the way we've always done stuff" does not honor the Lord? What if he suggests changing the way the church spends some of its time to less inward focus and more outward focus, if the Pharisee could not bear the sight of a guitar on stage?
Whatever opposition may come, serving Jesus faithfully is always worthwhile and always the best thing for any person to do. There exist many ways to serve/worship Him. How can you serve/worship God and love your neighbor as yourself, and urge your church body and other church bodies around you in your locality, to do the same? The possibilities are many, but let us throw off any lingering enslavement to human tradition that insists that an action only qualifies as worship of God if it occurs inside a building with the word "church" on the sign out front, and in a room in that building called the "sanctuary". The Bible reveals that worship of and service to God is much wider than we typically think, and that American Reformedigelicalism could stand to grow up quite a bit so as to reflect faithfully in the visible world that which we already are spiritually - the holy temple of the Lord (Ephesians 2:21).
1 comment:
I got smarter reading this! Not smart enough to understand it all, but smarter!
Post a Comment