Topical Bible: Worshiping

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Definition and Significance
Worshiping in the Christian context refers to the act of showing reverence and adoration for God. It is a central aspect of Christian life and practice, encompassing both individual and corporate expressions of faith. Worship is not limited to specific acts or rituals but is a lifestyle of devotion and obedience to God.

Biblical Foundations
The Bible presents worship as an essential response to God's nature and works. In the Old Testament, worship is often associated with sacrifices, offerings, and the observance of religious festivals. The Israelites were commanded to worship God alone, as seen in the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3).

In the New Testament, worship takes on a more spiritual dimension. Jesus emphasizes worship in spirit and truth, as He explains to the Samaritan woman at the well: "But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him" (John 4:23).

Forms of Worship
Worship can be expressed in various forms, including prayer, singing, reading Scripture, and participating in the sacraments. The Psalms are a rich resource for understanding worship through song and prayer, as they frequently call believers to praise and glorify God: "Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout to the Rock of our salvation!" (Psalm 95:1).

Corporate worship, typically conducted in a church setting, is a vital aspect of Christian community life. The early church devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42), demonstrating the communal nature of worship.

Attitude in Worship
The Bible stresses the importance of the worshiper's heart and attitude. Worship should be sincere and not merely an outward show. Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for their hypocritical worship, quoting Isaiah: "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me" (Matthew 15:8).

True worship involves humility, reverence, and a recognition of God's holiness. The prophet Micah summarizes the attitude God desires: "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

Worship and Obedience
Worship is closely linked to obedience. The apostle Paul urges believers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, as a spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1). This indicates that worship is not confined to specific acts but is a comprehensive offering of one's life to God.

Idolatry and False Worship
The Bible warns against idolatry and false worship, which divert devotion from the true God. The Israelites frequently fell into idolatry, prompting God's judgment and calls for repentance. The apostle John cautions believers: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).

Eschatological Worship
The book of Revelation provides a glimpse of heavenly worship, where all creation joins in adoration of God and the Lamb. The vision of the throne room in Revelation 4 and 5 depicts a scene of continuous worship, highlighting the eternal nature of worship in God's presence: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!" (Revelation 5:12).

Worshiping, therefore, is a profound and multifaceted expression of faith, rooted in Scripture and essential to the believer's relationship with God.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Worship.

Greek

4352. proskuneo -- to do reverence to
... down before (2), bowing before (1), bowing down (1), prostrated himself before
(1), worship (32), worshiped (17), worshipers (1), worshiping (1), worships (1). ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/4352.htm - 10k

Strong's Hebrew

7812. shachah -- to bow down
... 1), lie down (1), paid homage (3), prostrate (2), prostrated (13), prostrating
(1), weighs it down (1), worship (47), worshiped (31), worshiping (3), worships ...
/hebrew/7812.htm - 6k

Library

Colossians ii. 16-19
... Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the Angels,
dwelling in the things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his ...
/.../homily vii colossians ii 16-19.htm

"Now all this is the Same Total Ignorance of God...
... idolatry in it; and has changed nothing in idolatry, but the idol; and only differs
in such a degree of philosophy, as the religion of worshiping the sun ...
/.../law/the way to divine knowledge/way-2-131 now all this is.htm

Whether There Can be Anything Pernicious in the Worship of the ...
... to be most pleasing to God, whether in the Roman territory, or in the land of the
Gauls, or in any part of the Church." Therefore no way of worshiping God is ...
/.../aquinas/summa theologica/whether there can be anything.htm

On the Organization of the Monks: Its Origin and Founders.
... Having possessed the power of the Divine mind, they always look away to the Creator
of the whole, night and day worshiping him, and appeasing him by prayers ...
/.../the ecclesiastical history of sozomenus/chapter xii on the organization of.htm

Evans -- the Fall and Recovery of Man
... pit against the almighty maker and benefactor; robbing God of the obedience due
to His command and the glory due to His name; worshiping the creature instead ...
/.../kleiser/the worlds great sermons volume 3/evans the fall and.htm

Ephesians v. 5, 6
... Mammon. If we say, Who is this Mammon? It is covetousness, and this thou
art worshiping. "I worship it not," thou wilt say. Why not? ...
/.../homily xviii ephesians v 5.htm

Christianity Misunderstood by Men of Science.
... His religion consists in propitiating his deity and in worshiping his gods, whom
he imagines as persons living only for their personal aims. ...
/.../the kingdom of god is within you/chapter iv christianity misunderstood by.htm

Acts X
... him. This would secure to him the pardon of his sins, which he had not
and could not secure by worshiping according to the law. ...
/.../christianbookshelf.org/mcgarvey/a commentary on acts of the apostles/acts x.htm

The Fiery Furnace
... If only they would signify their willingness to unite with the multitude in worshiping
the image, all would be well with them; "but if ye worship not," he added ...
/.../white/the story of prophets and kings/chapter 41 the fiery furnace.htm

Circular Letter to the Clergy of the Arch-Deaconry of Suffolk.
... toleration to protestant dissenters, such as are commonly known by the names of
presbyterians, independents, anabaptists, and quakers, of worshiping God their ...
/.../prideaux/directions to church-wardens/circular letter to the clergy.htm

Thesaurus

Worshiping (24 Occurrences)
... Noah Webster's Dictionary (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Worship. Multi-Version
Concordance Worshiping (24 Occurrences). Matthew 20:20 Then ...
/w/worshiping.htm - 14k

Worshipeth (5 Occurrences)

/w/worshipeth.htm - 8k

Zebedee's (2 Occurrences)
... Zebedee's (2 Occurrences). Matthew 20:20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's
children, with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. ...
/z/zebedee's.htm - 6k

Whoredom (58 Occurrences)
... 1. (n.) The practice of unlawful intercourse with the other sex; fornication;
lewdness. 2. (n.) The sin of worshiping idols; idolatry. Int. ...
/w/whoredom.htm - 24k

Meeting (323 Occurrences)
... 5. (n.) An assembly for worship; as, to attend meeting on Sunday; -- in England,
applied distinctively and disparagingly to the worshiping assemblies of ...
/m/meeting.htm - 39k

Church (110 Occurrences)
... worship. 2. (n.) A Jewish or heathen temple. 3. (n.) A formally organized
body of Christian believers worshiping together. 4. (n ...
/c/church.htm - 89k

Worshipped (81 Occurrences)

/w/worshipped.htm - 32k

Resources

What is the meaning of Christian worship? | GotQuestions.org

What is bibliolatry? | GotQuestions.org

What does it mean to worship the Lord in spirit and truth? | GotQuestions.org

Worshiping: Dictionary and Thesaurus | Clyx.com

Bible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus

Concordance

Worshiping (24 Occurrences)

Matthew 20:20
Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children, with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.
(WBS)

Luke 2:37
She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day.
(See RSV)

Luke 24:52
And they gave him worship and went back to Jerusalem with great joy.
(See NAS)

Acts 13:2
and in their ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Separate ye to me both Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them,'
(See RSV NIV)

Revelation 9:20
and the rest of men, who were not killed in these plagues, neither did reform from the works of their hands, that they may not bow before the demons, and idols, those of gold, and those of silver, and those of brass, and those of stone, and those of wood, that are neither able to see, nor to hear, nor to walk,
(See RSV NIV)

Exodus 10:26
So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place.
(See NIV)

Numbers 25:3
Israel joined himself to Baal Peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel.
(See NIV)

Numbers 25:5
Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor."
(See NIV)

Deuteronomy 4:19
and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath allotted unto all the peoples under the whole heaven.
(See NIV)

Deuteronomy 12:31
You shall not do so to Yahweh your God: for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.
(See NIV)

Deuteronomy 20:18
So that you may not take them as your example and do all the disgusting things which they do in the worship of their gods, so sinning against the Lord your God.
(See NIV)

Judges 2:19
But it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to worship them; they left nothing undone of their practices, nor of their stubborn way.
(See NIV)

Judges 8:27
Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.
(See NIV)

1 Kings 9:9
they shall be answered: Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them; therefore hath the LORD brought all this evil upon them.'
(See NIV)

2 Kings 19:37
And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.
(WBS NAS RSV NIV)

2 Chronicles 7:22
And they shall answer: Because they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them; therefore hath He brought all this evil upon them.'
(See NIV)

2 Chronicles 20:18
And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshiping the LORD.
(WBS NAS RSV)

2 Chronicles 28:2
but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for the Baals.
(See NIV)

Nehemiah 9:3
And for a fourth part of the day, upright in their places, they were reading from the book of the law of their God; and for a fourth part of the day they were requesting forgiveness and worshipping the Lord their God.
(See NIV)

Isaiah 37:38
And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.
(WBS NAS RSV NIV)

Jeremiah 1:16
And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness; in that they have forsaken me, and have offered unto other gods, and worshipped the work of their own hands.
(See NIV)

Jeremiah 44:3
Because of the evil which they have done, moving me to wrath by burning perfumes in worship to other gods, who were not their gods or yours or the gods of their fathers.
(See NIV)

Ezekiel 8:16
And He brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
(See RSV)

Ezekiel 23:49
They shall recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
(See NAS)

Subtopics

Worshiping

Worshiping God

Worshiping Images

Related Terms

Worshipeth (5 Occurrences)

Zebedee's (2 Occurrences)

Whoredom (58 Occurrences)

Meeting (323 Occurrences)

Church (110 Occurrences)

Worshipped (81 Occurrences)