The Relationship Between Worship and Obedience

by Vance E. Trefethen

Have you ever heard someone say that worship and obedience are essentially the same thing or that every act of obedience is an act of worship? I’ve heard these concepts expressed privately by Christians and even taught publicly. A few months ago, I decided to study worship for myself to see if I could find out what the Bible says about the relationship between worship and obedience.
If worship and obedience are the same thing, it ought to follow that we could go to the Scriptures and substitute the words for each other without harming the meaning of the test. If, for example, a passage talks about obeying, and every act of obedience is worship, then we ought to be able to put the word worship into the text instead of obey and still have the passage mean the same thing. I tried that in several passages, with interesting results:

• Ephesians 6:1 "Children worship your parents in the Lord for this is right."
• Colossians 3:22 "Servants worship in all things your masters."
• John 4:21 "Ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem obey the Father."

If every act of obedience is really worship, then we’re all guilty of idolatry for having obeyed our parents, and Paul was commanding idolatry for servants as they obeyed their masters. Obviously, it has to be possible to obey without worshipping in these situations, which seems to cast doubt on the idea that obedience is always worship.

The distinction between worship and obedience is also clearly shown in Matthew 2:11, where the wise men came to see Jesus when he was a baby. "And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary his mother; and they fell down and worshipped him." What possible commands could the infant Jesus have given the wise men to obey? How is it that they were able to worship him without obeying any specific command?

Although worship and obedience are separate concepts, they are described in the scriptures as having a very close relationship. I believe there are three ways worship and obedience are related:

1. Worship is one of many possible acts of obedience. In Matthew 4:10 and John 4:23-24, God commands men to worship Him. This has been true since the beginning (recall the sacrifices of Cain and Abel) because God has always wanted men to recognize him and give credit to him for who he is and what he has done.

   But worship is only one of many acts of obedience that God has commanded. In addition to worship, God also commands men to be honest, not commit adultery, not steal, love their neighbor, and lots of other commandments. Every time I worship, I obey God’s commandment to worship, just as I obey him every time I resist a temptation to lie or steal.

2. An obedient life must accompany worship. In Isaiah 58:1-7, the prophet explains to the people of God why their fasting and prayers are not acceptable to God as worship. In verses 3 and 4, he says, "Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your labors. Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high." They thought they could worship acceptably even as they were breaking many of God’s other commandments concerning their daily lives. They found out otherwise.

   A similar thing happened with Saul when he went to war against the Amalekites in I Samuel 15. Samuel had told him that God wanted nothing brought back as spoil, and no Amalekites should be spared- everything was to be destroyed. When Saul returns with a flock of captured cattle and the Amalekite king, Samuel confronts him with his disobedience. Saul’s excuse was that he would use the cattle to offer many sacrifices as worship to God. Saul thought he could substitute worship for the obedience that God had commanded. "And Samuel said, Hath Jehovah as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (I Samuel 15:22). Worship is not a substitute for obedience, nor is it acceptable if a person is not keeping God’s commandments in his everyday life.

3. The manner of worship must conform to God’s commands concerning worship. Not only does God command worship, but he has also revealed how he wants to be worshipped. Many men have tried to devise methods and acts of worship that they felt would be appropriate. Some years ago, there was a religious commune in the northwestern part of the U.S. that claimed smoking marijuana was an act of worship, and they used it to "get in touch" with God. They got in trouble with the law but claimed they had a First Amendment right (freedom of religion) to continue "worshipping" in that manner.

   In the Bible, there are several cases of men attempting to worship God differently from the way He commanded. Some have changed the particular act that they were told to perform. Cain substituted some vegetables for the offering he was supposed to give (Genesis 4). Nadab and Abihu offered "strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them" (Leviticus 10:1). God condemned these men for failing to worship properly.

   We also find people who did not worship with the proper spirit or frame of mind. In Malachi 1:13, the people said, "Behold, what a weariness it is!" as they went through the motions and paid lip service to God. That attitude motivated them to violate some of the other commands concerning worship God gave in the Law of Moses (offering sick animals, etc.). Jesus tells us that those who worship the Father "must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23).

The Scriptures clearly show that worship and obedience go hand in hand but are not always the same. We need to do all we can to ensure that our worship is acceptable before God so that we can make the most of our relationship with Him and find ourselves pleasing to him when we stand before him in judgment.