Worship Matters, Part 4 October 1, 2008
Posted by AUC Worship Administrator in Worship and Community, Worship and Spiritual Formation.trackback
Another excerpt from Worship Matters:
We can’t claim to fulfill the greatest commandment in song while neglecting the second greatest commandment in life.
God calls us to set an example in love. The love he calls us to is grounded in his character, not ours. It’s more than our culture’s idea of being tolerant or experiencing sexual attraction. Our love is fleeting, slef-centered, and polluted. God’s love is eternal, sacrifical, and holy.
God describes love as being “patient,” “kind,” humble, polite, thoughtful, forgiving, hopeful, and enduring (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Are those your attitudes after a worship service where the mix was bad and the vocalists were out of tune? When members of the church criticize you, do you respond with blame-shifting and accusations, or do you respond with patience and humility?
How would your wife [or husband] and children evaluate your example of love? Your pastor? You church? Non-Christians? When we fail to set an example in love, our ability to lead others in worship is seriously compromised.
How do we grow in love? The best place to start is remembering the love that God showed to us through giving his Son for us at Calvary. “By this, we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16).
“Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). In that way, we’ll be leading others in worship with our lives.
I love that first line, “We can’t claim to fulfill the greatest commandment in song while neglecting the second greatest commandment in life.” Seems like we try to do this often – claim to love God but forget about loving others. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20) The more I read 1st John these days the more I ask myself everyday, “Do I really love God? Is the way I’m loving and treating others authnticating my claimed love for God or am I merely lying to myself and the world?”