True Worship
For many, the word “worship” may stir up thoughts of singing songs, playing instruments, or dancing gaily at a Sunday morning church service. These things are certainly expressions of worship, but they are not in themselves worship. Worship begins in the unseen and finds expression in the unseen. Worship is the direction of mental energy toward a desired, person, place, or thing.
Worship is where we direct our mind’s eye. It is where we fix our attention. Jesus said “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24, NIV). Worship in “Spirit and truth” is rooted in the unseen realm. It is a posture of the heart. The state of our heart determines our worship.
Jesus was very aware of this reality. He constantly connected man’s outward behavior to the motions of the heart. In Matthew 15:19, Jesus tells His disciples the following, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts - murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Jesus also said the following about the Pharisees, the hypocritical religious leaders of His day:
“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules...Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.’” (Matthew 15:8-10, NIV)
The point Jesus made is that the Pharisees were extremely adept at outward forms of worship, but the inner worship of their heart was corrupted. What appeared to be outward praise of God was actually a hypocritical facade. Their hearts were set on themselves, not on God. Despite this, they were still able to appear and sound holy because they knew enough about God. Their knowledge about God allowed them to disguise the impurity in their hearts with flashy religious displays.
The Greek word for worship is proskuneo. A root word of proskuneo implies the act of kissing. To worship God is to “kiss” God. How can we kiss an invisible God who is a spirit? We are able to worship God with our hearts and minds by fixing our mental energy on Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate and the most perfect representation of the invisible heavenly Father. The apostle Paul writes the following concerning worship:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, NIV)
To “contemplate the Lord’s glory” is to fix our spiritual eyes on Jesus. When we do, He transforms our mind and heart to match His in greater and greater measure. The Bible describes this transformation in us as “glory to glory,” meaning we progressively become more like the Lord in every possible way as we direct our mental energy toward Him. This is our worship.
I like to think of worship as a spiritual approach. I imagine Jesus with me but standing at a distance, encouraging me to take steps toward Him. He is radiating an indescribable light and His eyes are pure fire. With every moment I focus my mental energy on Him, I take a step in His direction. With each step, I become progressively more consumed with His light and fire. If we follow this analogy to its end, there will come a point where we are so overwhelmed by light and fire that it becomes difficult to differentiate ourselves from Jesus. We are completely consumed by Him and become one with Him, yet, amazingly, retain our separate substances. He remains God and I remain man, but I am now able to participate in the splendor and glory of His divine nature. Perhaps the apostle Peter had a similar idea in mind when he wrote the following:
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3-4, NIV).
To worship, therefore, is to “participate in the divine nature” by directing our mental energy towards Jesus. It is less about a specific act, and more about a consummate lifestyle of holiness, determination, and focus. Peter writes that “God has given us everything we need for a godly life.” We worship when we offer these things back to God in love for Him.
Worship is an awareness of God’s presence. I can worship at the grocery store, at the gym, or at a restaurant. It is a conscious direction of my mental energy towards the all-pervading presence of God. It is to live a lifestyle in which everything, every moment, is offered back to Him in gratitude and thanks. Simply put, to worship is to be made like Him by focusing (“contemplating”, see 2 Corinthians 3:18) on Him.
