Thank you so much for this David. I came from the "stodgy" "rote" Church as a Catholic to now being in a Charismatic Church. What a difference! I love my new church and the pastor but I still feel uncomfortable about being demonstrative in worship. I am happy just to bow my head and give Him thanks and praise silently, but I still thoroughly enjoy hearing others around me praise Him vocally. As long as we are all praising the same God and the Holy Spirit is in the house, it matters not to me.
As for my favorite name for God, I would have to say "The Great I Am". It is so powerful and so unique.
"I just love God and I get a warm fuzzy feeling and that’s worship": For quite a few churches, that's probably what it means.
"the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity": That would be from an English language dictionary, reflecting the common interpretation. It's OK for how we use the English word. But what is the Bible saying through the various original-language words translated "worship"?
What I learned from my "growing up" church (which was a mess but often got things right anyway), biblically it refers mainly to bowing, and specifically prostrating oneself. Also serving. OK. Well, what does my expository Hebrew and Greek dictionary (Mounce) say? Quite a bit. What follows is just the bare definitions, not the expository part.
Old Testament
Verb: הָוָה (hāwâ), GK H2556 (S H2331), 173x. hāwâ essentially means “to bow down...”
Verb: יָרֵא (yārēʾ), GK H3707 (S H3372), 317x. yārēʾ denotes both a sense of terror and a sense of awe and worship. It is commonly translated “fear, revere, worship...”
Verb: עָבַד (ʿābad), GK H6268 (S H5647), 290x. ʿābad means “to serve” and is used in both secular and religious contexts...
New Testament
Verb: λατρεύω (latreuō), GK G3302 (S G3000), 21x. latreuō refers to service or worship that is always religious in nature...
Verb: προσκυνέω (proskyneō), GK G4686 (S G4352), 60x. proskyneō means “to fall down and/or worship” someone or something...
Verb: σέβω (sebō), GK G4936 (S G4576), 10x. sebō means “to worship...”
So the word translated "worship" the least, but equivalent to "to worship" in English, σέβω, is used the least -- 10 times. I think my "growing up" church may have been on to something there.
Finally, λατρεύω, listed above and found 21 times in the NT, also overlaps with the English "worship". These, my dictionary didn't have much else to say about but I will list them out. Here they are:
Matt. 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it stands written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.’”
Luke 1:74 that we, being rescued from the hand of enemies, might serve him without fear,
Luke 2:37 and then she was a widow until she was eighty-four years old. She did not leave the temple, worshipping night and day with fasting and prayer.
Luke 4:8 But Jesus answered, saying to him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Acts 7:7 But, ‘Whatever nation they serve as slaves, I will punish,’ said God, ‘and after this they will come out and they will worship me in this place.’
Acts 7:42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? No;
Acts 24:14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, thus I worship the God of our fathers, believing all things that are according to the Law and written in the Prophets,
Acts 26:7 to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, worshipping strenuously night and day. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am being accused by Jews!
Acts 27:23 For there stood by me this night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve,
Rom. 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you
Rom. 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for all time. Amen.
Phil. 3:3 For we are the true circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh —
2Tim. 1:3 I continually thank God, whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clean conscience, as unceasingly I remember you in my prayers night and day,
Heb. 8:5 The place where they serve is a shadowy suggestion of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for he said, “See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Heb. 9:9 This is an illustration pointing to the present time, during which the gifts and sacrifices being offered cannot perfect the worshiper so far as his conscience is concerned,
Heb. 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!
Heb. 10:2 For otherwise would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would have no consciousness of sins?
Heb. 12:28 Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and in this way worship God in an acceptable manner, with reverence and awe,
Heb. 13:10 We have an altar from which those who serve in the tabernacle do not have the right to eat.
Rev. 7:15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will be a shelter over them.
Rev. 22:3 No longer will anything be under a curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.
Our whole life is a worship to our father in Heaven.
Beautiful. Thank you. Especially loved the prayer
"There is one objective truth. One absolute reality. And that’s the one that God lives in and the one where his will is done." Amen.
"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4:24).
Thank you so much for this David. I came from the "stodgy" "rote" Church as a Catholic to now being in a Charismatic Church. What a difference! I love my new church and the pastor but I still feel uncomfortable about being demonstrative in worship. I am happy just to bow my head and give Him thanks and praise silently, but I still thoroughly enjoy hearing others around me praise Him vocally. As long as we are all praising the same God and the Holy Spirit is in the house, it matters not to me.
As for my favorite name for God, I would have to say "The Great I Am". It is so powerful and so unique.
"I just love God and I get a warm fuzzy feeling and that’s worship": For quite a few churches, that's probably what it means.
"the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity": That would be from an English language dictionary, reflecting the common interpretation. It's OK for how we use the English word. But what is the Bible saying through the various original-language words translated "worship"?
What I learned from my "growing up" church (which was a mess but often got things right anyway), biblically it refers mainly to bowing, and specifically prostrating oneself. Also serving. OK. Well, what does my expository Hebrew and Greek dictionary (Mounce) say? Quite a bit. What follows is just the bare definitions, not the expository part.
Old Testament
Verb: הָוָה (hāwâ), GK H2556 (S H2331), 173x. hāwâ essentially means “to bow down...”
Verb: יָרֵא (yārēʾ), GK H3707 (S H3372), 317x. yārēʾ denotes both a sense of terror and a sense of awe and worship. It is commonly translated “fear, revere, worship...”
Verb: עָבַד (ʿābad), GK H6268 (S H5647), 290x. ʿābad means “to serve” and is used in both secular and religious contexts...
New Testament
Verb: λατρεύω (latreuō), GK G3302 (S G3000), 21x. latreuō refers to service or worship that is always religious in nature...
Verb: προσκυνέω (proskyneō), GK G4686 (S G4352), 60x. proskyneō means “to fall down and/or worship” someone or something...
Verb: σέβω (sebō), GK G4936 (S G4576), 10x. sebō means “to worship...”
So the word translated "worship" the least, but equivalent to "to worship" in English, σέβω, is used the least -- 10 times. I think my "growing up" church may have been on to something there.
Finally, λατρεύω, listed above and found 21 times in the NT, also overlaps with the English "worship". These, my dictionary didn't have much else to say about but I will list them out. Here they are:
Matt. 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it stands written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.’”
Luke 1:74 that we, being rescued from the hand of enemies, might serve him without fear,
Luke 2:37 and then she was a widow until she was eighty-four years old. She did not leave the temple, worshipping night and day with fasting and prayer.
Luke 4:8 But Jesus answered, saying to him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Acts 7:7 But, ‘Whatever nation they serve as slaves, I will punish,’ said God, ‘and after this they will come out and they will worship me in this place.’
Acts 7:42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? No;
Acts 24:14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, thus I worship the God of our fathers, believing all things that are according to the Law and written in the Prophets,
Acts 26:7 to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, worshipping strenuously night and day. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am being accused by Jews!
Acts 27:23 For there stood by me this night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve,
Rom. 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you
Rom. 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for all time. Amen.
Phil. 3:3 For we are the true circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh —
2Tim. 1:3 I continually thank God, whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clean conscience, as unceasingly I remember you in my prayers night and day,
Heb. 8:5 The place where they serve is a shadowy suggestion of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for he said, “See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Heb. 9:9 This is an illustration pointing to the present time, during which the gifts and sacrifices being offered cannot perfect the worshiper so far as his conscience is concerned,
Heb. 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!
Heb. 10:2 For otherwise would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would have no consciousness of sins?
Heb. 12:28 Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and in this way worship God in an acceptable manner, with reverence and awe,
Heb. 13:10 We have an altar from which those who serve in the tabernacle do not have the right to eat.
Rev. 7:15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will be a shelter over them.
Rev. 22:3 No longer will anything be under a curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.