TO WORSHIP GOD IN TRUTH AND IN SPIRIT (PART II)

QUESTION: Hello pastor, what is to worship God in truth and in spirit?

Brenda

RESPONSE: We now move on to the subject of worshipping God in truth and in Spirit, and we analyse what this entails. (Read part 1 here). This is a loaded question, and if approached lightly, you may miss the message. The language alone suggests that the phrase incorporates important affirmations such as ‘worship,’ ‘God,’ ‘truth,’ and ‘spirit‘. I’ll leave out the word ‘God’ in my attempt to define what it means to worship God in Truth and in Spirit because the question is ‘What’.

Worship

The etymological meaning of the term “worship” indicates that worship is about acknowledging that God in nature is worthy of our reverence and praise. Worship, in other words, is not only celebrating God based on what he has done; while we may do so due to the conflicting environment we live in, worship should be based on WHO (in quality/identity) God is, regardless of what he does or does not do.

Worship, then, is the acknowledgement of God’s worth and the attribution of that worth to all his works. The worthiness of God that we demonstrate in worship is also a declaration that this quality of worthiness is unique to God and cannot be found in any other being, alive or inanimate. Worship is forbidden to be attributed to idols or any being other than God because of this issue of identity. Only God should be worshipped. It is not that he should be worshipped more than other gods or worshipped differently, but only he should be worshipped. In worship matters, we do not say GOD FIRST, nor do we say ONLY GOD, because nothing in his identity is his characteristic.

Recognizing that worship is about acknowledging the essence of God, who he is, regardless of what he has or has not done. We now know directly what it means to worship in the Spirit. He is the Spirit (John 4:24 explains that God is a Spirit), and therefore the place of our worship. I’ll get to that eventually, but for now, let’s stick with the definition of worship. Worship can be defined in a variety of ways, depending on who is doing the defining. However, from a theological standpoint, I would characterize worship as “a Transactional Relationship” between Man (humanity) and a deity. Worship is a meeting (physical or faith-based) in which man meets with his God and expresses his (man’s) appreciation, praise, and pain to him-God, who in turn offers acceptance, restoration, and help to man.

The term translated as ‘worship’ in the Greek text is ‘proskuneo’ (transliteration). This word is a verb in Greek, and it is from this word that we derive the ideology that worship is a verb rather than a noun (state) (an act). The Greek construction of proskuneo demonstrates that it is a combination of Pros (towards) and Kuneo (towards) (submissive Kiss). The concept is that of a loving inferior performing a willful reverent act for his superior. The gesture used to be that a king or a royal extended his or her hand, and the inferior bowed down and kissed the hand or the ring of authority.

It is the concept behind patriarchal bowing with their heads on the ground, service in sacrificial systems, Praise, kneeling, closure of eyes, and so on. In the New Testament, Proskuneo (worship) is exclusive to God. Only God can be worshipped, which is why it is a problem in the New Testament for Angels and disciples when people try to worship them (Acts 10:25-26; Revelation 19:10 and Revelation 22:8-9.) and when the same worship is given to demons and infernal creatures, such as the dragon and the beast in the book of Revelation (Revelation 9:20, 13:4,8,12, 13:15, 14:9, 14:11, 16:2, 19:20, 20:4).

Jesus is the God we Worship

This type of worship is given to Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament, indicating that he is God in the flesh (Mathew 15:25, 20:20, 9:18, 14:33, 8:2, John 9:38, Mark 5:6). Jesus of Nazareth is worshipped because he performed miracles and appeared extraordinary to those who worship him. However, theologically, Jesus does not hinder his devotees from worshipping him because he knows there is no other God except himself, the one true God incarnate in the flesh (John 1:1-3, 14), who merits that worship (Titus 2:13). Jesus was and is not God’s Son, but God Himself, who was born as a son and took on flesh to qualify to save humanity (Philippians 2:5-11).

Yahweh was known to the Jews as the only ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3-6), and Jesus assured them that he was the ‘I AM’ in the flesh whom they saw (John 8:22-24, 57-58; John 13:18-19). Jesus is the true God and the source of eternal life (1John 5:20; John 10:33). There is no other god or God save Jesus Christ (John 5:18; 10:30, 14:9; 20:28). What we saw in the man Jesus of Nazareth was God himself manifest in the flesh, not a triune member but the one and only true God (Colossians 1:15-16; 2:9).

In the flesh, Jesus was God, which is what the Greek word ‘Theotes’ means in Colossians 2:9. Theotes in Colossians 2:9 is not the same as Theiotes in Romans 1:20; although Theiotes in Romans 1:20 refers to divinity, and thus characteristics of God, Theotes in Colossians refers to Essence. What God is essentially. So, in the perspective of the Colossian heresy, Jesus of Nazareth and the resurrected Jesus were God himself in all actual aspects of being.

The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman then reminds us that idol worship is worshipping anybody or anything that is not of the essence (Theotes) of Jesus Christ. No matter how amazing a deity’s activities are, whether it is creation or salvation if it is not Jesus Christ, you are worshipping attributes of a God but not God, and hence idol worship. We’ve covered what worship is and who deserves it; now we’ll look at truth worship and Spirit worship.

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7) 

Priest Isaiah White (+256-775 822833 for further inquiries)

iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)

Questioning to Believe, Believing to Live