If you were to ask ten people to define “worship,” you would probably receive ten different answers. Some might describe worship as a church service or express a preference for “contemporary worship” or “traditional worship.” Others might say it’s the musical part of a church service. Still, others might refer to a feeling or an attitude. Each of these descriptions portrays an element of worship, but none of them captures the richness of the biblical meaning.
Worship combines two words, “worth” and “ship.” It has to do with giving worth back to God by reverently bowing before Him. Some Hebrew and Greek words translated into English as “worship” are derivatives of the ancient practice of prostrating oneself to the ground as an outward sign of reverence. So, in the purest sense of the word, worship acknowledges who God is, gives Him the glory that He alone deserves, and honors Him. It stretches beyond our weekend services and encompasses our words, our actions—our very lives.
With so many opinions about worship and how to go about it, a logical question would be, Is there a wrong way to worship God? The short answer is “Yes.” Scripture gives several examples of worship that God considers unacceptable.
God Does Not Accept Ignorant Worship
God Does Not Accept Improper Worship
God Does Not Accept Idolatrous Worship
God Does Not Accept Inferior Worship
God Does Not Accept Ignorant Worship
In Acts 17, we find the apostle Paul presenting Christianity to a secular audience in Athens, Greece—a city renowned for its rich art, literature, philosophy, and politics. While Corinth was the leading commercial hub in Greece, Athens was the Western world’s foremost cultural and intellectual center. It was also wildly religious. Home to just ten thousand people, Athens boasted as many as thirty thousand religious statues. This proliferation of idols spurred Paul to give an impassioned speech distinguishing the merits of Christianity.
Paul began his speech with a compliment to the audience and an observation: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-23). After introducing Jesus as “the unknown God,” Paul explained how the Athenians could fix their worship problem: “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him” (Acts 17:30, NLT).
In the confusion of this culture, Paul cut through the nonsense and explained how the Athenians could know God. It may seem silly to worship an unknown God, but there are people today who will tell you that it is impossible to know Him. Some pray to “the Man upstairs” or describe their spirituality in vague terms of empowering thoughts and scented candles. All around the world, people fill sanctuaries, worshiping what they do not know. They take on the appearance of worship, but nothing happens in their hearts. Their worship is ignorant because it has nothing to do with Almighty God.
If we cannot know God, then the Bible is not true. In Jeremiah 9:24, God says this about Himself: “But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.” And Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
The people of Athens loved novelty, anything that sounded new and different. They were not unlike many churchgoers today. But this restlessness can allow false doctrine to creep into our churches. There is nothing new under the sun as far as sound doctrine is concerned.
God Does Not Accept Improper Worship
It is not difficult to find examples of improper worship in the Bible. In Genesis 4, Cain attempted to worship God in his own way by giving “an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord” (verse 3) instead of a blood sacrifice. The writer of Hebrews explains, “According to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). Cain’s actions reflected a heart that was not devoted to God. Even when the Lord spoke to Cain and invited him to make the right choice (Genesis 4:6-7), he rejected God’s authority and became angry.
In Leviticus 10:1, Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, “disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded” (NLT). The Lord responded by sending fire to consume them. We do not know the specifics of their fire, but these young men knowingly offered the wrong kind of fire before the Lord. Nadab and Abihu offer a stark reminder that those who enter the Lord’s presence must regard Him as holy (Leviticus 10:3).
There are also examples of improper worship in the New Testament, with Romans 1:18-32 being a key passage. Paul is addressing the believers in Rome about their culture. The people had taken God’s creative work, which He gave as a testimony to His greatness and might, and they had begun worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. God’s response is terrifying. Paul says the Lord “gave them up” (verse 24) because they rejected Him. According to Paul, the people rejected God in seven ways: They refused to glorify Him or thank Him; followed worldly wisdom, foolish desires, and lustful passions; worshiped created things instead of the one true God; and reversed God’s created order by pursuing unnatural desires (verses 21-27).
This list resembles today’s culture—even today’s Church—because we all worship something. Will we worship the one true God in spirit and truth? Or will we follow worldly wisdom and foolish desires?
God Does Not Accept Idolatrous Worship
Many people would say that an idol is something that is worshiped instead of God. In a sense, that is true, but there is more to it than that. An idol is anything that comes between us and our worship of the true God. This includes icons, statuettes, and items of jewelry. Even the Bible can become an idol if we allow it to become the object of our worship instead of a means to knowing its Author.
The story of the golden calf is one of the most familiar passages of Scripture, but there is a nuance to it that many miss. When we first read about the calf in Exodus 32, it appears that the Israelites fell into sin by worshiping the statue instead of God. But Moses’ speech in Deuteronomy 4 gives the impression that the Israelites wanted a golden calf as a means by which to worship God. They wanted to worship the Lord through something they could see, feel, and touch. It was idolatrous worship that God did not accept, and it caused thousands to die.
As God’s people, we do well to heed Moses’ warning: “Do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven” (Deuteronomy 4:16-19, NIV).
God wants us to worship Him with a pure heart. Let us be careful not to rob God of His glory by placing anything between ourselves and Him.
God Does Not Accept Inferior Worship
The events in the book of Malachi occur after Israel’s Babylonian captivity and their return to Jerusalem. We might expect to find the people humbled and repentant. Instead, we find them worshiping God half-heartedly. Every time God speaks to His people, they respond with cynicism. Their attitude resulted from a thousand small compromises that grew into full-blown disobedience.
The Law of Moses required sacrificial animals to be “without blemish,” but in Malachi’s day, the people offered animals that were blind, lame, and sick (Malachi 1:8). Some of them were even stolen! (Malachi 1:13) God responded with the strongest possible language: “cursed be the deceiver” (Malachi 1:14). By giving God less than their best, they deceived themselves. He does not blindly accept token offerings.
Today, we are to present ourselves as living sacrifices, “holy, acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1). The only reason we are capable of being holy and acceptable to God is that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27, NIV). Christ’s mercy is our motivation for worshiping God wholeheartedly. What God has already done for Christians is the basis of everything we do for Him.
Worship is presenting the best we have as our offering unto God. Take an honest assessment of your attitude toward God. How are you offering the Lord blemished sacrifices? Is there an unrepented sin in your life? Do you worship the Lord with a thankful heart, or have you become cynical? If you allow sin to take root in your heart, there is no room for authentic worship.
When the Lord dealt with people’s need for salvation, He never made it easy. He always made them face their sin first because, until a person faces their sin, they cannot know Christ as their Savior. But the good news is that no matter where your heart has been or where it is now, it is not too late to commit yourself to Him—body, mind, and soul.
