Intelligent Worship

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1,2

What Is Intelligent Worship?

In Romans 12:1 we read, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. . .” and then Paul says, “this is your spiritual act of worship,” or, in the Greek, logiken latreian humon–your logical understanding, your intelligent service.

What is intelligent worship of God? The Greek word for service, or worship, is latreia. We find it in the word idolatry, which means idol worship. Latreia means service, as does the word liturgy, but there is a difference between the words. Liturgy refers to the specialized ministry of priests, but the verb latreuo and its noun latreia have reference also to the service of God’s people. Latreia, therefore, means the service of people to their covenant God.

We must note right away that this logical service, this intelligent worship, is not referring to a Sunday worship service. That is worship in the narrow sense. It is essential that the church gather together to worship God and hear his word proclaimed, but latreia is not speaking about that kind of public worship. Latreiameans the dedication and consecration of our bodies to God as living sacrifices in every aspect of our lives.

Whole Life Service

This idea of whole life service is found throughout the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 10:12-13 we read, “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

The meaning of that particular passage is that we must serve God all the days of our lives. When we study the book of Leviticus, we notice God gives legislation for every aspect of life. For example, even married people cannot have sex whenever they want. There are certain times they cannot have it, according to Leviticus, because God said so. God must regulate every aspect of our lives, and there are no profane areas, Professor Herman Ridderbos says in his commentary on this passage. Having dedicated our bodies to him as living sacrifices, we must serve God in every aspect of our lives.

We read about this also in the New Testament. In the book of Hebrews we learn how God in Jesus Christ dealt with our sin and how, through the blood of Christ, our consciences have been cleansed. We learn how we can now approach the throne of God with confidence and worship him, which, in fact, is the reason for our redemption.

In Hebrews 9:14 we read, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death. . . .” The writer is describing our salvation. The blood of Christ cleanses us. And once our sin problem is dealt with, what are we to do? It says, “. . . so that we may serve the living God.” There we see the word latreuō, and, again, we must understand that it is not speaking about worship in the narrow sense but about worshiping God in the broad sense with all of our life.

In Hebrews 12:28 we read, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. . . .” When we are saved, our response to this great salvation is that we worship God as an expression of thanks in all of life with reverence and fear.

No Profane Areas

The point, then, is that worship does not just mean worship of the whole assembly at prescribed times. The moment you say Jesus Christ is Lord, you come under his sovereignty. Now, we know that Jesus is always sovereign over all creation, even if we don’t confess him as Lord. But when we confess Jesus as Lord, from that point on we become slaves of Christ to joyfully serve him in all of life. Before we served Satan; now we serve Jesus Christ.

This service, therefore, includes everything we do in every part of our lives on Sunday as well as Monday through Saturday. All of life is sacred, meaning holy and lived unto God. No part is profane or separate from the lordship of Christ. Have you ever desired that God would just go away, at least for a little while, and give you a little breathing room? I myself have had those thoughts. But we must realize that we are always in God’s presence. We can never leave his presence, and as Christians we are to serve him every moment of our lives.

Once we realize this, we also recognize that the rest of the book of Romans is telling us how to serve God in this way. It describes how we must love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and love our neighbors our neighbors as ourselves. When we do that, we are serving God acceptably.

Not only that, we must also remember that every believer is called to this service. What is one of the great Reformation doctrines? The priesthood of all believers. Every believer is a priest of the Lord, and thus every Christian is called to this whole life service.

Believers must be holy so that we may function as priests before God. Every believer is now able to enter into the presence of the Lord and worship him because Jesus Christ, our Chief Priest, gave himself as a sacrifice of atonement in our behalf. So when we offer ourselves as sacrifices to God, we must remember that our sacrifice is not propitiatory or substitutionary, but a sacrifice of thanksgiving such as we read about in the Old Testament. We are to sacrifice ourselves as Christ did, but ours is not a sacrifice of atonement. It is a lifelong sacrifice of thanksgiving consisting of deeds of obedience to God done by our bodies which have been dedicated to God once and for all.

God Wants Us

As priests we are to emulate Jesus, therefore, and sacrifice, not just some gifts outside of ourselves, but our very lives. This is not the same as just giving some money to God. Now, I know people can be very generous and will give generously to God, which is proper, but we can also sometimes give to God without loving him at all.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t support the work of the kingdom of God. But I am saying that we can usually part with gifts without any big problem. However, God is not primarily interested in the gifts we may give him. God wants us to give ourselves to him in total dedication and loving service.

In 2 Corinthians 8:1-7 we read about the Macedonians, who, though they were very poor, were eager to give to the Lord. They were like the poor widow who had only two mites. Do you remember that story? If she had gone home without giving and reasoned, “I am so very poor. I know God doesn’t expect me to give,” that would have been reasonable. Alternatively, she could have given just one mite and kept the other for herself. That would have been fifty percent of all her assets, which is certainly a generous gift. But what did the widow do? She gave both mites (Mark 12, Luke 21). In the same way, the Macedonians were very generous even though they were extremely poor. And in 2 Corinthians 8:5 we are told by Paul why they did so: “And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.”

God is interested in us, not our money. I have experienced this in my own life. When God called me to become a minister, I did not want to engage in that profession. Instead, I worked as a chemist overseeing a lab and spent my money for God’s work. Well, that is not what God wanted me to do. He wanted me, and finally I agreed to work for the Lord as a minister of the gospel.

Worship Through Our Bodies

God wants us! He wants to commune and fellowship with us, so Paul tells us that we must dedicate our whole life in this priestly service to God in terms of loving deeds.

In Romans 1:8-9 we see how Paul served God. In verse 8 he says, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.” And then in verse 9 Paul says, “God whom I serve with my whole heart. . .” Here we find this word latreuō again. How does Paul say he serves God? With his whole heart! Do you think Paul is speaking about just serving God in church on Sunday morning? No. He is speaking about wholehearted, whole-life service of this God who apprehended him in Jesus Christ.

In Philippians 1:20-21 Paul writes, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Paul is speaking about serving God in his body in every aspect of his life, even in death. In 1 Corinthians 6:13 we read that our bodies are not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord is for our bodies. We are to serve God with our bodies.

Lifelong Service to God

We read elsewhere about this lifelong service to God in our bodies as his priests. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 we read, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Think of that: You and I cannot eat or drink without first checking with God, and we must eat and drink according to his will and for his glory. There is no area that is outside of Christ’s lordship.

In Colossians 3:17 we read, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” And in 1 Peter 4:11 we read, “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” This is whole life worship.

Let us examine a passage from the Old Testament book of Amos. In Amos 5:21-23 God says, “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.” That is speaking about worship in the narrow sense. God continues, “Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.” And in verse 24 he concludes, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

You see, these people were coming to the temple and worshiping, sacrificing animals and singing to God, but the rest of the time these people were doing wicked things. This is not what God wants. Our public worship will only be as good as our private worship, meaning what we do with the rest of our time. We must practice righteousness. As we said before, God saved us that we may do good works all of our life. What is righteousness? Doing God’s will.

Imagine what it would be like if every family and every individual in a church were committed to practicing righteousness! “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” The idea is that when we do this, God will invite us, saying, “Come and worship. I will accept your worship, I will bless you and you shall be blessed!”

Isaiah tells us the same thing in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. In verse 5 God says, “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” And in verse 6 we read, “It not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter–when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” In verse 8 God promises, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear,” and in verse 9, “Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”

You see, brothers and sisters, if we are worshiping and serving God with our bodies in all the spheres and relationships of our lives, then when we come to worship, the fire will come and there will be great blessing. We will be refreshed, strengthened, nourished and vitalized as the Puritans were. Then we will be able to go back out into the world and serve God with greater vigilance and delight. This is what God is asking us to do.

Changed Life Worship

Finally, the idea that latreia is not service in the narrow sense but rather service in the broad sense is also revealed to us in Romans 14:6-8: “He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” What tremendous understanding Paul had! Latreia means to serve God with our bodies all of our lives. And what is the result when we live like this? We are filled with great confidence and we will be able to say with Paul, “Whether I live or die, I belong to the Lord.”

I hope that we will think about these things. A father came to me the other day to talk about his son. You see, I have a class on Saturdays for young people and I was telling them also that worship is all of life. This father came to me and said, “You know, Pastor, my son is changing. He is doing many things differently in a good way. When I asked him why, he said, ‘Pastor said worship is all of life.'” You see, it matters whether or not you make your bed and clean your room. Everything matters now. Why? Because all that we do in our bodies throughout our lifetimes is service we are rendering as priests to Christ in response to his great salvation.

Let me assure you, such service is not a pain in the neck. No, such service is a delight. Suppose you need to lose weight. You just begin eating for the glory of God. You see, we don’t have to spend huge amounts of money for that sort of thing. If we understand and fear God, we will do it right. What about the spending of money? We must do it unto the Lord. What about sexuality? We cannot engage in sexuality without reference to the Lord. Whatever we hear and whatever we read, whatever we take in or do, even when we are alone, matters. And so it gave me great joy when this father said to me, “You know, my son is understanding what you are saying, and I am seeing great changes in his life.”

Worship Is All of Life

God is calling us to dedicate our bodies to him so that everything we do may be done for the glory of God, Monday through Saturday as well as Sunday. And if we live in this way, when we do come together for public worship, imagine how wonderful it will be! People will be lost in worship because their praise and adoration will be coming from lives that are lived for the glory of God throughout the week. We will look forward to our times of worship. We may even lift our hands to the heavens as we sing, praise, and pray. We will want to testify, and our words will have power to convict hearts and glorify God. Our public worship will be powerful, delightful and refreshing.

May God, therefore, help us to worship him in all of life! Then the sweet savor of our worship will ascend to God’s very throne, and God will be pleased with us. Amen.