At the end of it all, I would conclude that, as Ryan said, the above question is not the right question to ask. Obedience to God’s commands and our inward love and heart attitude toward God are inextricably linked. Obedience that is simply outward is not pleasing to God. Worship (aka heartfelt love) of God is not pleasing to God if it does not lead to some form of obedience to His commands (Amos 5:21-24, Isa. 1:10-17). Obedience is worship AND worship is obedience.

The second half of our discussion then turned back to our definition (once again). Should we then just include obedience in our definition so it would read, “giving preeminence to someone/something through obedience, adoration, sacrifice, and reverence”?

This is where Webster’s Dictionary really helped us out. What does it actually mean to “define” something? According to Webster, define is defined as

to determine or identify the essential qualities or meaning of.

What does “essential” or “essence” mean?

The permanent as contrasted with the accidental element of being OR the individual, real, or ultimate nature of a thing especially as opposed to its existence.

So, when you try to define something, you need to, as much as possible, boil it down to its most basic, ultimate nature. In the second half of our definition of worship, we believe we have mistakenly included things that are not basic and ultimate. The idea of “giving preeminence” is basic and ultimate; how we do this (i.e. through obedience, adoration, sacrifice, reverence, or whatever) is what Webster would call “accidental” or in relation to worship’s “existence.” These things are how worship exists, how it is carried out, elements of worship, but are not necessary in every case for worship to occur.

So, at this point, we are again honing our definition to just say,

Worship is giving preeminence to someone/something.

If you have thoughts or suggestions about this, please let me know. This is all still in process!

The discussion this morning started with the question, “Is worship a subset of obedience or is obedience a subset of worship?” Jeff, Ryan, and I looked for verses in support of either side of the equation. One one side, there are numerous verses where God commands us to worship him (see Neh. 12:45, Deut. 6:13, Matt. 4:10), implying that worship is a subset of obedience. However, Scripture also indicates that we are created to worship (Isa. 43:7), that worship is not simply an outward act (John 4:24), and that obedience to God’s laws must also be accompanied with the appropriate heart attitude (Isa. 29:13, Matt. 15:7-9), all of which carry some implication that worship may be necessary for obedience to happen.

At the end of it all, I would conclude that, as Ryan said, the above question is not the right question to ask. Obedience to God’s commands and our inward love and heart attitude toward God are inextricably linked. Obedience that is simply outward is not pleasing to God. Worship (aka heartfelt love) of God is not pleasing to God if it does not lead to some form of obedience to His commands (Amos 5:21-24, Isa. 1:10-17). Obedience is worship AND worship is obedience.

The second half of our discussion then turned back to our definition (once again). Should we then just include obedience in our definition so it would read, “giving preeminence to someone/something through obedience, adoration, sacrifice, and reverence”?

This is where Webster’s Dictionary really helped us out. What does it actually mean to “define” something? According to Webster, define is defined as “to determine or identify the essential qualities or meaning of.” What does “essential” or “essence” mean? “The permanent as contrasted with the accidental element of being” or “the individual, real, or ultimate nature of a thing especially as opposed to its existence.”

So, when you try to define something, you need to, as much as possible, boil it down to its most basic, ultimate nature. In the second half of our definition of worship, we believe we have mistakenly included things that are not basic and ultimate. The idea of “giving preeminence” is basic and ultimate; how we do this (i.e. through obedience, adoration, sacrifice, reverence, or whatever) is what Webster would call “accidental” or in relation to worship’s “existence.” These things are how worship exists, how it is carried out, elements of worship, but are not necessary in every case for worship to occur.

So, at this point, we are again honing our definition to just say, “Worship is giving preeminence to someone/something.”

If you have thoughts or suggestions about this, please let me know. This is all still in process!

My plan was to write a blog post every week summarizing our discussion, but this will finally be the first post. It’s ok, though, because we have only discussed up through Matthew 4 to this point. Not because there is so much in the first 4 chapters about worship, but because we’ve really been wrestling a lot with the definition of worship that we would like to use.

Our overarching definition of worship is “giving preeminence to someone/something through adoration, sacrifice, and reverence.” This has been a labor to come up with, but we feel it really encompasses all (or at least most) of the elements we have debated including (e.g. response, glory, obedience, etc.).

We’ve also broken the definition out into a number of sub-categories:

• False Worship: giving preeminence to someone/something over/above its inherent worth or value
• True Worship: giving preeminence to the God of the Bible.

True worship also has 2 sub-categories:

• Corporate Worship: two or more people gathered in the same place/time with a united purpose of giving preeminence to the God of the Bible.
• Individual Worship: an individual giving preeminence to God.

We’ve set these definitions in place because we want to know exactly what worship is and isn’t as we read through the NT with the intent of gleaning principles by which to live and lead worship. Of course, the definitions are up for change as the Scriptures dictate, but we needed to start somewhere.

What do you think of the definitions? Too simple? Too complex? Let me know your thoughts.