There is a strong tradition among us that reveals the purpose of our assembling together to be a time to worship God. The concept of assembling for worship translates “going to worship” with “going to church.” How odd it is for the church to “go to church” in order to worship God! It propagates the idea that worship is what you do when the church comes together. If we have “Sunday only” worship, we will have “Sunday only” Christians. There is no such thing, of course. Yet, we fight a loosing battle when we fail to set the biblical precedent of daily worship as a way of life and where exhortation, prayer, and fellowship is the norm of the day (Hebrews 13:15,16; Romans 12:1,2; Col. 3:17; Heb. 3:13).
While it is true that not everything we do is worship, everything the Christian does is directed to the glory of God and by the authority of Jesus Christ. Therefore, there is no mention in the Bible of anyone “going to church,” “going to worship,” or having a “worship service” for at least two obvious reasons. First, it implies the notion of a place to which one must go to worship. Second, the purpose of brethren gathering together was not primarily to worship God. Christians meet with other Christians to be equipped, encouraged, and strengthened. While they may have worshipped God together, teaching and upbuilding are primary in their gatherings. In other words, worship is not something that cannot be accomplished until brethren gather for that purpose. The results of thinking this way leads to a “worship service” that we offer to God. Examinations of the texts where the words for worship are found are remarkably few in connection with the meeting of Christians.
Two Greek words are translated “worship.” One word means to “prostrate oneself in homage, to revere or do obeisance.” Literally, it means to “kiss towards” (“proskuneo”) and is used by Jesus to describe the true worship that pleases God and knows no physical location, boundaries or time (John 4:20-24). This word is used of various forms of worship and cultic activity (Jn. 4:20; 12:20; Acts 7:43; 8:27; 24:11). When Jesus speaks of worshipping God in John 4, he’s contrasting the old worship with the new worship which will be offered to the Father in Spirit and in truth. When Paul speaks of going to Jerusalem to worship God, he says it in a context of going to the temple and as a Jew (Acts 24:11), not as a Christian.
The word is also used to describe the attitude of people toward Jesus as one of “adoration”. They adopt some form of reverence like prostrating themselves in his presence (Mt. 2:2). We observe this attitude after the resurrection, also (Mt. 28:9, 17; Lk. 24:52). The word is used frequently in Revelation to describe the attitude of various beings to God, the Lamb and Satan and his agents. Such an attitude is proper towards God, but not towards men or angels, and certainly not Satan. Only once is the term specifically applied to what went on in a meeting of Christians. 1 Corinthians 14:25 finds the outsider or unbeliever who is convicted by a word of prophecy falling down on his face and worshipping God and confessing that God is truly in the midst of his people. This is certainly not a worship service being described, here. Instead, it is a moment of conviction that moves the unbeliever to worship God. It is noteworthy that it is the ‘outsider’s’ word rather than Paul’s own description of what took place, and again it does not describe the action of the Christians but rather the reaction of the outsider.
The second concept of “worship” is reflected in the word latreia, which essentially refers to “service” or “work.” This word originally referred to the labor of slaves or hired servants. This word and its verbal form occur 15 times in the New Testament and is done towards God. It is used to describe the activities of the Jewish priests (Lk. 1:23; Heb. 8:2, 6; 9:21; 10:11), the worship of the Jews in general (Heb. 8:5; 9:9, 14; 10:2; 12:28; 13:10) and of angels (Heb. 1:6). The Old Testament ritual expressed service to God (Rom. 9:4; Heb. 9:1, 6), and was the chief reason for an assembly. Pilgrimages to the temple site were required to present offerings and sacrifices. They had Sabbaths, feast days, and cleansing ceremonies performed by the Levitical priests. It was scheduled, localized and ritualized. By contrast, dedication to God is the way in which Christians serve him (Rom. 12:1). Interestingly, Romans 12:1 link “worship” and “service” to our bodies being a “living sacrifice” (cf. Phil. 2:17). Together, these two words describe individual saints whose way of life is that service or work for God in an attitude of reverence and awe (2 Tim. 1:3; Heb. 3:3; 9:14; 12:28). We praise God and give Him glory by surrendering our wills to Him and being all that He wants us to be. Rather than placing our lives on the altar every day, we have come to identify worship with the five acts of our local gatherings at our appointed times. We have unwittingly done so by the undue emphasis of our assemblies as the time for worship, Bible study, and prayer. Once again, if we don’t endorse this (I’m confident that we do not), then the influence of our lives and our confession of faith must demonstrate a daily sacrifice of praise and spiritual vigor that is evident when associating with each other outside the “appointed times of worship.” No one is objecting to scheduling a time set aside for prayer. Nor are we mocking the practice of assembling with the saints and praising God in song and remembering Jesus in eating the supper. We are only saying that these words for “worship” are not directly linked to the purpose of their gatherings.
Instead, these are expressions of worship that describe a way of life consistently lived every day. The two passages where sacrificial language is applied to meetings are Hebrews 13:15f. and 1 Pet. 2:5 where Christians are to offer sacrifices. However, these consist in doing good to one another and in uttering “continual” praise to God. My friend, the Bible encourages the practice of praying to God, and praising Him in word and in deed. There can be no doubt but that saints shared this faith together each day rather than wait til Sunday services for brethren to say an opening and closing prayer. Such professing Christians who know nothing but dead formality from their “worship services” feel awkward and uncomfortable when brethren share the Word at a dinner table or cry to God a word of thanksgiving and praise after a safe but hard day’s work. That’s too far out, fanatical, and extreme for those who are accustomed to “going to worship” where they say their prayers in a time and place they call “church.”
The word latreia was also used of people that give aid to poor Christians (Rom. 15:27) or to preachers (Phil. 2:30), and in general to aid given by angels to men (Heb. 1:14) or by one Christian to another (Phil. 2:25). Secular rulers serve God by carrying out their duties (Rom. 13:6). In Romans 15:16, Paul thinks of himself as a servant of Christ with respect to the Gentiles, so that the converts he gains may be regarded as a kind of offering to God. Similarly, in Phil. 2:27 the service of the faith of the Philippians is seen as sacrificial service offered to God. In both cases the language of priestly service is being applied to what Christians do in teaching the gospel and in self-sacrifice.
The text where “latreia” is applied to what goes on in local gathering is Acts 13:2. It reads, “And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” (Acts 13:2-3). The brethren living at Antioch are said to have been “serving” the Lord and fasting when they heard the Spirit give the command that Barnabas and Paul were to be separated from the work there (1 year) for work elsewhere. The context suggests that the meeting took the form of prayer, although it may have included prophecy (cf. Acts 6:4).
Another word must be taken into consideration is the verb “sebomai” with its cognates “sebazomai” and “sebasma”. These words are used for respect and reverence that men show toward God (Mk. 7:7 par. Mt. 15:9) and toward a pagan goddess (Acts 19:27) or to describe the Gentiles’ worship of God (Acts 13:43, 50; 16:14; 17:4, 17; 18:7). The meaning is that such people took part in Jewish religious ritual, especially in the synagogues, and reverenced God. The word was also used by the Jews to describe Paul as persuading people to worship God in what they regarded as an illegal manner (Acts 18:13). What took place in the meetings was regarded as worshipping God. The related verb, sebazomai, is used once of worshipping the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25).
From this survey of the ‘worship’ language in the New Testament a firm conclusion emerges. First, while we do not worship God every minute of the day, the whole activity of Christians can be described as the service of God and that they are engaged throughout their lives in worshipping him. Second, the vocabulary of worship is not applied in any specific way to the frequent meetings of Christians.