[45] What is Worship?

Definition: Worship of a God is...

1. Obeying the commandments of that God because you accept that he is your God.

13 And it must occur that if you will without fail obey my commandments that I am commanding you today so as to love Jehovah your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul... (Deuteronomy 11).

4 Which I commanded your forefathers in the day of my bringing them out of the land of Egypt, out of the furnace of iron, saying, 'Obey my voice, and you must do things according to all that I command you; and you will certainly become my people and I myself shall become your God (Jeremiah 11).

3 For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5)

2. Accepting that he has divine perfection in his activity, love, righteousness and wisdom.

3. Loving him with your whole heart soul mind and strength. This means loving him more than your brother, which means loving him more than yourself, since you love your brother as yourself.

37 He that has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me; and he that has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10)

26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple [this is a relative hate. A hate when compared to love for Jesus] (Luke 14).

27 The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world (James 1).
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4. Praying to him and/or entreating him. You cannot pray to yourself or entreat yourself. 

Gods can love themselves. They do obey their own commandments for they are not hypocrites. They cannot love themselves more than themselves of course. So you cannot worship yourself if you are a God. Neither can you pray to yourself of course.


Definition: Prayer is silent speech directly to God (or to Jesus) with one's own mind in the 2nd person. 

Definition: Blessing is speech spoken out loud, about God and Jesus, in the 3rd person.

Definition: Giving thanks is thanking God in a prayer or in a blessing.

Definition: Supplication is humbly entreating God in a prayer or in a  blessing.

The word 'Supplication' is from the Latin 'Supplicare' which means to beg on bended knee (hence 'supple'). The scriptures which show the above are recited in section [204].

When praying to God or Jesus, there are no circumstances under which we should say 'in the name of Jesus' as if you are binding one or other of them with the authority of the Son. 

Anyone asking for a blessing from God should ask him directly (not in the name of Jesus) to give the blessing through Lord Jesus, recognising that all blessings are given through him.

It is not the case that we need to approach God through Jesus in prayer. God has perfectly good ears. If the congregation can hear your audible blessing, then God can hear your inaudible prayer. God is the hearer of prayers to him.

Example Blessings from the bible:

7 to all those who are in Rome as God's beloved ones, called to be holy ones: May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 1)

20 For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. May the undeserved kindness of our Lord Jesus be with you (Romans 16)

3 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1)
2 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1)
3 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 1).
2 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1)
2 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 1)

1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the congregation of the Thessalonians in union with God the Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ: May you have undeserved kindness and peace (1 Thessalonians)

2 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God the Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians)

2 To Timothy, a genuine child in the faith: May there be undeserved kindness, mercy, peace from God [the] Father and Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Timothy 1)

2 to Timothy, a beloved child: May there be undeserved kindness, mercy, peace from God [the] Father and Christ Jesus our Lord (2 Timothy 1)

4 To Titus, a genuine child according to a faith shared in common: May there be undeserved kindness and peace from God [the] Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour (Titus 1).

3 May you people have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ (Philemon)

The Holy spirit has worded many of the blessings of Paul in a deliberately ambiguous way. 'God the father and Lord, Jesus Christ' is Jesus Christ to born agains (sanctified Christians, those baptised in holy spirit) because he is their eternal father and Lord and God. But to all others God is their father and the Lord Jesus Christ is their Lord.

Bowing down to someone, even to the ground, is not necessarily worshipping them...

12 After that Joseph brought them out away from his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth (Genesis 48).

But bowing down to someone who demands it as a form of worship is worship.

Do Gods Worship Each Other?

Jehovah is a God of Gods. So there are several Gods. But do Gods worship each other?

17 Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But go to My brothers and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God, and your God. (John 20 GLT)

Jesus is making the distinction between fatherhood and divinity. Worshipping is attending divinity school. Graduating is becoming a divinity at which point you leave the school. So Gods do not worship.

In fact the definition of a God is that he has worshippers and he does not himself worship. Jehovah is still God of Jesus for the scripture says he is a God of Gods...

17 For Jehovah your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the God great, mighty and fear-inspiring, who treats none with partiality nor accepts a bribe, (Deuteronomy 10 NWT)
17 For Jehovah your God, He [is] the God of gods, and the Lord of lords; the great, the mighty, the fearful God who does not lift up faces, nor take a bribe. (Deuteronomy 10 GLT)

But divinity become fatherhood once the son himself is a God like his father. Fatherhood and divinity merge when the son becomes divine..

 

How should we worship God?

As regards your questions about how to serve God here are some scriptures to bear in mind...

[1] Provide for your family

8 Certainly if anyone does not provide for those who are his own, and especially for those who are members of his household, he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith (1Timothy 5).

This would mean physically providing for your physical family, but also spiritually providing for members of your spiritual family (your tribe and the whole church). This is not just providing financially, it is providing emotionally as well, and providing direction etc.

[2] Provide for those who cannot provide for themselves

27 The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world (James 1).

So look after people who cannot look after themselves

[3] Keep Researching

7 Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7).

So keep on researching always. and always be prepared to find a mistake in your understanding or in LW understandings or in anyone else's. We are all imperfect people trying to understand the perfect words of a perfect God.

[4] Keep Preaching and Teaching

2 Preach the word, be at it urgently in favourable season, in troublesome season, reprove, reprimand, exhort, with all long-suffering and [art of] teaching (2Timothy4). 

So keep preaching and teaching, and correct brothers who are making mistakes and encourage brothers to keep trying etc.

[5] Obey the 12 commandments for Christians - see Intro30 and the law of the Church - see joining.