Day 282

Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day.

Chapter 22, Paragraph 6.

“Neither Prayer, nor any other part of Religious worship, is now under the Gospel tied unto, or made more acceptable by, any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed; but God is to be worshipped everywhere in Spirit, and in truth;…”

Scripture Lookup

John 4:21

Malachi 1:11

1 Timothy 2:8

Reflection

It doesn’t matter where we meet for worship. A church can gather under a tree, in a fancy building, or on a second floor. It doesn’t matter if we face the east, west or north in our worship. We do not need to face Jerusalem when we pray.  There is a tremendous amount of liberty granted the Christian when it comes to where we worship God. We are merely called to worship Him in the places we find ourselves.

While Christians have been given great liberty with regards to the circumstances of worship, God has given some guidelines concerning the nature of worship that are to be followed carefully. In this present Gospel age, we are to worship in spirit and in truth. Both are to be pursued in order for worship to be acceptable to God.

When we worship in spirit, we are relying on the work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and increase our faith. We worship with “understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear” (LBCF 22.5). God is not pleased by an ignorant, haughty, faithless worshiper. We come to worship realizing our place as creature and He as Creator. We realize our sin, and the price He paid to redeem us. We acknowledge the work He is doing in our life, and how utterly incapable we are of doing it on our own.

As important as the inward aspects are, though, the outward form of our worship matters as well. We worship in truth; we align ourselves with the truth revealed in God’s word. The worship service directly reveals our view of God. Do we carefully seek His will in how we are to worship? Or do we worship in a manner that we choose? The elements of worship prescribed by Scripture are to be part of a worship service no matter where it is held.

When we worship in spirit and in truth, we can know with certainty that God is pleased with our worship.

Questions to Consider

• Which needs more improvement: your attitude in worship or the content of your worship?