XII: Worship, II: In Spirit and in Truth

14 October 2005 Common Era

Previously we examined the definition of "worship," and delineated between two forms of worship: proskuneo, direct worship, the rendering of obesiance to and prostration towards, and latreia, indirect worship, the spiritual service rendered to fellow humans and to God. From this we could see that worship is not confined to the assembly, for anything we do in service to God is worship proper: in fact, very little is said regarding "worship" in the "assembly," and the purpose of the assembly is primarily the encouragement and edification of the brethren, with direct worship also taking place. Having seen these things, let us now approach one of the focal passages on worship in the New Testament, John 4:19-24:

The woman saith unto him, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."
Jesus saith unto her, "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

John 4:24 is often taken out of its context and used to demonstrate the need to engage in worship to God in the assembly with both soul and mind according to the determination of God from the Scriptures. While the passage certainly supports this argument derived from it, are we to accept that such is the sum total of Jesus' message to the Samaritan woman and to us? Let us examine this passage further along with the rest of the New Testament to see.

Before we begin, let us examine the context of the passage, and particularly the nature of the interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman and the question she asks.

We first learn of the Samaritans in 2 Kings 17:22-41, where the Kings author demonstrates that the Samaritans were the Mesopotamian peoples whom the Assyrians settled in the land of Israel when they exiled the ten tribes. At first, they did not recognize the LORD, but once the LORD established His presence by sending lions through the people, they requested to know more about the God of the land, and the Assyrians sent a priest of Israel. These people, according to the Kings account, kept worshipping their other gods but added the worship of YHWH. In Ezra 4:1-10, we see that the Samaritans wanted a hand in helping to build the Temple in Jerusalem, and when rebuffed, did all that was in their power to halt the project.

More on the Samaritans can be gained from Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews. In book 11, chapter 8, Josephus records that the Samaritans gained approval from Alexander the Great to build a temple on Mount Gerizim; in book 13 and chapter 9, after the Jewish leader John Hyrcanus conquered the area 200 years later, Josephus records that the temple was not being used.

The Samaritans exist until this day; they only accept the first five books of the Old Testament as authoritative, and believe that Mt. Gerizim, not Jerusalem/Mt. Zion, is the right place to worship God. They sacrifice animals on Mt. Gerizim to this day.

Having seen such things, we can understand why the Samaritan woman was surprised that Jesus, as a Jew, would give the time of day to her, a Samaritan (John 4:9), and why she would ask Him regarding where God was to be worshipped. It is also important to note that Jesus does affirm that salvation comes from the Jews, and that the Jews worship what they know while the Samaritans worship in ignorance (John 4:22), a strong affirmation of the worship in Jerusalem.

If Jesus had just responded with verse 22, there would be little else to talk about. Jesus' response, however, looks toward the future and speaks in transcendental terms, and we should certainly look into such matters.

Jesus begins by effectively rendering the question of the Samaritan woman moot: the days are coming when God will not be worshipped in either Jerusalem or on Gerizim. This presents a strong contrast to what has existed so far in the Jewish covenant.

Jesus then goes on to establish that God is spirit, that God seeks those who would worship Him in spirit and in truth, and this will be coming and is actually present now. The timeframe is manifestly a reference to Jesus and His covenant, since the language is similar to that used of the Kingdom in Luke 17:20-21. The passage also demonstrates that God does desire us to worship Him, and to be the ones doing so "in spirit and in truth." But what, precisely, does this mean?

The standard answer, of course, is that we are to have our spirit engaged in our assembly worship and that our assembly worship is to be done according to the standard of God. This is all well, good, and true, but you could say that just as easily about the old covenant (cf. Isaiah 1:10-21, Hosea 6:4-7). What is Jesus' larger point?

When we consider passages that speak of worshipping God in spirit, we turn to Romans 12:1:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

The word "service" here is the Greek latreia, that indirect worship to God that we are to continually offer to Him. When we consider this evidence-- and consider how worship is never explicitly associated with the assembly, and that the thrust of the assembly is encouragement and edification of the saints, the picture begins to get clearer:

Jesus is affirming in John 4:20-24 that in the new covenant, worship will not be relegated to a building and the offering of animals and other rote rituals, but will be represented by people serving God according to His standard. As God is a spirit, and not physical (in an earthly sense), so the worship God desires is according to the spirit, and not according to the physical. When we are the living and holy sacrifice God wants us to be, we are worshipping God in spirit and in truth, and we can be the people God has earnestly sought.

Everything said here certainly applies also to how we should compose ourselves in the assembly; after all, all spiritual acts done in the assembly are worship, as we have seen previously. In fact, the distinction made in the previous article is somewhat tempered by the fact that Jesus refers to this worship in John 4 with proskuneo! So, just as proskuneo worship is also latreia worship, since direct worship is spiritual service, and under the new covenant, our latreia-- spiritual service-- is called proskuneo. When we act in service to God according to His standard, we humble ourselves and render obesiance to Him, and can be the people whom He has sought.

Perhaps we need to give consideration to what the Scriptures say about our worship as Christians and change our perspective on what we view as worship vs. what we do not consider as worship, and change our attitudes and vocabulary accordingly. Let us seek to be the people whom God has sought, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth.

ELDV

XI: Worship, I: Defining our Terms

03 October 2005 Common Era

"Worship" is a familiar term to the vast majority of us, even to those who do not consider themselves religious. The term is consistently used when describing the services of a church, and in churches of Christ, the idea of the "worship service" is pervasive and widespread. Many times, I fear, this term-- "worship"-- is thrown around and used extensively without a good understanding of what the New Testament calls worship and what the New Testament has to say about the assembling of the saints. Let us spend some time in this post defining our terms so that we can be directed toward a more Biblical view of the assembly.

What is worship?

The strict definition, of course, is to render obesiance to, to pay homage to, to humiliate oneself before; the primary definition of the term in Webster's. We see such things in Ezekiel 1:28, Matthew 17:6, etc., when people could only prostrate themselves when confronted with the glory of God.

There is also, of course, Romans 12:1:

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.

By this definition, anything we do-- within or without the assembly-- in service to God is worship to Him.

Those are our primary definitions for worship-- prostration/humiliation before God, and by extension, glorifying and praising God (Greek proskuneo), and being the living and holy sacrifice, deemed spiritual worship (Greek latreia). It is also manifest that the former kind of worship is more direct, while the latter form of worship is more indirect, and perhaps that would be the easiest way of categorization.

In truth, there ought not be a need to categorize-- it's all worship, it's all done in service to God in some form or another. The difficulty that I percieve is that categorization has already happened, although that categorization has been done along different lines, notably, acts done within the assembly vs. acts done outside of the assembly. It is to be noted that the New Testament never directly, explicitly links "worship" with the "assembly." Worship is never limited to deeds done inside the assembly, yet the common terminology amongst Christians labels things done within the assembly as "worship" while not associating that label with things done outside of the assembly. Ideally, we would all recognize how all things work to serve God, and not categorize forms of worship: if, however, we are going to make categories, the categories might as well be Biblical categories.

To this end, let us give consideration to the assembly. Biblically, what is the purpose of the assembly?

1. To assemble to partake of the Lord's Supper (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 11:18-34).
2. To encourage one another (1 Corinthians 14, Hebrews 10:24-25).
3. A time where collections can be made to take care of financial needs (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
4. A time to hear a lesson (Acts 20:7-12).
5. A time in which we can offer prayer (1 Corinthians 14:15-17).
6. Singing songs (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16).

In all of these things, worship is never explicitly mentioned. Let us speak of the acts done while assembling and consider what their purposes are.

Prayer: coming into the presence of God in prayer is in itself an act of direct, proskuneo, worship, and we can praise God in prayer. On the other hand, a prayer on the behalf of the collective also has an edification function.

Lord's Supper: The Lord's Supper likewise shares in both natures: we memorialize the death of Jesus and reflect on its salvific power, thus offering direct, proskuneo, worship to God. Moreover, the Lord's Supper as proclaiming the death of Christ until His return and its demonstration of our communion serve to edify the saints (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

Songs: It is interesting to see that especially in Colossians 3:16, the emphasis of singing is not praise directly to God but as speaking to one another. Many songs that we sing are songs of praise, and are direct, proskuneo, forms of worship; on the other hand, a good number of songs we sing are not directly praising God, but an encouragement to one another to hold to the faith and to obey it: pretty much every invitation song fits this category, indirect, latreia, type of worship, mostly directed at one another to our edification.

Lesson: As with singing, even more with the lesson. While preachers many times will preach lessons directly glorifying God, the vast majority of lessons are designed primarily to stir brethren up to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25), to increase the Biblical knowledge of brethren, and to exhort, rebuke, and convince with all longsuffering (2 Timothy 4:2). Such is indirect, latreia, worship to God, since the work of edification is being done, and such is part of our total service to God.

I think that it is obvious that while certain acts always have a component of direct, proskuneo, worship, many of the acts done in the assembly are done as indirect, latreia forms of worship. When we look beyond the realm of the assembly, we see that while we can individually directly (proskuneo) worship God in prayer and song and other ways, the majority of our worship is the indirect spiritual service to God-- latreia.

The following questions, then, must be asked:

1. Why are acts of a similar sort-- indirect acts of worship, the spiritual latreia-- called "worship" by virtue of them being done in the assembly, but not called "worship" when done outside of it?
2. If we see the inconsistency in the above, what can we do about it?

While I would not bind such matters, I think it best to return to the New Testament usage of terms, and call the assembly what it is: the assembly. The New Testament does not call it a "worship service." While everything done in the assembly is worship of a sort, direct/proskuneo and/or indirect/latreia, let us not fool ourselves: when we call an assembly the "worship service", it's based on denominational usage of the term and denominational accomodation based on sloppy exegesis, or worse, conformity to pagan and other influences. If we recognize that many things we do in the assembly are not direct/proskuneo forms of worship, and we recognize that it's not very consistent to call latreia acts in the assembly "worship" yet would never think to call similar latreia acts outside of the assembly "worship," we ought to see that we could use more care in rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

Some may find this to be rather nitpicky, yet that is not my intent. I am aware that people can use the term "worship service" while understanding the true nature of the assembly, yet nevertheless I have personally seen how this accomodation has led many to have misconceptions about the assembly. The New Testament is clear: the assembly is the convening of the saints for encouraging one another and offering worship to God. Worship is not our assembling together. Not everything done in the assembly is direct, proskuneo worship. I fear that we forget sometimes what proskuneo really means: humbling before, showing obesiance to, prostrating before. The idea of worship including supplication and praise is based on the extension of the concept, notably, that after one prostrates himself before his superior, be it a king or the King of Kings, he would then sing the praises of his superior and make his supplication. If we neglect the humility, can we reasonably expect God to accept the supplications?

Furthermore, I fear that many have been turned off from assembling with the saints at every opportunity because of the way the need to assemble has been presented to them. By emphasizing what the Hebrew author emphasized-- the need to assemble to encourage one another, and all the more as the Day draws near-- perhaps more brethren will reach the intended understanding of the need to assemble: we assemble not because we have to but because we need to. We need the encouragement of our fellow brethren. We need to associate with one another. We need to be an encouragement to others. This need must be internalized-- we wouldn't want it any other way. If we present the assembling of ourselves as a burden that you must bear, then we shouldn't be surprised when brethren act like assembling is a burden. It need not be that way!

What shall we say about these things? Let us remember that we assemble, and can and should assemble very often, and when we assemble we encourage one another and offer worship to God. We of course do all things according to the authority of God, and do not go beyond what He has established; nevertheless, by recognizing the distinctions between direct, proskuneo, worship, which has God as its entire focus, and indirect, latreia, worship, which in the assembly tends to have the edification and encouragement of the brethren as its focus, we can be more effective in our service to God on both counts. We need to give due consideration to these matters, and strive to create in ourselves a fervent desire to continually assemble with the saints, and strive to encourage the same desire to be created in the hearts of those brethren, and thus truly fulfilling Hebrews 10:24-25. Let us not be content to swallow the camel of denominational doctrines and denominational vestiges in our beliefs, and let us strive to speak as the Bible speaks, and proclaim the assembly, the body, for whom Christ died!

ELDV