Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth
By Landon J, deacon of Shepherd Reformed Baptist Church
Men were created to worship. 1 It is in their DNA. They have a natural instinct to worship something or someone because God created them to worship Him. Yet due to sin, humanity has “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23). Even though they do not want to worship God, they cannot help themselves but worship something. Sin has caused men to obsess over anything and everything but God. Like theologian John Calvin said, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.”
When men left God to worship whatever they wanted, they also worshipped however they wanted. The countless complex religions and unique cults around the world are evidence of this. Even some religions that claim to worship the God of the Bible have profaned God’s worship by adopting pagan worship practices. Although God is the right subject of man’s worship, is it not so bad that He is worshipped according to man’s creativity? The answer is found in Deuteronomy 12:29-32 when God tells the Israelites not just to adopt the gods of their neighboring nations, but also the means they worship their gods. He tells them in verse 32, “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” The Israelites were attracted to the devotion pagans gave to their gods and their creativity in worship. Should such means of worship be used even if the subject of worship is the true God?
Of course not. Men have no right to determine how they should worship God. They may be singing solos, painting, or dancing during the formal corporate worship, but that does not glorify God. They may say it does, but God does not. All means of worship invented by men are meant to glorify men. Since God has revealed to men in His Word how He wants to be worshipped, any other worship is not directed to the true God. If Christians want to have a healthy church blessed by God, they ought to pursue true worship.
This should be the pursuit of all churches. A mark of a holy church is its holy worship—without it, the church does not purely worship the true God. This is a difficult thing to swallow because there are many churches who have not reformed their worship according to the Scriptures. They, as Colossians 2:20-23 says, “submit to regulations…according to human precepts and teachings” and “promote self-made religion.” 2 Does this mean that the churches we love are never worshipping the true God and only worshipping man? Perhaps some are, but most are not. While they do include some practices that originate from the creativity of man, not everything in the service is unbiblical. Still, it is important for churches to humbly examine their worship and conform it as best they can to the Word of God.
How Should We Worship?
The principle Christians should use when discerning how to biblically worship the true God is historically called “the regulative principle” because God has revealed all we need for holy worship. There are five elements that make up biblical worship that should take place during the formal gathering of God’s people. These include: the proclamation of Scripture, singing, prayer, Lord’s Supper, baptism, and offering gifts.
1. Proclamation of the Word
Every church should read the Scripture aloud for the congregation to hear and a man gifted with teaching should interpret and proclaim what the Word teaches. The church devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching (Acts 2:41) and when the church comes together, someone gives them a “teaching, revelation…” (Prophecy was a form of Word-proclamation). 1 Tim. 2:11 speaks of women in the church “receiving instruction” and submitting to the Word. These passages reveal that proclaiming Scripture is a necessary part of worship.
2. Prayer
The Christian life is not absent from the work of God, so the Christian life should be filled with prayer. In the formal gathering, the congregation is in the special presence with God. Therefore, the congregation should “make (their) requests known to God” (Phil. 4:7). The church devoted themselves to prayer (Acts 2:41) and Paul writes in 1 Tim. 2:8, “I desire then that in every place I want the men to pray, lifting holy hands, without anger or quarreling.” It is a beautiful thing to see all the saints pray.
3. Singing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs
The worship gathering has always consisted of singing praises to God (Psalms was the song book for temple worship) and Paul commands the church to do so twice. Both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 command the church to sing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs “with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” The purpose of singing is to glorify God, not man. Some subtle singing practices have plagued the church often such as having a soloist or choir sing instead of the whole congregation. Does this glorify God or put the spotlight on one (or many) individuals? I would argue for the latter. 3
4. The Lord’s Supper and Baptism
Without going into too much detail on the specifics of these ordinances, they are essential to do in God’s worship. They are called “ordinances” because they were ordained by Christ to do until the end of the age (Matt. 26:17-30, 28:19-20). Baptism was performed for thousands of people at Pentecost (Acts 2:41) and the Lord’s Supper was done in the assembly (1 Cor. 11:17-34). Both are shown to be done in the presence of God’s people for the edification of the body as they hear the gospel proclaimed and God’s work being done.
5. Offering of gifts
This last element of worship is controversial. Many conservative Christians believe the offering is not an element. However, through studying the Scripture, I believe otherwise. According to 1 Cor. 16:1-2, “the collection” is commanded by Paul to be done on the first day of the week with the people of God. Likewise, gifts to the poor and missions are acceptable sacrifices that pleases our Lord and should not be neglected (Phil. 4:18, Heb. 13:16).
Contextualizing Worship
One of the great blessings when churches reform their worship using the regulative principle is that it streamlines worship around the world. If a house church in China has the five elements of worship as mentioned above, then it can be just as glorifying as the staple First Baptist Church in small-town America. Chad Vegas and Alex Kocman beautifully summarized this perspective when they wrote, “The people of God can worship authentically in cathedrals or caves and lack nothing necessary for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).” Even so, does this mean the church’s formal gathering on Sunday is going to look the same as other churches?
Since each church has its own unique culture and location, they will naturally reflect who and where they are. Shepherd Reformed Baptist Church began meeting in a basement at 3:00pm. Normally, churches in America meet on Sunday morning to reflect the fact that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday morning. The Bible commands churches to meet on the Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 16:2), but as for timing, it leaves open to the “circumstances” the church is in. A circumstance can change from church to church, but the substance of worship remains the same.
On the other hand, “forms” are different ways that church perform the elements. For example, the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer, but it does not have to be recited every time. Rather, the Lord’s Prayer can be used as a guide for every prayer in the worship service. The Lord’s Supper can look like passing a plate or having the believers walk to the elders to receive it. These differences are entirely up to what the congregation believes is best according to the Word of God.
Unlike the elements of worship, the circumstances and forms are not considered holy and unalterable. Be careful not to raise something in the category of a circumstance or form to the level of an element. An example of this error in modern America is the church building. The early church first met in people’s homes for worship. However, it did not take long for Christians to build their own buildings to gather for worship. During the medieval era, many Christians thought of the church building as sacred and the only place where true worship could happen. Even during modern times, some Christians believe a church is not established until a building is built. A building is useful, but it is not the identity of the church. Dr. Joel Beeke perfectly wrote, “Whenever man elevates something above its natural use and regards it as holy without God sanctifying it in his Word, whether it is a building, a garment, or something else, he has taken a step away from true worship into superstition and idolatry.” When the building is seen as essential to true worship, then it becomes idolatrous because it distracts us from God.
Conclusion
After understanding the relationship between God and man, the natural conclusion is that only God gets to decide how worship should be done. Christians have always been tempted to design worship without the Word of God. They sometimes justify it by saying no one will want to come to church unless it is entertaining. Such Christians have lost the meaning of true, God-honoring, worship.
At Shepherd Reformed Baptist Church, we are dedicated to conforming our worship to the Word of God in what it commands us and does not command us to do. I pray that as the church seeks to honor God with true worship, more Christians and non-Christians will see the face of God and come to know Him deeper during the formal gathering of the church.
This article is adapted from the booklet, Landon Jones, True Worship: Returning to a Biblical Understanding (Independently published, 2024). https://a.co/d/3S6j6HA
For a longer exposition of this passage, I recommend Sam Waldron, How Then Should We Worship, (Welwyn Garden City: Evangelical Press, 2022).
For a more detailed argument in favor of corporate singing, see Matt Merker, Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021).