Sunday, November 27, 2005
Most of us associate worship with what happens on Sunday morning when we "go to church" and sing and pray together. And of course that is worship in a corporate setting. But there is more to worship than that.
The apostle Paul said that when a Christian consecrates himself to the Lord, that too is worship (Romans 12:1). In fact, when a Christian serves others in the name of the Lord, that is also a form of worship. We see this in Philippians 2:29, where the apostle Paul referred to a man named Epaphroditus: "Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me."
The Greek word for "help," says D.A. Carson in his commentary on Philippians, is a word "that might more commonly be rendered 'religious service' or the like, a word that would used in discussing worship."
The Bible commentator William Barclay put it this way: "Real worship is the offering of everyday life to God." Thus, we should not only say, "I'm going to church to worship God," but "I'm going to the office--or school, or the park, or wherever--to worship God." For the Christian, worship is to embrace all of life. It is both personal and corporate. In other words, worship God with your heart and hands ... on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and throughout the week!
