Segmented Worship

Programming Note: I am undergoing a couple of medical procedures, one of which requires a hospital stay for at least a few days ... and no computer access. I won't be able to approve comments until I get out. Barring unexpected complications, I'll be back very soon.
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There is diversity in our understanding of worship these days. Has been for some time. I remember Larry Norman singing "Why should the devil have all the good music?" back in 1972 including the lyrics,

I ain't knocking the hymns
Just give me a song that has a beat
I ain't knocking the hymns
Just give me a song that moves my feet
I don't like none of those funeral marches
I ain't dead yet!

We divide on baptism (dunk or sprinkle? infants or not?) and preaching (topical or expository?) and the Lord's Supper (every Sunday? Every month? Every quarter? Every so often? And, really, why are we using grape juice and crackers rather than wine and bread?). We certainly divide over musical styles, as Larry illustrated. What I hear most is, "I just can't enter into worship in that mode of worship." Of course, "that" will vary. "I can't worship with hymns" or "I can't worship with contemporary music." "I find lengthy sermons tedious" or "I don't like 'preaching-lite'." But how much of this is preference and how much is principle?

The question, really, is how much is biblical principle? What does the Bible say on the subject? Of course, it says precious little on how we are to worship when we gather as a local faith family. Neither Isaac Watts nor Chris Tomlin are mentioned once. We don't find, "Thou shalt not use organs" or "drums" anywhere. So we have to look for something else. What about this?

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24)

If that is a valid, preferred, underlying principle for worship, what does it look like?

Jesus famously said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) As "the truth," truth begins with God's expression of truth -- Jesus. Jesus also said, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." (John 17:17) So a basis for truth is found in the pages of Scripture. Paul wrote in a couple of places about the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:5, 14), but he also referred the gospel as "the word of truth" (Eph 1:13; Col 1:5). So the "truth" part of "in spirit and truth" would begin with Christ and continue with the Word with a special focus on the gospel. Pause here and think. Does your experience of worship center on this truth?

The other part, though, isn't as clear. Is it talking about spirit (ours) or Spirit (His)? I think the correct answer is "Yes." If we begin spiritually dead (Eph 2:1-3) and are only made alive by His Spirit, then our spirit is powered by His Spirit. We know, for instance, that "we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us" (Rom 8:26), so there is an undeniable interlinking between His Spirit and our spirit. So the "spirit" part of that equation would be the innermost being. We need to engage in worship from the heart, from the inward Man, a spirit powered by the Spirit.

I think that you'll find that many of us will operate on a dichotomy in worship. Either we will prefer worship in the spirit or worship in truth. We will prefer the "deep moving" (Norman's "Give me a song that moves my feet") or we will prefer engaging the mind. Some will say that true worship is just the leading of the Spirit and any attempt at intellectualizing it diminishes it. Jesus said both were required. And Paul wrote, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Col 3:16) It's all encompassed in there, isn't it? "Teaching and admonishing with all wisdom" requires truth and mind, while Paul references also "thankfulness in your hearts." Between these two -- the link -- is "singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." So the false dichotomy of "either spirit or truth" misses it.

Worship is a product of love for God. It applies "worth-ship" to Him who is most worthy. Love, as we know, is both a command -- a choice -- and an emotion -- a product of how we think. If we decide that love is a warm feeling of affection, we might worship Him in spirit. If we decide that love is a choice, we might worship Him in truth. If we choose to love God as we are commanded to and that results in the emotion we associate with the word, then we will worship in spirit and in truth. We will worship in spirit and we will worship in truth because love contains both. We need to stop separating "spirit" and "truth" in worship because Christ demanded both.