All of Life as Worship

Worship does not end at the benediction.

It does not belong only to Sunday morning. True worship extends to every hour of every day. When you go to work. When you spend time with your family. When you eat a meal. When you face temptation. When you serve someone in need. You are either worshipping God or worshipping an idol. There is no neutral ground.

All of life is an act of worship or an act of rebellion.

Paul gives a Christian a category for the most ordinary thing in life. "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Eating. Drinking. Anything. The food on your plate is a worship matter. The work on your desk is a worship matter. The phone in your hand is a worship matter.

Worship is not a special religious activity sitting next to your real life. Worship is your real life, presented to God.

This is what Romans 12:1 means by "living sacrifice." In the Old Testament, the worshipper brought an animal to the altar. The animal was killed. It was given over completely. Paul takes that picture and turns it on the worshipper. You are the sacrifice now. Not killed. Living. Not parts. All. Not for an hour on Sunday. Every hour every day.

This frees you from two errors at once.

The first error is compartmentalizing. The believer who treats Sunday as the religious part of life and Monday through Saturday as the real part has split what God has joined. Your job is not your real life and worship the side hobby. Your job is worship. Your marriage is worship. Your parenting is worship. Your suffering is worship. Bring all of it to God and live it before His face.

The second error is collapsing. The believer who says, "All of life is worship, so I do not need the Sunday gathering" has folded Scripture in half. Yes, all of life is worship. And gathered worship on the Lord's Day is the fountain that feeds the worship of the week. Skip the fountain and the week runs dry.

Both errors come from the same root. Not letting Scripture set the categories. Let it set them.

Worship is whole-life. And worship is gathered. Both. Always.

This also means your body is engaged in worship.

You do not have a sacred spiritual part of yourself that worships God and a secular physical part exempt from God's claim. The hands that type emails are God's hands. The feet that walk to the store are God's feet. The mind that solves problems is God's mind. The sexuality that is shared with a spouse in covenant is God's. None of it is outside the realm of worship. None of it is secular. All of it belongs to God.

This includes your suffering and your sickness. When you are ill and lie in bed unable to be productive, you are still called to worship. Through gratitude for the healing you hope for. Through trust in God's sovereignty even in your weakness. Through intercession, praying for others from your bed. There is no situation in which worship is impossible. Worship is the fundamental orientation of the self toward God.

The life of worship necessarily involves justice and mercy.

Jesus said that on the day of judgment, the King will separate the righteous from the unrighteous based on how they treated the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the imprisoned (Matthew 25:31-46). The way you treat the vulnerable is worship. The way you seek justice for the oppressed is worship. The way you give generously is worship.

Worship reaches into your ethics, your relationships, your stewardship of time and money. It reaches into everything because there is nothing outside the lordship of Christ.