Worship is Sacred vs. work is secular
Secular work is not sacred worship
Separation between the sacred vs. secular
Live to work vs. work to live
Inward vs. Outward perspectives and priorities
BIBLICAL ETYMOLOGY
Same Biblical meaning
abad in Hebrew (Old Testament) = work or worship
leiturgein in Greek (New Testament) = sacred service or secular service to the sovereign or to society or to a slavedriver
One word = two meanings, Two words = one meaning
Work and Worship = two liturgies
worship = worth-ship in Old Anglo-Saxon: weorthscipe, wyrthscype, “honor,”
from weorth, wurth, “worthy,” “honorable,” and scipe, “ship”
BIBLICAL BASICS
For believers to develop a deeper life in Christ, St. Paul admonished to put on the virtues of their new life in Christ, as he said in:
Colossians 3:17
17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
As inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is clear here that Paul did not give any distinctions or splitting of the sacred versus secular compartments of the life of the believers. Before God, the Sovereign over all, everything in the believers’ words and works (synonymous to “deed” and “do” in this text), should be in the name of the Lord Jesus, while giving thanks or worship to God and father by Jesus’ name, the Name above all names in God’s economy.
Then, in related text:
1 Corinthians 10:31
31Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
the apostle admonished the believers to make their behavior match their beliefs, so as to proclaim their belongingness to Him. In succeeding verses, their behavior should build up the church of Jesus by attracting some to the new birth (v.33b), others to further their maturity in the progressive process of continuous salvation (justification, then sanctification, and ultimately, glorification, cf. 1:30). The testimony and behavior of the believers, to show their belongingness to Him, should be beyond reproach to cause stumbling in the church of God. All is to be done in the spirit of love, as commanded by their Lord, believers are to show the same spirit of love as exemplified and exampled by their Lord. In his epistle to the Corinthians, Paul encouraged the believers to follow his example, in particular, in the matter of food from pagan sacrifices. Their new freedom in Christ should be motivated by love.
And in related text, we have
1 Peter 2:9
9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
where Peter exhorted the believers to life holy lives. To contrast with the disobedient destined for destruction, as God’s chosen people, echoing Isaiah 43:20 as applied to Israel only in the Old Testament, but now applied to the church in the New Testament, God’s peculiar people, a holy nation of royal priesthood, to represent the world by their intercessory ministries, have now the responsibility originally given to Israel (cf. Exo. 19:6) to display God’s greatness by reflecting His life in them. As belonging to solely God, Christians are such special people before God and the world because God has chosen and preserved them for Himself by translating them from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom of marvelous light. Not to replace nor supplant Israel, the believers belonging to God are to display and declare before the world the praises of Him, His eminent and excellent qualities or virtues by the holy lives they live. That is, the believer-priests should evidence His excellencies by their lives as servants or witnesses of the life He gave them. As former pagans, ignorant of God’s provision of salvation, formerly not His people to receive His mercies and graces, the church now receives His illuminating light, mercies, and graces. In
practicing holy lives by serving as a nation of holy and royal priesthood, extolling His eminence and excellences with offerings of spiritual sacrifices is the proper response to the mercies and graces they have received from Him. In short, they are to live lives of difference, but not indifference, from the world system which represent the kingdom of darkness.
We can go back to the Book of Leviticus to give the new believers some model or pattern of what the life of work with worship and worship with work, as admonished by Peter and Paul. With similarity but not the same identity as Israel, the New Testament church should live and work in worshipful witness before the world. From
Leviticus 18:5:
“Keep My decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord”.
it can be seen that worship is honoring God. We honor the Lord by praising Him, as admonished by Peter and Paul, particularly in a kind of “thanksliving” kind of lives of continuous and constant thanksgiving to the One who gives them life. But we also honor the Lord by keeping His decrees and laws, and choosing to live holy lives. Worship is a form of service as also seen in:
Leviticus 8:5
“Moses said to the assembly, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded to be done’”.
This described the initiation of Aaron and his sons into Israel’s priesthood, a kind of foreshadow of what the New Testament believers lives should be as His Chosen People. In a significant way that, offering the Lord dedicated service is one way in which we can worship, such that our work of ministry must be performed in full accord with God’s commands.
WORSHIP AS SEPARATION
Leviticus 11–15
“You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean” (Lev. 11:47).
A number of Old Testament laws seem to have as their main purpose establishing a unique lifestyle for God’s people. The Israelites were reminded constantly of their relationship with the Lord and their difference from all other peoples on earth.
WORSHIP AS ASSURANCE
Leviticus 16–17
“He will make atonement… because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been” (Lev. 16:16).
Sin offerings dealt only with unintentional sins. On the Day of Atonement a sacrifice was offered which assured the Israelites that they could be forgiven for all their sins.
Sin separated work and worship
Root of problems at work and worship: sin, not the salary, nor the system,
nor the sovereign slavedriver
Symptoms: struggle, stress, greed, anxiety, futility (vanity)
Curse: blood, sweat, toil, troubles, tears, resistance, opposition, oppression
Wrestling with work = wrestling with death
Before the Fall vs. After the Fall
a gift vs. a curse
a “may” vs. a “must”
work and eat vs. no work, no eat
rulers, a little lower than angels vs. a slave to death
worship is forever
Worship transforms work, the gift of God
Co-workers with God, but not co-equal
God works thru the worker
E.g., God wrote the bible thru the authors
Priests first, then kings
called first to be like HIM, then to reflect Him
stewardship = human dignity or worth (Ps. 8:5,9)
Time, treasure, talents, truth, testimony
Not what we have, but what we do with what we have
Faithfulness even in small things
To rule the earth as His stewards (managers)
Live to work, not work to live
Dignity = as stewards, not the salary
----- A slave who is a good steward is more dignified
than a CEO who is not a good steward
Proper end of work = to glorify God as His stewards,
not the salary nor profits;
to be used for His kingdom, not for self
Salary not a reason for work, but only fruit of good stewardship
If salary is THE reason for work, that that work does not glorify God
Love of money is the root of all evil
Sabbath keeping = to rest to refresh and recuperate with focused
worship to God = spiritual work
time to enjoy fellowship with the spiritual family a friends
There is neither Greek nor Jew, free nor slave,
Because Christ is all in all
Our Utmost for His highest
CONCLUSIONS
No Retirement
Work is secular worship
Worship is sacred work
Redeem the fallenness of work:
Go back to the heart of worship = worship of the heart
Love of labor with the labor of love
Worship
“He moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:8).
Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.
Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram “pitched his tent” between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time—there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life—worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from
waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.
By: Augusto Hermosilla
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