But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
- John 4:23,24
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
- Romans 12:1
In his album And All the Decorations, Too…, Ross King included a song he wrote called “Clear the Stage.” Up to that point, I had always thought of worship as the part of a contemporary, evangelical service commonly called praise and worship. Having been raised in the Catholic church and no prior connection with the term worship, I just adopted this definition in my own budding walk with Christ. As a few years passed, however, I started noticing that I didn’t actually like some of the songs. I felt guilty that I should not like a song and reminded myself that this was to be done unto the Lord, not myself.
Ross’s song woke me up to the realization that should have struck me sooner. Worship could never be just singing. If all I ever gave God was singing, why then would He ask for my obedience in other things. In addition, Scripture describes the act of falling face down before God or an idol as worship. Isaiah fell down before God as though dead, Peter before Jesus in the boat, and John before the angel, for which case he was rebuked (Isaiah 6, Luke 5, Revelation 22:8,9). However you might read those passages, you won’t find singing as the expression of choice for those men.
Therefore, I define worship is the daily remembrance and surrender of our own selves to the active presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. This definition finds its source in the above verses (and partly from the Caedmon’s Call song “I’m Coming Home”). God is spirit and is meant to be “worship[ped] in spirit and truth.” That’s a nice catchy “Christianeese” phrase I’ve heard for a few years. However, I really didn’t know what that truly meant until thinking back to a memory verse from last year: Romans 12:1. Paul describes what spiritual worship is.
The real meaning of my definition still wasn’t all too clear until a few days ago, when I spoke with my boss about a seemingly unrelated issue. During that conversation, we brought up the topic of what happens before, during, and after the time a nonbeliever repents and accepts Christ as Lord and Savior. First, God gives the nonbeliever faith to believe. Then the nonbeliever repents and confesses Christ. At that time, the Holy Spirit enters the new believer. Yet that’s not all. An oft-forgotten and misunderstood transaction takes place when the Spirit enters. We remember this event in the sign of baptism, but we don’t speak much of it in our daily lives. Our old self dies, is crucified with Christ, is taken away. We are reborn, complete with a new Spirit, God’s own Holy Spirit. Paul called this “the hope of glory” in Colossians 1:27. Again, in Colossians 3:3, Paul reminds each of us, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul expounds on this further in Romans 7.
Following Romans 7 into chapter 8, I find a bridge between the work of Christ in justification and the work of the Spirit in sanctification. I see a correlation between Christ’s own sacrifice to purchase our freedom from sin and make us righteous before God–not by any work of our own–and the Spirit’s indwelling presence enabling us to love, pray and practice the works of obedience found in the fruits of the Spirit and in the commandments (Ephesians 2:8-10, Galatians 5:16-26). When we surrender and find ourselves in Him, we truly worship our God in the full. In Him, we may practice everything in the manner that best pleases God for we know His will and work in His strength for His glory, just as Jesus did in His earthly ministry (Philippians 2:5-11).
Yet if all our righteousness and works occur through the Lord’s power, what have we really offered? Worship, then, is simply our recognition that we are incapable, incomplete. We need the Lord to do anything at all. Indeed, we could cry with King David, “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things have come from you, and of your own we have given you” (1 Chronicles 29:14). Or we could state with Paul, “‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:35,36).