“To be human is to worship.”[1] This statement is supported in the Scriptures; it is declared in our creeds and is evident throughout history. Worship, in fact, has been the primary purpose of all humanity as made clear from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation.[2] Above all, we worship God because God created us to worship Him. Worship is at the center of our existence and at the heart of our reason for being. “God created us to be His image—an image that would reflect His glory.”[3]
Why we worship is fundamental and while there is more than one correct biblical answer, at the top of the list is “for His own glory” (1 Cor. 10:31; Ps. 29:1–2). “The glory of God is more important than anything else in all creation.”[4] According to Scripture, Christians exist to worship God and “declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Tozer adds that we are to “reflect back the glory of Him who shined down on us, even God, even Christ, even the Holy Ghost. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end.”[5]
While worship is ultimately about God, it is also about the edification of the Church. God also receives glory as we serve others throughout the body of Christ with our spiritual gifts. As we gather in corporate worship and exercise our gifts, God is present, building us up as individuals and local churches.[6] Overall, God is worthy of all praise and service because He is the Creator, the God of history, and Judge of all and deserves all glory.[7]
In addition to worshipping for His glory, we worship because God has commanded it, as seen in the Ten Commandments.[8] The single statement that precedes the ten commandments serves two purposes. It first identifies God by name and by his relationship to Israel. “I am YHWH your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exod. 20:2; Deut. 5:6). This statement reinforces the idea that covenants are based on personal relationships, and it summarizes the history of the relationship between God and Israel. It also sets the stage for the stipulations that follow.[9]
Exodus 20:3-6 states, “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Here we see that God has the right to his people’s exclusive allegiance. He also has the right to proper representation and loyal service, as seen in Exodus 20: 7. “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.”
Finally, Exodus 20:10-11 tells us that God has the right to our time and our trust. “The seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” As understood throughout the commandments, the Israelites, and all Christians alike, are to be covenantally committed to God, as well as others.[10] Jesus later restated these two commands, as recorded in Matthew 22:36-39. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
That God desires our worship is made abundantly clear in Scripture. We worship because the failure to worship is the essence of sin. Scripture includes many exhortations to worship God, and not to do so is a failure to ourselves and to our God. [11] As A.W. Tozer so eloquently stated, “We are a holy people, a royal priesthood, a holy generation called out of darkness to show forth the glory of the One who called us out. We should take whatever steps are needed to fulfill our high design as a New Testament church. To do less than this is to fail utterly, to fail God, and to fail our Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed us. It is to fail ourselves, and it is to fail our children. It is to fail the Holy Ghost who is come from the heart of Jesus to do in us a work. This work is to be done to make us a holy people, a sanctified people that are mirrors of the Almighty to reflect the glory of the most high God.”[12]
We are born to worship, and “if we are not worshiping God in the beauty of His holiness, we have missed the reason for being born. If you know that your heart is cold, then it is not yet a hard heart; God has not rejected it. Therefore, if there is a yearning within, God put that yearning there. He did not put it there to mock you; He put it there that you might rise to it. God puts the bait of yearning in your heart. He does not turn His back on you; He puts it there because He is there to meet you. Decide now that you are going to get ahead of a spiritually cold way of living.”[13]
[1] Block, For the Glory of God, Ch. 1. [2] R. Michael Allen, Reformed Theology (New York, NY: T&T Clark International, 2010), 116, Logos Edition. [3] Hughes Oliphant Old, Worship: Reformed According to Scripture (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 11, Logos Edition. [4] Duncan, Does God Care How We Worship, 72. [5] Tozer, The Purpose of Man, 167. [6] Bob Kaufin, True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishers, 2015), 27 [7] David Peterson, Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 283, Kindle Edition. [8] Old, Worship: Reformed According to Scripture, 15. [9] Block, For the Glory of God, Ch. 4.
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