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In the last couple of decades, the Christian church has been ravaged by “worship wars.” On one side are the traditionalists. They hold that God can be worshiped only with stately hymns sung to organ accompaniment and led by a single, conservatively dressed worship leader backed by a robed choir. On the other side are the modernists. They worship God with newly written choruses accompanied by guitars and drums, and led by a gyrating, jeans-clad worship leader backed by a casually dressed worship team.
The worship wars have divided families and churches. But they also have had a positive result: Christians have been forced to go back and take a hard look at worship. For too many years, churches have been content simply to follow a traditional outline of the worship service without thinking very much about what they were doing—or why. Yet what happens in that hour or so on Sunday morning is one of the most important things human beings can do: come near corporately to the God of this universe, praising Him, learning from Him, and receiving blessing from Him. Surely we need to think carefully and biblically about just what that hour should look like and how it can become the best possible vehicle for genuine corporate worship of God.
Paul’s challenge to believers in Romans 12:1—“present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service”—can shed some light on this matter. To be sure, this verse does not seem at first glance to be saying anything at all about worship. But, in fact, latreia, the word translated “service” in the New King James Version, usually refers to an act of worship.
But if this verse refers to worship, surely it does not refer to the worship service, does it? Paul’s command seems to relate to the whole of life. Believers are to offer themselves daily and constantly in sacrificial service to God. They do this by refusing to “conform” to the pattern of this world and by allowing themselves to be transformed into the image of God by the renewing of their minds (Rom. 12:2). All this is certainly true. The worship Paul calls for in these verses is a worship that extends to all of life, a worship in which every moment is to be sanctified and used to the honor and glory of God. Nothing less than such a total commitment of one’s entire life is appropriate for the God who is over all and in all, and who, through His manifold “mercies,” has extended His grace to us helpless sinners (Rom. 12:1). But if verse 1 addresses “the worship of everyday life,” it also, as part of that emphasis, addresses the worship service—that time during the week when God’s people gather to focus exclusively and directly on the worship of God.
How do we understand this? Our answer hinges on the meaning of a single Greek word, logik, translated “reasonable” in the NKJV. This word occurs only one other time in the New Testament, in 1 Peter 2:2: “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” Here, logik is translated “of the word.” But in Romans 12:1, most English translations render it not “reasonable” but “spiritual.” If we translate logik as “spiritual,” then Paul’s point might be that true Christian worship should come from the inner person, from the heart. It should not be a mere outward show but a true engagement of the person with God.
The point is a valid one, but it is doubtful that this is what Paul intends in Romans 12:1. The translation “reasonable” is probably closer to his meaning. Some, therefore, believe he was saying that giving ourselves wholly to God is an eminently reasonable response to the God who has given all for us. The extent of our worship, Paul would be suggesting, should be proportionate to the extent of God’s mercies on our behalf.
Again, this interpretation makes a good and valuable point. But we think Paul’s intention lies in a slightly different direction. The Greek word that Paul uses here (logikos in its basic form) was used by Greek writers to emphasize the importance of rational worship. In contrast to the often mindless, irrational frenzies that characterized “worship” in some Greek religions or to the offering of animals in sacrifice, these writers held that genuinely human worship should flow from what is most distinctive of human beings: the mind. The Greek philosopher Epictetus, who lived just after the time of Christ, wrote: “If I were a nightingale, I should be singing as a nightingale; if a swan, as a swan. But as it is, I am a rational being [logikos], therefore I must be singing hymns of praise to God.” Eminently appropriate to human beings, precisely because they have been endowed by their Creator with rationality, is a worship that is rational, thoughtful, and informed.
Paul, therefore, might be teaching us that true worship of God must flow from minds that have been exposed to and gripped by His truth. God may not care overmuch how our songs are accompanied. But He does care about the content of those songs. We should sing words that capture meaningful insights about God and His marvelous deeds. Only then will we worship God as people given the ability to think and reason should worship. Worship of God should always involve the emotions; how can we praise a holy God who has redeemed us without getting emotional about it? But what should move our emotions is not the sonorous tones of the organ or the insistent beat of the drums, but the mind’s apprehension of truth about God.