Matthew 23:16-22
Concern for the non-essentials. I pray God is tearing down our ideas about worship and replacing them with His. It is so easy for me to confuse empty religious acts for true worship. What is true worship? We are on a quest to discover it. For the time being, God is working to tear down in me what I have conjured up as pleasing to Him.
As much as the preacher in me would like to apply the above passage to certain things, I realize that would be offensive to many. There are things we hold dear, isn't there? There are things we can remember from our church days as kids that hold much meaning for us. But rather than me applying it, we'll let the Bible.
Matthew 23:23-24
Our "acts" of worship are good but are not real if not accompanied by a worshiping life--the vertical worship which is evidenced by our horizontal love (remember the last paragraph of Tuesday's devotional). There are religious "acts" that are good. Jesus praises the Pharisees for their tenacious tithing. But that's not enough. The act in and of itself is not worship. The act is considered worship when giving from a heart that is worshipful--which views all of life as an act worship. The act must be an overflow of one's relationship with God. The act is not something we do in order to manipulate God; it is a response to God. Oh, that our entire lives would merely be living responses to who God is!
Matthew 23:25-28
It's so easy for us to live our own lives during the week, clean up with our "Sunday best," and stroll into "worship" looking like true worshipers. In all that, somehow we think we're doing God a favor and that somehow He takes favor of us for doing such a thing. Jesus calls such "hypocrites." You know the definition. The greek word for hypocrite was used for an actor that wore a mask. Apparently, we can't wear masks and worship God; true confession AND repentance are required.
Theocentric worship--God centered worship. May God teach us how to be true worshipers, "for the Father is seeking such people to worship him" (John 4:23).
