The Bible Nerd

Sometimes, you can just feel a few “heretic” emails coming your way. I know this post title will ruffle a few people’s feathers. I get why people use “worship” in talking about doing everyday tasks. First, there are many Christians out there like me with no musical talent whatsoever. I have at least 4 different levels of monotone, and I often have to lip sync in worship because I can’t go that high or that low. Telling me I can worship while doing housework, for example, makes me feel like I can be a better worshiper of God. Let’s face reality, it also makes it easier to motivate people to do a better job at chores they view as “non spiritual”. The problem is that the Bible simply doesn’t support using the word “worship” this way.

I know, I know, you will quote Romans 12:1 to me, “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.” To some people, they see this verse as Paul creating a new category of worship, called “spiritual worship”. The example of spiritual worship then is offering your life to God, which then opens the door for a wider meaning. If offering our lives is worship, then it is the heart of honoring and revering God that matters, not the action. You can therefore honor and pay respect to God by scrubbing toilets with all your heart, serving the poor, or preaching the Gospel. Worship loses it’s attachment to any specific actions, and now becomes possible in all areas of a believer’s life.

First of all, the context of this passage in Romans can’t be overlooked. Paul has been attempting to bring the Jewish and Gentile Christians back into unity in the church of Rome. The first 11 chapters lay the theological reasons for unity, as they are all one body in Christ. Now in chapter 12, Paul turns to the application, or walking out of this unity. One of the areas of contention is about worship, as evidenced in chapter 14. The Jews are meeting on Saturday to worship, while the Gentiles are meeting on other days. The Jews are still following the food laws, while the Gentiles do not worry about ceremonial uncleanliness. This verse about worship in 12:1 is addressing this issue.

The Jews no longer have to follow the sacrificial laws of the old covenant to worship God. Some of the Jews may be saying that they are “the chosen” because of the old covenant and laws they follow. Paul has rejected this as salvation is by faith, but here he is redefining sacrifice, not worship per se. Even though they don’t sacrifice animals, they can offer up their lives as a sacrifice to God. It is the same line of reasoning in Hebrews 13:15, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” In Hebrews, it isn’t your life, but praise that is used as a replacement for animal sacrifice. The point in both verses is showing that though the old covenant is dead, the concept of sacrifice is still there through praise and offering our lives. Neither is attempting to completely change the normal actions associated with worship.

Second, by digging into the Greek, we can see that not all translators even agree that the word “worship” should be used in Romans 12:1. It is not the typical Greek word “proskuneo” which is closest to the Old Testament “shachah”. It is the Greek word “latreia” which is closer to the Hebrew word “abad”. Therefore, many English translations use the words “acceptable service” not “spiritual worship”. Remember from our post on the meaning of worship that both bowing down and service are part of the meaning of Biblical “worship”, but many times the words are translated as “service”  if the context fits. Since Bible scholars don’t even agree on the translation, should we be building whole teachings that stand or fall on one disputed translation??? No.

I can find no Old Testament passages where worship is used in the way I hear today. It is never “all that you do for God with a heart of respect and honor” but was something that involved a more defined area of actions. These actions involved sacrifice of animals, singing Psalms, bowing down, prayer, festivals, and in general paying homage. In the New Testament, there are over 70 references to worship, and these are the only two I can find where you could try to stretch them to make it apply to other actions. You can’t take 2 passages and overlook the 99% where worship is used in the same traditional way as the OT usages (of which there are over 100 of them, none of them “spiritualizing” worship).

You may ask at this point why I care about this. I care because if you are looking for verses about all we do, you could easily use 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” or Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Both of these show how we can give God glory and thanks in all we do, by doing it with the right attitude. We don’t need to change the meaning of worship to use these to motivate ourselves and others in all areas of our lives. Second, I simply feel that we cause worship to lose something by applying it to all things. It was meant to be something sacred and special, where our actions of prayer, singing, bowing down, and paying homage were purposeful and in a time set aside for it. Sometimes I feel if worship is everything, then it becomes nothing.