We’re designed to worship God, to delight in Him, to enjoy Him, to praise Him. Unspeakable joy in God is our calling, our destiny, to be continually adoring and reveling in the divine nature. (1Pe 1:8)
Jesus says our worship must be in spirit and in truth. (Jn 4:24) What we believe about God matters; it defines Who we worship. To the degree our thinking about God is off our worship will be in vain.
Not all worship is good; in fact, a lot of it’s worthless. (Mt 15:9) Feeling close to God when we’re singing and praying doesn’t help if we’re deceived about who He is. How dreadful to find that in all our feel good we were being seduced by a counterfeit spirit, worshiping a false Jesus! (2Co 11:4) Many who think they’re serving Him will end up here. (Mt 7:21-3)
But the godward heart says, “I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.” (Ps 119:7) We can rightly worship God only to the extent that our hearts are aligned with His Law. As God’s Law, Torah, reveals Who He is and what He’s like, so our attitude towards Torah reveals who we are and what we’re like. (Ro 8:7)
We can’t separate love for God from loving (Ro 7:22) and obeying His law. (Jn 14:15, 24) We must pursue a right knowledge of God and His ways so that our worship will be in truth, rooted in obedience. Making it up as we go, thinking we know good and evil on our own, or letting others define it for us, is pointless.
God’s children worship Him in the spirit, from the heart, and rejoice in Christ Jesus (Php 3:3), … longing to know Him as He really is. (Php 3:10)
In line with what your share, this scripture encourages: And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. The point that we need to receive 🙂 a LOVE of the Truth.
Yes, my friend. You site a foundation text: the love of the truth defines the children of God very simply and completely. It’s not exactly what we know, it’s why we want to know it.