“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such are the Father looking for to worship him” (John 4:23).
There are three key concepts that summarize our privileges and our responsibilities in relation to God: we are to love Him, obey Him, and worship Him. Each of these is a powerful concept – but we must be careful about their power. Given our tendency to focus on a few important things and to the exclusion of other equally important things, we need to be careful not to separate any of these from the others. It is only when we pay healthy attention to these three that they lead us to the relationship with God we want.
Love. Here is the crux of the matter, as Jesus defined it (Matthew 22:34-40). It would be difficult to overstate the importance of love as our motive in dealing with God and others. In almost astonishing language, the Apostle Paul wrote, “And if I give all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). This is the basic requirement of love.
Beck and call. As important as love is, all a person’s love for God will be in vain without obedience. John encouraged his fellow Christians, “My children, let us love, not in word or with the tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). And Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If our love is not manifested in obedience, it can hardly be called love. We must always follow our conscience and obey whatever will we know of at the present time.
worship. Love and obedience must come together in our worship of God. He is looking for those who will worship Him, as Jesus said, in “spirit” and “in truth” (John 4:23). We must offer our devotion to God wholeheartedly, with true love, and we must also honor Him with obedient actions that are in accordance with His truth. But when real love and real obedience come together in real worship, we get a taste of what real life will be like for a creature made in the image of God.
“To worship is to awaken the conscience by the holiness of God, to nourish the mind by the truth of God, to purify the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to submit the will to the purpose of God” (William Temple).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
