Worship 1 - What do you worship? ...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010. People can worship all different kind of things. We use this term sometimes when we talk about special relationships of someone towards another person or towards a thing or activity. “He is worshiping her”, we might remark. Or: “this is his object of worship”.

Worship

What is worship? Usually the word is used for a special kind of relationship. When we worship something, we give it a special place. Often, we arrange our life or attention around the person or thing we worship. Worship has to do with the focus of our life.

What is there in this world which should have our special attention? What should have our continuing attention? Of course we are called to love other people. As a part of this love we are asked to pay attention to them. We are asked to develop special relationships of love. But we are not asked to worship them - worship is at least one level beyond love. It is wider, deeper, stronger!

Worship in Spirit and Truth

According to John 4, 24 Jesus demanded: “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” So he asks us to worship God. And he specifies this worship to be carried out in spirit and truth.

Worship concerns our whole life. Living in truth does not only mean that we tell the truth. It means that we live in the truth of God, that we acknowledge what he is and what he does. It also means to live “in Jesus”, since Jesus is God's truth for us. Truth is not abstract, not remote, not a cruel truth, but a warm and friendly truth, it is a person, it is relationship, it is love, it is Jesus.

Living in the spirit is what true worship means. Living in the spirit means to live in the love which comes from God. It comes through Jesus. It comes with his forgiveness. It takes from him, from his love, from his presence, from the hope he gives. ... more texts