God deserves and calls all to worship him and to do so eternally.

Worship means to pour oneself out for another or for something, and worship is defined not merely by the beliefs and actions but by the object of worship. Sometimes the religious, church world focus and define worship by music, posture of prayer, or a particular activity during a Sunday service like that of singing. These are more so parts and mere effects of the greater whole and more importantly, the cause (the Creator and sustainer of all) -- God.

Therefore, as humanity lives, so then are they also worshipping. They are living for someone or something -- good, bad, or ugly. The main question becomes, "Who do you worship?" 'Who' then defines, guides, affects, and transforms us.

Hence the telos of our worship determines the telos of our life.

Worship is used and described throughout the Bible in various ways, helping us understand the difference of living for God and not living for him. He is what makes people holy (distinct, different, set apart) because he's the holy one. One cannot merely act or do things to appear worshipping him. He is not deceived, and he certainly is different than all.

People have attempted to 'fake it to make it', as if Christianity is a performance, persona, platform, or perpetual self-affirmation. This merely leads to superficial and fickle people sharing a Sunday experience of self-centered 'worship' or 'doing good' training people to be skeptical of God versus training them to trust in him in real life for eternity.

Therefore, Christianity is less about us and more about him. Jesus rejects his greatest enemy's, Satan, temptation to deny himself (Jesus) and worship him (Satan):

And he [Satan] said to him [Jesus], “All these [kingdoms] I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve'.” (Matthew 4:9–10 ESV)

John writes in the Gospel of John about the interaction between Jesus and the adulteress woman:

"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews [Jesus]. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth [not merely at a temple, synagogue, or location], for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:20–24 ESV)

Even Luke writes about Paul's interaction, discussion, and teaching in Athens, Greece on Mars Hill with the philosophers of the day, which reveals wrong and right worship:

“For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship [idols, altars], I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:23–31 ESV)

As Paul writes later in a similar way that when we come to faith (trust) in him as the object of our life's worship, we then are considered someone being poured out or a 'living sacrifice' -- one who is dead to themselves and the world and alive in relationship to God:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2 ESV)

Either humanity worships God or does not. Worship then is a response to God and his revelation of himself to the world since the beginning, but in particular through his written word and the Living Word -- Jesus the Christ. Jesus came to live, die, resurrect, and ascend to heaven graciously on our behalf because we are sinners, unholy, and separated from him. God made known the good news of Jesus to the world then and still to this day until the final day when he brings all who worship him together for eternity.

Paul further writes warnings about people during his days trying to deceive others be re-defining worship and the object(s) of worship:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head [Jesus], from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (Colossians 2:16–19 ESV)

Christians do not worship angels, created things, etc.; rather, Christians worship the Creator of all -- God. Everything depends upon him, including our identity as a person as well as what we are to do on this earth until living with him eternally. God is trustworthy, and we trust him and his promises to be fulfilled, even if we cannot see into the future since we already have known him from the past and present like Jesus taught the older Jewish Pharisee, Nicodemus:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light [Jesus] has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. (John 3:16–21 ESV)

Since God is eternal, then we eternally will live with him. Jesus proclaimed many times and in several ways:

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I [Jesus] will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:40 ESV)
I [Jesus] give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:28 ESV)

Paul writes later on to the Romans regarding the same promises:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 ESV)
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25–27 ESV)

Paul trains the young pastor Timothy to shepherd (pastor) people from the love and truth of God (not for money, fame, etc. as many were then):

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:12–16 ESV)

John writes in the last book of the Bible about the eternal time period when the nations of believers come together in the end to worship God:

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 'Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed'. (Revelation 15:3–4 ESV)

John continues in at the end of Revelation describing what God had been revealing to him to write down to be part of the Bible for future generations to read and confirm:

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb [Jesus] will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:3–5 ESV)

John ends in the last chapter affirming that he's writing these details and how it affected him:

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, 'You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. (Revelation 22:8–9 ESV)

Worship belongs to God and God alone, it's God's worship.


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