"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth,” John 4:23-24.
God desires people to worship Him in spirit and in truth; this is the only form of worship which He will accept from man. So what does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth? It is perhaps best seen in the negative, in a charge which Jesus laid against the Israelites,
“These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men,” Matthew 15:8-9.
The Israelites worshipped and served, but it wasn’t accepted by Him; they neither worshipped with their heart, nor served according to His commandments.
The heart and the commandment are intricately woven together, as John says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments,” 1 John 5:3. He desires for us to love Him, but this love has as part of its expression obedience to His will. We can say and believe all we want that we love Him, but if we aren’t obedient, then we’ve shown by our actions that we don’t love Him, “For every tree is known by its own fruit,” Luke 6:44. A man’s works reveal his heart.
So our heart must be in it; we must not be ‘just going through the motions.’ And it must be in truth; but what is truth? This Jesus tells us, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth,” John 17:17. Since the word of God is truth, it follows that if He has given us either commandment or example as to what pleases Him, then this is the way in which we must worship Him in order to be pleasing and acceptable to Him.
He gives us an example of this very fact in the incident with Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, in Leviticus 10:1-3,
“Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘It is what the LORD spoke, saying, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.”’ So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.”
Nadab and Abihu worshipped God in a way which He had not commanded them. He shows that this is unacceptable to Him, and says, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.” We are not giving Him honor, nor treating Him as holy, if we do not worship Him according to the way He has shown us.
With the exception of our giving, the New Testament doesn’t spell out explicitly when, where, and how we are to worship; but this doesn’t mean we aren’t told when and how to worship. As Moses was shown a pattern on the mountain for how he was to construct the tabernacle, and was told, “And you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain,” Exodus 26:30, so we have been shown a pattern in the New Testament for how we are to worship, and we also are told to, “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus,” 2 Tim 1:13-14.
What day of the week do we worship?
There is but one day given prominence in the New Testament, and that is the first day of the week:
It is the day on which Christ arose, Mark 16:9, “Now when He rose early on the first day of the week…”
It is called the Lord’s Day, Rev 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day…”
It is the day on which we are to give of our means, 1 Cor 16:2, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”
Lastly, and most importantly, it is when the disciples came together for the purpose of breaking bread, that is, to take of the Lord’s Supper, Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…”
The example we are shown is to meet on the first day of the week.
What is to be done
We take of the Lord’s Supper, Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…”
Paul in giving his account of the instituting of it, says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes,” 1 Cor 11:26. In saying, “As often,” he implies it is to be done on an ongoing basis. As the disciples came together on the first day of the week to partake of it, so it is to be done on every first day of the week.
We give, 1 Cor 16:2, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”
We give a message from God’s word, Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”
We sing, Ephesians 5:19, “[S]peaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord…”
We pray, 1 Tim 2:8, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere…”
It is the men who are to conduct the service, 1 Tim 2:8, 11-12, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting…Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence,” and again, 1 Cor 14:34-35, “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.”