People naturally are worshipers of something. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob's well in Samaria, "Ye worship ye know not what." Such is also most surely the case with many people today. Do you know what you worship? The town clerk states clearly in Acts 19:35 what the Ephesians were worshiping in these words, "Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?”
Under the elaborate system of mythology of the Greeks and Romans, they knew what they worshiped as images and idols, but they did not know who was behind those idols. This is made known in 1 Cor. 10:20. "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles [Greeks or nations] sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God.”
We learn that Israel had been guilty of this in Deut. 32:15-17. "Jeshurun [Israel]... forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they Him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God.”
Our highest privilege as Christians is worship. The recipe for true worship is very clearly given in John 4:23. There are two definite requirements. They are: 1. in spirit, 2. in truth. Only those who know God can worship God. Such have the Spirit and know God as their Father. It is the Father who seeks worshipers to worship Him. He desires persons before Him in this attitude. "Thy word is truth." Worship then must be according to the Word of God. There is only one way of approach to God and that is Christ. He is all, the door, the altar, the sacrifice, the light, the Word, the frankincense and Priest.
The essence of worship is that the Holy Spirit can take up our praises and prayers to God in perfect association with Christ. Our place of worship is in the holiest where all the value of Christ Himself is put to us. Worship is the return of the heart to God, known as Father, for all His blessings to us in Christ.
The first of the Ten Commandments is: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Ex. 20:2.3. It is interesting and instructive as to its importance that in the last chapter in the Bible is this commandment: "Worship God." Rev. 22:9.
Another very wonderful thing to realize is that in worship we are put in the more blessed place. In worship we are giving to God and the Lord said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35.
Love seeks worshipers under that tender name of Father, the name which signifies relationship. Christ and the work of the cross filling the heart produce, by the Spirit, a voluntary outflow of song and praise that ascends back to God who gave it, as David says in 1 Chron. 29:14, "For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.”
In 1 Cor. 10:22 a serious question is asked, "Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?" Heresy or evil attached to the place of worship provokes the Lord. He must be worshiped "in spirit and in truth." John 4:24.
Ed.