What is Worship? (Hint: It’s More Than Music)

Our Western mindsets based upon Greek educational principles separate our lives into tiny little compartments. Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. It’s how we think. But the Bible doesn’t work that way. Everything is connected. And that makes everything we do, an act of worship. I’ll prove it to you in less than 10 minutes.

Whatever you are doing, work at it with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not for people, because you know that you will receive your inheritance from the Lord as the reward. Serve the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:23-24 NET

The Western mind breaks up our lives into different compartments. We have our work life. Family life. Friends. Hobbies. Everything has a place, and in most cases, they don’t interact much. But this isn’t the mindset of the Bible. The mindset of the Ancient Near East saw everything as “interconnected.” That makes sense, since the family unit was the center of everyday life, and that family unit existed within a tribal community. You worked where you lived and your family worked alongside you. And your family worked right next to other families who were part of the larger tribe. But the Biblical mindset takes this idea even further. According to the Bible, everything we do is an act of worship.

Worship With Enthusiasm

Because everything we do is an act of worship, we must do everything with enthusiasm. This is easier said than done. Is washing the dishes worship? Getting up early and going to work? The Greek word translated as “enthusiasm” is often translated as “heartily” or “with your whole heart.” It means with the very essence of who you are. This echoes the Greatest Commandment: you should love YHWH your God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength.

Worshipping this way is about doing everything as if Jesus, Himself, asked you to do it. If Jesus was in your kitchen asking you to do the dishes, would you do them with more enthusiasm than normal?

Worship Isn’t About Others

I’m sure we’d all agree that if Jesus asked us to do the dishes, our attitudes about the dishes would be very different. And it should be, because we’re doing it for our Savior and King, and not for another person. But that’s exactly what Paul is trying to get through to us in these verses. He’s saying that everything we do should be done for Christ, and not for people. Every word. Every action, Even every thought should be seen as a way to bring Him honor and praise. 

That means that replying to that email from a client or coworker you don’t really get along with, is actually an opportunity to worship Jesus. When you swallow your irritation and respond with their best interest at heart, you’re responding in a way that worships your King.

Worship is About the Kingdom

And that’s the last thing we should take from these verses: Jesus is our King. And this temporary existence is just a training ground for a New Heaven and New Earth. How we live now, has eternal consequences. By living every moment of every day as an act of honor and worship for our King, we are being prepared for what Jesus has planned for us in eternity. We are promised an inheritance in His Kingdom. And part of me wonders if our worship through the little, everyday things might have a greater impact on that inheritance than how loud we sing on Sunday or how many hours of Bible reading we’ve done.

So the next time you’re asked to do something at work you’d rather not do, or you are tempted to comment on a Facebook post that you should probably just hold your tongue about and scroll past, or even when you see those dishes in the sink you’d like to put off dealing with until the morning, consider it an opportunity to worship your King.