In this world of religious division, there is much confusion about how we are to worship God.  There are those who say that we must worship one way or another.  And there are those who say that it doesn’t matter how we worship.  Who is right?  Who is wrong?  Those are questions that I seek to answer.
    There is only one way to come to a correct conclusion about this subject; that is, we must see what the Bible has to say about the subject.  Jesus said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).  From this we understand that knowledge of the truth that makes us free comes from a study of the word of God.  Therefore, let us see what the Word has to say along the lines of “How Shall We Worship?”
    In the New Testament we find four types of worship.  We want to examine all four and see how God wants us to worship Him.
 
    VAIN WORSHIP:   In Matthew 15:9 Jesus said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”  What does it mean to worship in vain.  The word “vain” means, “of no use” as defined in the World Book Dictionary.  If that is the case, then the worship that was taking place in that day was “of no use.”  But we want to know “why” it was vain worship.  Jesus plainly tells us the answer; because they were teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  In this specific case, Jesus was asked the question, “Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread”  (v.2).  The religious leaders of that day had begun to teach that people must wash their hands before they ate.  There is nothing wrong with a person washing their hands before they eat; however, they had made it a religious ordinance that must be kept by all.  They were teaching this “commandment of men” as a doctrine of God.
     There are many people who are “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”  Paul warned the young preacher Timothy about some who would do this very thing.  He said, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, .... Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:1-3).  This is the very thing that Jesus said was “vain worship.”

    IGNORANT WORSHIP:   When Paul entered into the city of Athens, Greece, he noticed an altar with the inscription “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.”  Paul used this occasion to call the people’s attention to the real God of Heaven and Earth and told them that they had been worshipping Him “ignorantly”  (Acts 17:25).  By their inscription they had made it known that they did not know the God that Paul preached.
     We must understand that it is impossible to worship God “ignorantly” and please Him.  Our worship must be according to knowledge.  We read of the first brothers coming before Jehovah and worshipping Him.  The record tells us that Abel offered unto God a sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock.  But Cain brought of the fruit of the ground.  We are told that God had respect unto the offering of Abel but not to that of Cain.  We ask the question, Why?  We can find the answer in the pages of the New Testament.  It is written,  “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain”  (Hebrews 11:4).  We are also told that “faith cometh by hearing”  (Romans 10:17).  With these two passages in mind, we can understand that God had respect unto the offering of Abel because it was what God had told him to offer.  We must as well worship in the way God prescribes.

    WILL WORSHIP:   We find Paul mentioning that some were practicing “will worship” when they taught the doctrines and commandments of men rather than the doctrines  and  commandments of God (Colossians 2:22-23).  It can well be said that Cain practiced “will worship”  because he decided to do his “own thing” instead of what God had commanded him to do.  It can be said that Nadab and Abihu practiced “will worship” when then offered strange fire upon the altar which God “commanded them not”  (Leviticus 10:1-3).  Will worship is trying to worship God according to our own will.

    TRUE WORSHIP:    Jesus said, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him”  (John 4:23).   The next verse tells us that this is not an optional matter.  Jesus says that we “must worship him in spirit and in truth.”  In this we see that we must worship God, that we must worship God in spirit (e.g. rationally and sincerely), and we must worship God in truth.  To worship God in truth means that we do so according as His divine word directs.  Paul wrote, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus...”  (Colossians 3:17); that is, by His authority.

    CONCLUSION: There is a right way to worship God.  By His word he directs us in that way that is pleasing to him.  Any departure from that way is a departure from true worship, the worship which God approves.  All worship falls under one of these categories mentioned above.  Where is your worship described above?  Can you find what you do in worship in the New Testament?  I hand you the challenge of proving all things you do in worship by the New Covenant of Christ - The New Testament.