I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 ESV
Greek to English word for word: I exhort therefore you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to present the bodies of you a sacrifice living, holy, to God well pleasing, which is [the] reasonable service of you.
The ‘word’ worship in Greek here is λατρεία / latreia / (lat-ri’-ah) usually translated as divine worship, service, service of worship.
Biblehub: “John 16:2 records Jesus’ warning: “They will put you out of the synagogues; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God”. Here, service is tragically misdirected zeal—a sober reminder that ritual without truth can persecute true worshipers instead of glorifying God.”
So… what really is ‘worship’? The author of Romans is trying to convey to the reader that the real worship of God is really presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. This is a daily 24/7 thing. This is a terminally committed to Christ thing. This is NOT a Sunday service song / singing time. What is the Sunday singing time? Praise. There is a difference. We SHOULD absolutely praise God!! There is SO much to praise God for!! But let’s not confuse the definitions between praise and worship.
Biblehub: ““I urge you, brothers, … to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship”. Paul shifts the location of service from a building to the believer’s very body. Every arena of conduct—work, family, citizenship—becomes sacred space when offered to God through Christ. Early Christians gathered around Scripture, prayer, breaking of bread, and mutual service (Acts 2:42-47). Temple imagery continued—elders as overseers, deacons as servants—and yet the locus of worship was clearly Christ Himself, risen and present among His people. The church understood itself as “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), fulfilling Israel’s calling to mediate God’s glory to the nations.”
The REAL worship of God is a person allowing their own body, soul, and spirit to be filled and directed by the Holy Spirit, that it becomes His very dwelling place / temple. Our lives and bodies to be totally 100% given to Him for His use and direction… that is the worship spoken about in Romans 12:1.
The enemy wants to dilute the language we use. The enemy wants to redefine the meanings of the words we use. The whole goal is to confuse and dilute the understanding of the true and real things of God. This began at the very beginning in the Garden with Adam and Eve, and the enemy is STILL using this same strategy today. Let’s be wise and discerning and study the scriptures (original language) and listen to the Holy Spirit that we might know the Truth for ourselves so as not to only be reliant on other human teachers / preachers / “spiritual” leaders, but on the Holy Spirit as our MAIN Teacher.
Are you willing and ready to worship God today? Are you willing to follow His instructions today? Are you listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit inside you? Are you ready for the divine appointments He has set for you today? Will you recognize them?
1 thought on “What is worship?”
I was on a prayer walk with a friend this morning talking about this very thing. We talked about the relationship between worship and submission. This post really helped refine and clear up what the Lord was pointing out to me. Worship as we know it is best demonstrated through a lifestyle of submission. The problem is that we have relegated worship to singing a song, doing a dance, laying on our faces, but our very lives seem to be completely disconnected from being submitted to the Lord. Submission is the issue, dare I say one of the most prominent ways to demonstrate a heart of worship.
We were talking about people that dealt with specific sin issues like sexual immorality, homosexuality, and porn. I speculated that one of the reasons that so many struggle with worship and belonging to a community of believers is because of a lack of submission. Intimacy is stifled because we would rather make excuses for our behavior rather than laying it down in submission to the Lord. It made me realize that our lives of intimacy and worship may be stifled because our spiritual act of worship is demonstrated via the submission of ourselves to the Spirit of God. No matter our issues, are we living a life of submission to His Word, His Voice, His Spirit?