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Worship Is God-Centered
Boice, long-time senior minister of Philadelphia's historic Tenth Presbyterian Church. WORSHIP IS GOD-CENTERED If a person has a right opinion about God, the person can form a correct opinion about God's attributes and thus can praise or glorify God correctly. No let's go back to the word worth. This good Anglo-Saxon word might have been used to express the essence of "glory" in the English language had the French word gloire predominated. Glory was the Norman word, and the Normans were the new nobility. So we speak of "glorifying God" rather than "worth-ifying him," thought the idea of assigning worth to God remains in our word "worship." The ideas are the same. To glorify God is to acknowledge his worth-ship, which is what praising him also means. So, philologically speaking, the glory of God, the worship of God, and the praise of God are indistinguishable. This means that the first and most important thing to be said about true worship is that it is to honor God. If what we call worship is not God-centered and God-honoring, it is not worship. Yet worship also has a bearing on the worshiper. It changes the person. This is the second most important thing to be said about worship. No one ever truly comes to know, honor, praise, or glorify God without being changed in the process. - James Montgomery Boice, in WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE GOSPEL OF GRACE?: REDISCOVERING THE DOCTRINES THAT SHOOK THE WORLD, Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2001, p. 174-175. Have a great week, Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.edu |