Among the things that grieve me as a believer is how seldom people question whether church practices are Biblical. For example, most churches refer to Sunday service as a “worship service” and teach that “worship means singing” hymns and choruses. Rarely have I seen the idea challenged; believers simply accept the modern worship model as handed down from our forefathers as Biblical and correct.

For the sake of examining “worship services” I’d like to lay a Biblical foundation for discussion.

• In the Old Testament, the temple was a stone building in Jerusalem. In the New Testament, the temple is us (1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19, 1 Pet. 2:5).
• In the old, the priests were the sons of Levi and Aaron. In the new, the priesthood is us (1 Pet. 2:5, :9, Rev. 1:6, 5:10, 20:6).
• In the old, the Spirit did not indwell the people, He abode in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. In the new, the Holy Spirit abides in us (Jo. 20:22, Ac. 2:4)

Thus from the old to the new, the temple, the priesthood, and dwelling place of God all changed. Accordingly, worship changed, too.

In the OT people lived by a number of external actions and rituals to avoid sin and to cleanse themselves of it: do not touch, do not eat, unleavened bread, ceremonial washings, doctrines of portions such as tithes, animal sacrifices, and so forth. Even their worship was an external expression; with instruments, singing, dancing, banners, bowing, clapping, etc. Since the Holy Spirit did not dwell in them, their worship was externally expressed because God was separated from them.

In the NT, believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and so the one we worship lives in us. For us worship is changed to an internal expression about which the Lord said God wants worshipers who will “worship in Spirit and in Truth” (Jo. 4:24). No longer is worship an external act, ceremony or “service”, but a never ending way to live, through dying to self, which demands our very all.

Since God was external to the people of the OT, the time and location of their worship was ordered by the Law of Moses. Deuteronomy 16:16 commands the Jews to make pilgrimages three times a year to Jerusalem for worship at the temple; the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks and the feast of tabernacles. Presumably, they worshiped while facing the “Holy of Holies” where the Spirit dwelt.

With the old covenant drawing to a close through the impending death and resurrection of Jesus and the advent of the new covenant, Jesus told the woman at the well “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father (John 4:21 ESV)”. Elsewhere, Jesus told his disciples “Wherever two or three are being gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20 ABP+)”. No longer does the location of our worship matter. Nor the time and date as Paul said in 1 Cor. 14:26 “Whenever you come together …”.

Yet despite all the changes from the old to the new, we continue to worship like it’s 600 BC.

What today is called a “worship service” takes an “ala carte” approach to scripture with practices lifted mostly from the OT. Accordingly “worship services” resemble old covenant temple worship moreso than the type of lively Spirit-led relational assembly described in Acts and the letters of the apostles.

And sermons, if one listens carefully, are more “church-centric” than Jesus-centric. Rarely is there a sermon about “Christ and Him Crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2) nor meat fit for mature believers, rather, milk is the steady diet of the contemporary pastor-dominated “worship service”.

If we’re going to be honest about what the Bible says, nowhere does Jesus or the Apostles command or describe a “worship service”, in the same way that the Law of Moses (OT) commanded the 3 feasts in such elaborate detail. Could not the same God who directed those old covenant (OT) services give new covenant (NT) Christians even a brief description of what a Sunday “worship service” ought to look like? Or are the words of Jesus sufficient: “whenever and wherever 2-3 are gather in my name … I’m there with you” and “worship in spirit and in truth”.

So are our scheduled and scripted Sunday “worship services” worshiping “in Spirit and in Truth”?

Consider the seating of a worship service, where people sit in rows facing the altar to worship, as if God were hovering somewhere above the altar, unseen. In Truth, God now dwells in us (1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19), yet we turn our faces away from each other where we see only the backs of each other’s heads. In so doing, we ignore the temples in which God dwells, the brethren, and instead fix our gaze upon the desolate temples built by men, that God abandoned 2000 years ago (Matthew 23:38, Acts 7:48, 17:24). So is it worshiping in Truth when we turn away from where God does dwell, in us, to where God does not dwell, in a man made temple?

That question bears repeating:

Is it worshiping in Truth when we turn away from where God does dwell, to where God does not dwell? If the answer is “no”, do we love Jesus enough to repent?

And what of our singing together when we assemble; is that worship?

Paul wrote in Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16 that we are to “Encourage (and) Admonish (and) Teach one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing to the Lord in (and) with your heart to God” (translations vary).

If as hirelings so often suggest, our singing together is worship for God, why did Paul write that it’s for us, for the purpose of encouragement and admonishment and teaching? Did Paul get it wrong? Clearly Paul makes a distinction between our external (audible) expression of singing as something we do for ourselves, while the internal expression of singing in the heart is for God. I believe the gist of what Paul is saying is that our singing aloud originates in the natural man for the natural man, while our singing in the heart originates in the Spirit for God. Lest that sound strange, there are several other passages where Paul speaks about the differences between natural man and the Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 2:14 Paul writes: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

In 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 he writes: For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

In Galatians 5:17 Paul says: What the flesh wants is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to the flesh. They are opposed to each other.

But don’t just take Paul’s word for the differences between natural man and the Spirit; Jesus said:

“The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38).

So why do churches put so much emphasis on the worship of our weak and ignorant flesh?

Have we forgotten that Jesus said:

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24 ESV)

Since natural man is spiritually ignorant (1 Cor. 2:14) and scripture says we must worship God in Spirit (John 4:24), how can natural man worship God? Perhaps that is why Paul wrote:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1 ESV)

In other words, the only acceptable Spiritual worship natural man can offer up to God is, to die to self.

Or like Jesus said, “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” (Luke 9:23 ESV)

While I am a life-long guitar player, singer and songwriter who greatly enjoys making music, I do not imagine my talent is for anything other than to encourage, teach and admonish myself and the brethren. When I perform, I dedicate my music to the Lord and ask Him to bless those who hear. But my performance is not worship; it is my heart that worships in communion and harmony with the Holy Spirit who dwells in this tabernacle that is my earthly body. Certainly there have been times when I play and sing that the joy I feel in my Spirit resonates through my body and can be seen and felt by those who listen. And that joy is multiplied through the common confession of a song sung with the brethren which helps to draw us into unity with one another and with the Savior.

I simply can not bring myself to acknowledge corporate singing as “worship”. Rather, I believe Paul said it right; singing together is for building one another up in unity.

As for un-Biblical worship services, if I had the power to change them, I’d return us to the form Paul advocated in 1 Corinthians 14:26-33 and :39-40

Paul wrote: (26) What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (27) If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. (28) But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. (29) Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. (30) If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. (31) For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, (32) and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. (33) For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

(39) So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. (40) But all things should be done decently and in order.