Truly The Way To Worship
Pop quiz! What do the Scriptures say is truly the way to worship God? Song? Dance? Giving our money? The answer is found in Romans 12:1.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” (Romans 12:1)
“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
In these two verses we are given the how and the why in answer to the question. The how is by offering our bodies as living and holy sacrifices. The why is because of all God has done for us: God bought us at a high price, the Holy Spirit resides within us, our bodies are temples for Him, He pours out His grace and mercies upon us each day, and He has saved us from sin. So what can hinder us from worshiping God the way we truly should?
“Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18)
Sexual sin. Paul says that sexual sin is a sin against our bodies and no other sin so clearly affects our bodies. If we are indulging in sexual sin, we are allowing this sin to affect our body, and if we allow sin to affect our body, then we are allowing ourselves to be hindered in our worship of God. The writer of Hebrews urges us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles…” (Hebrews 12:1). How are we to give our bodies over to the Lord as holy sacrifices—the kind he will find acceptable—in an act of worship if we are allowing our bodies to be affected by sexual sin? It’s no wonder Paul says such sins have no place among God’s people; these sins directly affect our ability to worship God!
“Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.” (Ephesians 5:3)
So what then do we do?
“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)
“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.” (Acts 3:19)
Repent! Why? “So that your sins may be wiped away.” We cannot make the grave mistake of forgetting about confession and repentance. We can’t keep on sinning and expect to be forgiven if we never repent. Without repentance we will keep returning to our sin. We will find ourselves trapped in a cycle of sin. Perhaps you’ve been there before: you choose your sin, then ask forgiveness, then a while later you’re choosing your sin again, then asking for forgiveness, then a while later you choose your sin again—and this can go on and on if we never repent.
“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.” (Acts 17:30)
We are commanded to repent of our sins. If you want to break the cycle of sin then you must repent of your sins and repentance requires action. Paul says to run from sexual sin, which is a good picture of repentance. Repenting of a sin is confessing it to the Lord (because you can’t repent of something you haven’t confessed) and turning in the opposite direction of that sin and running. Our bodies are to be given to the Lord as living and holy sacrifices for all God has done for us. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and since God paid for us with the life of His son, we do not belong to ourselves. Don’t let sexual sin affect your body and your worship of the Lord. Confess your sins to Him, repent of them, and run into the Father’s open arms. Honor God with your body and begin to worship the Lord in the way you truly should.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
—Redeemed
