“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24 (ESV)
You will often hear people say regarding God, “it’s about relationship not religion.” I believe I understand what they are trying to say to some degree, but it is very important that we understand the meanings of words and flesh out the intentions of what we are saying so we can have full understanding.
True Christian discipleship is about both. The term religion simply means a system of beliefs that you adhere to and live by, and this is true about Christianity. The distinction is that we don’t earn salvation by doing these things, we do these things out of obedience to God because we love him and because he is worthy. There is also an indication that if we have no desire to obey God, we are probably not really Christians.
“Religion says: I obey therefore I am accepted. Gospel says: I am accepted therefore I obey.” -Timothy Keller
People try to use the Pharisees as the example of why religion is bad and relationship is good, but the Pharisees to a great degree were corrupt and used their position to keep people from relationship with God rather using their position to draw people to God. They were teaching salvation by works and through keeping the law. But this doesn’t mean we discard religion altogether. We reject false religion, hypocritical religion but not true religion as outlined by Scripture. Christ didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).
Christianity is about having a relationship with God, but God himself dictates the terms of that relationship. To understand how to have a right relationship with God we need to understand a set of beliefs which is the Christian religion.
The Bible tells us how we are to have a relationship with God, that God expects obedience from us, and that there is a prescribed way he wants to be worshiped. The Bible tells us who God is, what he expects from those that belong to him, and how he commands us to worship him.
The problem with the word “relationship” is that when we use it, we can be tempted to think about our relationship with God like he is like us, or that we are equals in this relationship, or that it is the same as relationships we have with others. This is not the case. God is holy, sovereign and worthy of all worship and praise. He is perfect and we are not, his love is perfect and ours is not, he is not like us so we shouldn’t view this relationship like any others we have.
We must fear and revere the Lord and honor him as God. This is why our relationship with God starts with worship, and this is why we must see our worship and how we relate to God through the gospel. We must see God as Holy, sovereign and perfect and see ourselves in light of God. We are sinful, wicked and undeserving of anything except for judgement and condemnation, and considering these two things we see God’s grace.
Christ came and died to save us, not based on anything we have done or ever will do, but simply because he loves us. This is the reservoir from which our worship and adoration for God must come.
In our relationship with God everything must begin with our worship of God. We must make sure our acts of worship are biblical. If we think that we can live any way we want and worship however we please, we are wrong. Worship isn’t just confined to what we do when we meet together for church, although that is an important part of it.
Worship is living our lives in honor of and in obedience to God. We worship God not just because of what he has done, although we do that as well, but primarily we worship God because of who he is. God is holy and God is worthy. He deserves all praise and adoration because he is God.
Often people focus their worship on how God has blessed them and the good things in their life. While it is important to be thankful and grateful for the blessings we receive in this life, it's important to remember that God is worthy of praise if he blesses us or if he doesn’t—when life is good and when life is hard. He is worthy either way.
This is also an important part of faith, because God’s goodness transcends our circumstances. This is what kept Job throughout his trials. He understood the sovereignty of God, but he also trusted in the goodness of God, not based on his circumstances but based on who God is.
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Job 13:15 (KJV)
Worship isn’t a gift we give God, it's something we owe him. Worship of God is based on knowing who God is; if you really know who God is, you will fear him, you will worship him and, because he is good, you will trust him.
Usually when people talk about worship, they are referring to corporate worship, but this is just a small part of it. In a very real way worship is about pouring our life out in honor of the one who poured his life out for us. We deny ourselves and our flesh and we live our lives unto God.
Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices. He says this is our true and proper worship. In other words, self-denial and living in obedience to God is just basic Christianity.
In Christ,
Pastor Joshua
Joshua West is a pastor, evangelist, and author. He is also director of the World Challenge Pastors Network.
