relationship

Worship is Relational

Biblical worship requires relationships that have both vertical and horizontal dimensions.

Worship begins with God, and God invites a response from us. Without a vertical dimension to worship, worship doesn’t happen.

Remember God initiates relationship with us. Numerous examples abound. God came down to walk with Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3). The LORD initiated covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12 and 15). God gave Isaiah a vision of his holy splendor in heaven (Isaiah 6). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1).

Because God initiates relationship (and by extension worship), then our worship activities build upon the relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. In doctrinal terms, relational worship relies upon our union with Christ.

Because worship is vertical, proper worship depends upon a proper perspective of God and a proper relationship with God.

In his classic work The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer affirms:

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

What we think about God forms the foundation for our worship of God. Tozer continues:

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.

Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

Tozer underscores the necessity of making sure our view of God is true and accurate. In order for our perspective on God to be true, relational worship must be based upon Scripture. Scriptural Worship will be a subsequent post, but it is important that we grasp here that worship being relational depends upon a correct view of God.

In making sure the vertical dimension of worship is right, we should regularly seek God’s forgiveness. What keeps us from worshiping in a manner pleasing to God is our sinfulness.

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:5-10

Relational worship not only contains a vertical dimension, but also a horizontal dimension. Because congregational (gathered) worship is so vital for God’s people, we must also be aware that our relationships with others (horizontal dimension) affect our worship of God (vertical dimension).

Jesus addressed this very concept in his Sermon on the Mount.

22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 

Matthew 5:22-24

The context for Jesus addressing anger is worship, “offering your gift at the altar.” Jesus expects that his followers will seek reconciliation with one another before continuing the worship of God.

Paul echoes Christ’s sentiment as he closed his second letter to the Church at Corinth.

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

2 Corinthians 13:11

So, how do we practice and apply this worship value?

  • Before entering gathered worship, confess sins and ready your heart to focus on God. In recognizing the vertical dimension of worship, thank and praise God for initiating relationship with us. We must ever be grateful that God would invite us to worship. Our thanksgiving and praise directed upward to God should help us to see our sinfulness and lead us to confession and repentance.
  • Before entering gathered worship, seek peace and reconciliation with others. Unreconciled relationships present one of the most harmful realities to gathered worship. As much as depends on you, pursue peace with one another. Forgive others quickly. Make things right if there is something wrong. I realize that reconciliation is a two-way responsibility. And some do not want to be reconciled. But as much as depends upon you, seek reconciliation. This is the lesson Jesus teaches in Matthew 5. It is vital for our worship to be relational and meaningful.
  • When worshiping, realize that both vertical and horizontal dimensions are at work. We sing praises to and about God, but we also address one another (Ephesians 5:18-21). Our praise and testimony in song is to exalt God deservedly and to encourage and strengthen one another helpfully. One of my favorite expressions of this has been how encouraging congregational singing has been to me from our worshipers at Wilkesboro Baptist Church.

This week when you gather for worship, look up. Worship is from, about, and to God. Also, look around. Our gathered worship is to encourage our fellow believers.

Photo by Carolina Jacomin on Unsplash

Word of the Week: Immanence

Immanence is the “counterpart” to the transcendence of God. In last week’s post, we explored how God transcends his creation and transcends us. He is other.

The immanence of God means that God is connected to his creation. He is near us and relates to us.

Immanence: The idea that God is present in, close to and involved with creation. Unlike pantheism, which teaches that God and the world are one or that God is the “soul” (animating principle) of the world, Christian theology teaches that God is constantly involved with creation without actually becoming exhausted by creation or ceasing to be divine in any way.

Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms

Immanence is applied incorrectly in worldviews like pantheism, where God and nature are one. If you want a pop culture definition of pantheism, think of the force in Star Wars. In Star Wars mythology the force is a part of every living thing, binding and connecting nature and beings. This is a false view of immanence where God and nature are one because God is neither personal nor all-powerful.

Immanence from a biblical worldview does not mean that God is in creation as if it is an extension of himself. Immanence means that God can “come down” to his creation. While we will explore God as Creator in a future post, we should keep in mind here what we noted last week: God is other. He created all things. He transcends his creation. So we cannot say that God and nature (creation) are one. Rather, a biblical view of immanence says that God comes down to creation and interacts with his creatures.

Here are some biblical references to God’s immanence:

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

Genesis 11:5

In the New Testament, Paul addressed the Corinthian believers regarding idolatry. He quoted two Old Testament verses (Leviticus 26:12 and Isaiah 52:11) to reflect on God’s immanence with his people and the privilege of his people to worship him alone.

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
    then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

2 Corinthians 6:16-18

In a stunning sermon to the Athenian philosophers, Paul affirmed the transcendence and immanence of God as Creator and Redeemer.

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Acts 17:24-31

In this sermon Paul quoted secular writers Epimenedes of Crete and Aratus’ poem Phainomena (vs. 28). Paul’s use of secular sources indicates his understanding of the transcendence/immanence worldview tensions plaguing Greek religion and Greek philosophy. Greek religion offered immanent deities who could relate to humans. See for example Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey where the Greek gods played with and plagued human actors in the world. These deities were immanent, but not supreme or in any real sense transcendent. Greek philosophy had taken root in Athens by the time Paul arrived and had rejected the Greek religious system in part because of its failure to enmesh Greek deities with the real world.

What is powerful about Paul’s sermon in Athens is how he used the gospel to display the solution to the dilemma facing Greek philosophy and religion. Furthermore, Paul’s gospel here is a clear depiction of the transcendence/immanence beauty found in the gospel.

God does not only reveal himself as an out there, other, above us Deity. The God of the Bible does transcend us. He transcends us more than we might imagine. But he is also immanent with his creation. He came down to walk with Adam and Eve, to see the Tower of Babel, to call and befriend Abraham, to give the Law to Moses, and to speak to his prophets, among other examples. Ultimately, God came down in the person of his Son Jesus Christ to take on human flesh and “dwell among us” (John 1:14). This is God immanent in Jesus Christ.

At the final point in Paul’s sermon in Athens, Paul introduced Jesus Christ as the resurrected man appointed by God to judge the world. Jesus is God enfleshed. Jesus is God immanent. He is both the transcendent God of Creation (John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:15-20) and the immanent God who can know us and be known by us (1 John 1:1-3).

The God of the Bible is Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit). God’s immanence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is anther glorious aspect of God’s relationship with his creatures (Mt. 28:20; Ephesians 1:13-14).

There are an abundance of truths that flow out of the immanence of God. Here are just a few that should encourage our relationship with God today.

  • God’s immanence means that God is knowable. It does not stretch our minds to think that God knows us. We affirm consistently that God knows everything. But when we think that God knows us in all our flaws, concerns, worries, and dreams, then God’s knowing us becomes a testimony of love and compassion toward us. Even more amazing, God made us to know him. We can know the God who transcends through Jesus Christ who is immanent in his creation by the indwelling Holy Spirit who is with us always. That very thought should humble us and drive us to adoration and appreciation.
  • God’s immanence means that God is personal. God is not some impersonal force that connects and binds all things. God is Trinity. God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit who have existed in a perfect loving relationship from eternity past and through eternity future. The personal nature of their relationship means that we can enter into a personal relationship with the God of the universe. God made us in his image (the imago Dei) as persons that we may relate to the God who is personal.
  • The biblical affirmation of God’s transcendence and immanence make Christianity unique. One would be hard pressed to find another religious system or worldview where the ultimate reality is altogether supreme and powerful, yet knowable and relational. Christianity uniquely details the God who is ultimate, yet who enfleshed himself to know and be known by his creation. If you do not yet know this God, then have a read in the Gospel of John. John describes Jesus as both God and man, transcendent and immanent. If you know God through Jesus, then take time today to thank him for the privilege of the personal relationship you have. And don’t stop praying for those who have yet to meet Jesus. Believe me, Jesus wants to save them more than you want them saved.

Glory to God for the privilege of knowing him through Jesus Christ!