WORSHIP by G. | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 8, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 14.

WORSHIP

By G.

EVERY man is a worshiper of something, is controlled by something to which he, wittingly or unwittingly, is subservient. The image-worshiper makes an image to conform to his idea of a god which in some way it is profitable for him to worship. The worshiper of living creatures imagines that in the creature or creatures of his choice there is some power that can in some way affect his welfare.

In all such worship there is usually a superstitious dread of the ideal deity, and the worship is merely an effort to appease it. The sacrifices given or the reverence accorded to such gods is generally for the purpose of warding off imaginary dangers. The extreme of such superstition is found in devil-worship. And this is perfectly logical, for Satan is the chief worker of evil, and works only to destroy that which God would save. If, therefore, there could be any advantage in worshiping any god solely because of a dread of his power and disposition to do evil, the ideal expedient would be devil-worship.

But there are many people who deem themselves too intelligent or too independent to worship any deity, even the Creator of all things. They are too self-sufficient to acknowledge any superior, excepting that in an official or physical sense they feel compelled to admit the superiority of a fellow-man. Such people, however, are not without their characteristic worship; for they are ardent worshipers of themselves. Their own inclinations—appetites, passions, ambitions—are the recipients of their life sacrifice and devotion. Every energy is directed to the service of self.

In this sinful world we have the true and the false in everything. The false is the counterfeit of the true. As man is a worshiping being by nature, the enemy of righteousness tempts him to indulge in false worship, as in false everything else. And whoever does not give himself to the exercise of true worship is surely led into some phase of false worship. The true motive of worship is love, and therefore the true object of worship is the God of love. There is but one God of love, and He is the Fountain of love. As all love springs from Him, there can be no other god of love. So there can be no other worship actuated by true love than the worship of the God of love; for true love must be received from Him, and He would not impart a spirit of worship that would be directed toward any other god. Nay, He could not impart a spirit of worship of any other god; for one of the things God can not do is to deny Himself.

Being a God of love, the true God is a God of sacrifice in behalf of His creatures. So the God of the Bible “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And this sacrifice was not made for men after they became worshipers of Him; “but God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This must needs be so, for after man had sinned and his mind was possessed by the enemy, he never could have returned to the worship of the true God if that sacrifice had not been made for him.

Then the only true worship is the worship of the true God, who created the heavens and the earth, and whose eternal purpose is to have the universe governed by a spirit of love. And the only true worship of Him is worship “in spirit and in truth.” All who worship any other god, or worship the true God in any other way, worship they “know not what.” All worship acceptable to God must be in faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” The sinner is at enmity with God, and it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that peace is made and acceptable worship made possible.

Acceptable worship must therefore be in a spirit of obedience, for obedience is the prescribed test of love. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments,” is the divine direction. The sinner is estranged from God through disobedience, for “sin is the transgression of the law.” Therefore peace must come through obedience, and in this way has come the possibility of peace to every one. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Therefore, as peace was lost to us by the disobedience of Adam, and regained for us by the obedience of Christ, it surely follows that peace can be retained only by continued obedience.

That no worship is acceptable that has not in it the element of obedience is shown by a Scripture contrast. In the first psalm a blessing is pronounced upon the man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord;” but “the ungodly are not so.” The ungodly, such as do not delight in the law of the Lord, “shall not stand in the judgment.” Nor will their worship avail anything, no matter what their profession; for Jesus says to such, “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Of the same class of professed worshipers of the true God He says, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; . . . worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”