Mark 10:30-31
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
I did a wedding a number of years ago where the young couple wanted to use the wedding vows from The Book of Common Prayer, which dates from 1662, in their ceremony. The language was very formal but quite beautiful, including the following from the exchange of rings:
“With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, with all my worldly goods I thee endow…”
I was struck by the use of the word worship in wedding vows. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that if worship can be described as offering extravagant devotion, then certainly marriage is one place where that kind of devotion is to be expressed! As a husband I am to be extravagantly (and exclusively) devoted to my wife; and she to me. Our love is to be expressed verbally, emotionally, physically, and is to be made permanent through the covenant of marriage. Worship, therefore, can be understood as the highest form of love.
Jesus affirms this when he responds to a question about the greatest commandment:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31
So now we can further express our definition of worship: Worship is loving God with extravagant devotion.
Furthermore, we can begin to see what that devotion looks like.
Jesus says we are to love God with all our heart and with our soul and with our minds and with our strength. In other words, our love for God must be expressed through our passions, our intellect, and our actions.
We love God with our hearts through personal prayer and worship. The Psalms are full of this kind of expression:
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul thirsts for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2
We love God with our minds when we read and meditate on God’s word. Again, from the Psalms:
I will rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. Psalm 119:14-16
We love God with our actions when we give him our resources as an act of worship.
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7
We love God with our actions when we serve others.
The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40
Notice that we have not described worship as “going to church.” We’ll get to why and how we worship together tomorrow. But for now I want you to see that worship is not something we go and observe for an hour each week; worship is something we do! And we are to do it with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our strength!
Pastor Brian Coffey
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