26: What Is Worship? Rethinking a Misunderstood Word

Welcome to the Ready for Eternity podcast. I'm Eddie Lawrence.

In podcast episode 18, I had a conversation with Dr. Tom Wadsworth.

His extensive research led him to the same conclusion that I reached a number of years ago, in that the purpose for church gatherings is not to worship.

Instead, the New Testament tells us that Christians are to meet together for the purpose of mutual edification.

If this is so, then what is worship? Let's rethink a misunderstood word.

It's no doubt a shock to most people to hear that the New Testament does not instruct

Christians to gather together for the purpose of worship. We are laboring under a misconception when we gather on Sunday mornings.

But the issue goes even deeper. The English word worship itself fails to accurately capture the original meanings found in the

New Testament. I contend that our modern concept of worship rests on assumptions foreign to the

New Testament and the early church. The New Testament portrays Christian assemblies as gatherings for mutual edification, not primarily for worship.

Hebrews 10 24 through 25 emphasizes strengthening each other's faith, while Paul's instructions in 1st

Corinthians 14 mention edification seven times. Paul concludes with the directive let all things be done for edification, rather than prescribing worship as the assembly's purpose.

What do we really even mean by worship? Worship brings to mind church services, hymns, and acts of devotion directed toward God.

Most Christians see worship as something that happens within the walls of a church. It's a specific activity with a set purpose.

But this modern definition doesn't capture the meaning of the original

English word. The English word worship originated in Old English.

In Old English, the word meant the condition of being worthy, dignity, glory, distinction, honor, or renown.

It's from a word which just simply means worthy. In this sense, worship was more about recognizing someone's inherent value or worthiness than about a religious practice.

It was the quality of being worthy, worth -ship.

In an article titled, Is Worship Biblical?, John Richardson said this.

Since it was first used in translation, worship has acquired a semantic range quite different from its own original meaning.

That this is so can be seen in some surviving English archaisms. Judges are still called your worship, and we still have a few worshipful companies, yet the term has no religious significance in these contexts.

In the Old English, people could worship by honoring a king, a friend, or anyone worthy of respect.

But there's been a shift in meaning. In the mid -13th century, people began to use the word to indicate paying reverence to God.

Over time, the word's meaning narrowed, becoming linked almost exclusively to acts of religious reverence.

By the time translators worked on the first English Bible translations, worship had shifted to mean specific ceremonies or acts directed toward God.

This shift may seem minor, but it affects our understanding of what worship involves.

Early Christians saw honoring God as a way of life. They did not view worship as specific events, activities, or gatherings.

Our modern definition of the word fails to capture the New Testament's perspective.

Using just one English word, worship, distorts the New Testament's meaning.

This is because the English word worship translates several New Testament Greek words.

The New Testament writers used a variety of words which our English Bibles mainly translate as either worship or serve.

The word worship doesn't capture the New Testament authors' intended meaning.

To truly understand what worship meant to early Christians, we need to examine the original terms and their contexts.

For example, the Greek word proskuneo describes the act of bowing down in prostration to show reverence to God and even to other humans.

The Greek word latreuo focuses on serving God through daily acts of obedience.

Laturgeo adds yet another layer, emphasizing service and ministry.

The sebo word group highlights reverence or all, which we can summarize as an attitude of piousness.

And finally, threskeia refers to religious practice with its rules and rights.

It emphasizes external forms of devotion. However, there's a lot more to this story.

It may come as a shock to modern Christians to learn that all five of these Greek words described specific temple activities.

Proskuneo denoted prostration before a deity in their temple. Latreuo described sacrificial service within temple walls.

Laturgeo referred to priestly temple duties. Sebomai expressed the reverent attitude one had during temple rituals, and threskeia encompassed the religious ceremonies performed in temples.

Early Christians avoided using these terms for their gatherings because Christ sacrificed eliminated temple worship.

His death rendered obsolete the physical temples prostrations, sacrifices, priestly duties, sacred spaces, and religious rights.

Jesus transformed these concepts from literal temple practices into metaphorical expressions of devotion through holy living and spiritual transformation.

With only our English Bible translations, can we even know what is meant by the words worship or serve in the

New Testament? Dr. Tom Wadsworth, in his PhD dissertation on this topic, asked a series of interesting questions.

When an English Bible says that someone worshipped, what did that person do? Did they offer a prayer or a song?

Did they feel a sense of reverence? When a Bible verse says that someone paid homage, what exactly constitutes homage?

Did the person present a gift? Did they offer a sacrifice? Did they say certain words?

The reader does not know. As it turns out, we have a gaping hole in our knowledge.

Furthermore, it's one we can't even see because we are unaware of the meaning of the

Greek words because the words worship and serve mask the

New Testament author's message. What are the implications of this? The New Testament's use of words like proskuneo, latruo, latourgeo, the sebo word group, and threskia reveals a striking contrast with modern assumptions about worship.

These words, which are rooted in Old Testament temple practices, show that early

Christian worship was not about replicating religious rituals in a new context.

Why is that? Because Jesus eliminated the temple and its rituals.

The New Testament reapplies these words to living transformed lives in response to Christ's sacrifice.

Romans 12 1 says, "...offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."

And those last two words, service of worship, comes from the Greek word latruo.

By translating all these distinct terms as worship or serve, English Bibles unintentionally blur their original meanings, leaving us with a narrow view of what it means to honor

God. If we rely on a single word to describe the complex and varied expressions of devotion found in the

New Testament, we risk missing the fullness of their intent. Worship, as the

New Testament portrays it, extends far beyond a weekly gathering or set of religious actions.

It encompasses reverence, service, humility, and holy living—practices that reflect

God's holiness in every area of life. In the upcoming series of podcast episodes, we'll begin to explore these words one at a time, starting with proskuneo.

Its meaning offers a glimpse into the heart posture that early

Christians adopted toward God, one that transcends the confines of temple walls or ceremonial acts.

Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope this episode has deepened your understanding of Scripture.

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