Whom Do We Worship?

So after nearly a month between the first and second installments, this next one is coming to me rather quickly. In the last blog I finished by asking if we are worshiping creation or the Creator. That question is a perfect segue into the question we are addressing this time around. Let's start out by looking at what Psalm 96:7-9 has to say:

"Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!" (ESV)

I would really actually encourage you to read all 13 verses of that Psalm before continuing on - it is an incredible song of worship. It was hard for me to pick that excerpt out without just putting the whole Psalm up. At any rate, the Psalmist is very clear on whom we should worship. We should worship the Lord. And if you notice the language in that Psalm, it is not a suggestion. We are told to worship the Lord. Take a look at Revelation 22:8-9:

"I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, 'You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.'" (ESV)

Again, no suggestion was made here. We are told to worship God. There are many more verses which command us to worship God (Exodus 34:14; Psalm 99:5,9; Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8; Hebrews 12:28; Revelation 14:7; and Revelation 19:10), and there are even more that command us not to worship any other gods. At this point it should be very clear that we are to worship God, and no other.

As usual, there is a complication. Our God is a triune God: three in person, one in essence. Which do we worship? God the Father? God the Son? God the Spirit? All three? This is an important question to think about. It is an important question to be able to answer. Let's take a look at what Jesus says in John 5:22-23:

"The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him." (ESV)

In saying this Jesus makes a very clear statement of deity (since judgment comes only from God). He is also clearly commanding us to worship Him (which by the way is yet another statement of deity). In fact, He says that if we do not worship Him, we do not worship God the Father either. This statement has clear implications for those who do not view Jesus as God. Jesus must be viewed as God, and worshiped as God, in order for our worship of the Father to mean anything. We are required to worship the Father and the Son.

I would further conclude that John 5:22-23 points to a "trinitarian" worship. That is, we must worship the trinity: God the father, God the Son and God the Spirit. The verse in point of fact says nothing of the Holy Spirit, but it is clear about the Father and the Son. We know that they are two of the three persons in the Trinity, so it at least commands us to Worship part of the Trinity. Moreover, when we are commanded to worship God I see no reason to conclude that this command leaves out one of the persons of God. They are three separate persons, yes, but they are one essence: one God. I would conclude that for the same basic reasons we must worship the Son in order to worship the Father, we must also worship the Spirit. To further this point, let's look at what Jesus says in Matthew 28:19:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (ESV)

Doing something in the name of someone else is designed to bring honor to the person the act was in the name of. Baptism is to be done in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - so baptism honors (or worships) all three persons of the Trinity. I see no reason to assume that Baptism is alone in worshiping the Trinity. Since the Trinity IS God, I believe that when we are told to worship God we are told to worship the Trinity.

All things considered, we are to worship God. We have a triune God, so we must worship all the members of the God-head. Not worshiping one of the members is not worshiping God at all, because we are making little of part of His essence. Anyone who rejects the Trinity cannot therefore worship God. This is a serious statement with very serious implications. Since getting into these implications would make a wild leap from the topic at hand, I will merely challenge the reader to think about what these implications are.

So we have defined worship. We know what it is and what it isn't. We also know that we all, without exception, worship on some level. We know that we do this because we were created to worship. We know fallen man worships creation rather than the Creator. We know that we are commanded to worship God, the Creator. While thinking about all of this, it becomes clear to me that a discussion on who should worship would only be a repetition. We know all mankind was created to worship and that we are told to worship God, so everyone is to worship God. This being the case, I will be skipping that question. I will be looking, in the next blog, at what it means, on an individual level, to worship God.