What does the Bible say about liturgy? Should a Christian participate in liturgical worship?

To some readers, this view of the teaching of Scripture on worship will be so complete a novelty as to be difficult to grasp. To share in such worship is, however, an experience which has come to be for thousands of Christians in many lands, the very heart of Christian faith and practice. The reason for the strangeness with which these thoughts will appear to many, is the totally different understanding of the meaning of worship which prevails. To many true believers the word worship describes the totality of the parts of public services, including prayers, hymns, Scripture reading, and sermon as conducted by the president. There is, moreover, a great revival of interest in liturgy, or set forms of prayer for public "worship". This is largely connected with the ecumenical movement, and indeed the liturgical tendency is spreading far outside the traditionally ritualistic communions. Little attention need be given beyond noticing it here, for the very simple reason that its supports are admittedly outside the New Testament. Few would claim anything in the New Testament itself, independent of tradition, to support liturgical practices, although many believe, on flimsy evidence, that parts of the New Testament actually are rudimentary liturgies.

It should be comparatively easy to discern that the exercise of public Christian worship and the celebration of the Lord's Supper are liable to the danger of unreality a punctilious performance of these rites being accompanied by a complete absence of spiritual intention. And it is commonly and rightly understood that this failure to present to God "worship in spirit and in truth" is especially to be feared when that worship is connected with an ornate ceremonialism and a prescribed liturgy. The aesthetic ritual may proceed most agreeably to the cultivated taste, but what if the soul of the worshipper be out of harmony with its God?

The door was closed. The careless world of Pilate was outside, the religious world of Caiaphas and the Jew outside, and within those who loved His name were met together, with fear and joy and sorrow all mingling. To them the Lord came, in fulfilment of His own word "where two or three are gathered together to My name, there am I in the midst of them." Mark the condition. "The doors being shut, then came Jesus and stood in the midst." All else but His name was excluded, none but Himself filled every eye, every ear was attentive to the words He spake. Peace calmed all unrest and fear; Love, told forth by His hands and side; Life, communicated in the Spirit's power; Service, as they were sent forth from thence to bear His name. Such is the blessed pattern of the Christian assembly, how very different from that which fills Christendom with ritual and ceremony. No ordering of man was seen on that evening, not even the apostles had planned what should take place. There were just His own who loved Him, and He was present in the midst. They needed nought else. How the Lord loves to control such a company, whether then or now. The heart that has once tasted the blessedness of such a gathering will desire no other. But there was one man who was not with them when Jesus came, and could not believe it possible that his Master had been there either. Alas, there are many like Thomas who refuse to believe that the Lord manifests Himself without human arrangements, and although their souls are grieved at the giving up of the truth on every hand, seek Him not in His own appointed way. They go on without ever knowing the blessedness of the meeting place where He reveals the Father's name to His brethren. Nor do they know how He leads the worship in spirit and in truth which the Father seeks. Beautiful services may be carried out, and the most ornate arrangements be made, oratory and music may lend their aid; but God is a Spirit and those that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. Dear reader, if these remarks produce any exercise in your soul, rest not content until you have found Him where He loves to be in the midst of those who refuse everything else but His peerless name.

As God is a Spirit, spiritual worship is all He accepts. His worshippers "must worship in spirit and in truth." It is a moral necessity flowing from His nature. This qualification He has most fully provided for us, as the new life we enjoy is by the Spirit and is spirit, not flesh. We live by the Spirit; we walk by the Spirit and we "worship by (the) Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh" (Phil. 3:3 New Trans.). Thus Christian worship is the expression of the new inward life in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit. This sets aside all human formulas, imposing ceremonies, and rituals, for worship in spirit and in truth precludes all this. It is the flesh and human will that produces such things, and the energy of the flesh can have no place in the worship of God.

This new revelation was ushering in a new "hour," which had indeed already begun. The worship which is to characterize that hour must be in keeping with the revelation that has formed it. God who is Spirit is seeking that worship as Father, so now worship to be acceptable must be "in spirit and in truth." Notice this further "MUST." Worship is not something optional, or to be varied as suits our tastes. God must be worshipped in the way He Himself prescribes. All else that may claim to be "worship" is no worship at all.

True worship is "in spirit"; that is, not in flesh, not in bodily posture. This word of our Lord negatives the ritualistic and ceremonial line of things which has been a snare to so many. Our capacity to offer worship in spirit lies in the possession of the Spirit of God — the Fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life — as is also indicated in Philippians 3:3. The Spirit of God may engage our spirits in true worship at any time and in any place; not merely in some sacred shrine as in Judaism.

What is the power for worship? "We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God" (Phil. 3:3, R.V.). "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). You remember that our Lord in this memorable conversation with the poor, sinful Samaritan woman set aside both "this mountain" (Gerizim) and Jerusalem as places of worship. In their place he put nothing of earth; only spirit and truth was to mark all worship — it was to be according to the nature of God. This connects, therefore, with what we have already said as to the place of worship.

Though verse 21 has not yet been fulfilled, yet verse 23 says that not only was the hour coming, but it had already arrived, when the true worshipers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth. This was true because the Lord Jesus had come, the One who fully reveals the Father, and through whom the Father was seeking worshipers. In Christ the formal worship of the law is done away: indeed such “carnal ordinances” could never satisfy the Father's heart. Worship “in spirit” is in contrast to fleshly worship, for it issues from the inner springs of one's being. Certainly worship must be “in spirit” if it is to be “in truth,” for one might worship formally who has no heart in the matter at all, which is pretense rather than truth. But the Father's presenting His own Son before the eyes of mankind was the means of drawing out worship in spirit and in truth on the part of some at least.

They that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and the Father seeketh such to worship Him. John 4:24. They delight in what He is: they "joy in God," and they love Him. To worship 'in spirit' is to worship according to the true nature of God, and in the power of that communion which the Holy Spirit gives. It thus stands in contrast to worship consisting in forms and ceremonies, and to the religiousness of which the flesh is capable. To worship 'in truth' is to worship God according to the revelation which He has been pleased to give of Himself. It would not therefore now be worshipping God 'in truth' to worship Him simply as 'a great God,' 'our Maker,' and 'a great King above all gods,' as in Psalm 95; for He has been pleased to reveal Himself in another light, even as 'Father' to those who are His. They enter into His presence in the spirit of sonship, and in the sense of the love which has given them a place before Him in Christ, as sons according to His good pleasure: the sense of this love, and of the good pleasure of God in having us before Him in Christ, is the spring of worship. The Father and the Son are known, the Father's will is that the Son should be honoured as revealing the fountain of love, and the Son leading the hearts of the many sons into the Father's love. Worship is thus distinguished from ascriptions of praise and thanksgiving: it is the homage of love. Rom. 8:15.

340 The woman now turns to worship. The Lord tells her that salvation was of the Jews; the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what; but the hour was coming, and now was, when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for it was no longer a question of what man ought to be for God, but of what God is for the sinner. "The Father seeketh such to worship him." As for man's worship, it was all worthless. You may get a machine to do ceremonies if you only are clever enough to make one. As we read in the prophet of the outward worship of Israel. God calls it, "bowing the head like a bulrush." It is utterly worthless. You must have to do with God who knows you, and whom you must know if you would worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is not God requiring worship - all very true, as man's duty - but the Lord is here in grace, and out of the abundance of His heart He says, "The Father seeketh" worshippers. He is not regarding forms of worship, but He is seeking vile, broken-down sinners to make them worshippers. He is not seeking the Pharisee: his worship proceeds out of himself; he thanks God for what he is.

Doubtless men ought to worship, as they ought to obey and love God. But their state unfits them: they are sinners, in their sins, and alienated from Him. As they are, to take the place of worship and of obeying the law is to deny their ruin. For it is too late to talk of your duty when you are all wrong and lost, as His word declares, in order to bring men to repentance. Again, it is worse than vain, "in the hour that now is," to pretend to worship our God and Father unless we are genuine worshippers. The apostle adds, that the worshippers, having been once purged, or cleansed, have no more conscience of sins (Heb. 10:2). Adam, now that he had conscience of his sin, hastened to hide from God when he heard His voice in the garden. So would all unpurged worshippers, if they heard His voice today. It is no question of sincerity, but of salvation; cleansing by the blood of Jesus is absolutely requisite. Impossible to worship Him in spirit and in truth, till we know Him by faith as revealed by and in His Son; and we never know Him thus till convicted of what we have done and are by His word as the Samaritan was.