“Pursue love… Let all things be done for building up… All things should be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:1, 26, 40)
In his first letter to the Corinthians, starting in chapter 10, Paul addresses various aspects and elements of worship. He talks about Baptism (ch. 10), the Lord’s Supper (chs. 10-11), the orderly exercise of spiritual gifts (chs. 12, 14), evangelism (ch. 14), the proclamation of the Gospel (ch. 15), and the first day of the week as the usual day for worship and giving (16:2). His teachings are to be acknowledged as “a command of the Lord” (14:37)—God is the one who tells us how to worship. Right smack in the middle of this large section concerning worship is chapter 13, the famous “love chapter.” Love, as defined by God, is at the heart of Christian worship.
As you might guess, chapter 13 is followed by… chapter 14! Paul builds on the centrality of love by saying that everything we do in worship should be done for the sake of mutual edification, to build one another up in careful and considered ways. We engage in worship in order to bless others with the knowledge of God in Christ, whether those others are already Christians or not. “Love… does not insist on its own way” (13:5). We don’t come to worship just to have a pleasant time for ourselves, but to serve and give of ourselves in relationship with others. Often this means foregoing our personal preferences or comforts, even as Christ has laid down his very life to bless us.
We recognize our great need to come to God in worship for our own spiritual good, but we don’t participate in worship merely for our own sakes. We engage in worship for the sake of each other, because this is how God lives. The Triune God is One living for the Other in his very being, and our worship is a participation in his life together. So God-centered, Christ-patterned, Spirit-filled, other-oriented love should compel and characterize everything we do in worship. We come to worship to help each other 1) to become disciples of Jesus, 2) to grow as disciples of Jesus, and 3) to make disciples of yet others. This is how the church is meant to grow (Ephesians 4:11-13). These are expressions of Christian love in worship.
So, the intelligibility of our communication in worship is a priority. If we’re going to be able to say “Amen” together in agreement, we need to be able to understand one another (14:16). In the Incarnation and in the Scriptures God has accommodated himself to us, to make himself known to us in intelligible ways. So we should use language in ways others can understand, even if they know little to nothing of the Bible. “Nonbelievers are expected in gathered worship, nonbelievers should find worship comprehensible, and nonbelievers may be convicted and converted through corporate worship” (Tim Keller). God makes himself known for the good of those he loves. He makes himself known, even when there are obstacles to knowing him in our hearts and minds. Participating in his revealing love in each element of our worship, we should seek to illuminate some facet of who this God is, what he has said, what he has done, and how he has told us to relate to him through faith in Jesus, for the good of those with us.
Do you come to worship because you know you need to meet with God and his people for your own spiritual good—for your own edification? Do you also come to worship for the good of others who are there? Do you sometimes feel a guilty pressure to come to worship? If so, how do you process that? Thinking through the worship service, can you think of how each element is designed to reveal God for our relationship with him? Can you think of how your participation in that element might help others to know him and grow as disciples of Jesus? What are some ways we can accommodate ourselves to visitors during worship, to help them understand the Gospel and hopefully say “Amen” to it with us?
