November 7–13

This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.

 

Lesson 7: “Worship in Education”

As the lesson rightly points out, we humans will inevitably worship something or someone.

Worship. According to Merriam-Webster, there are several possible definitions of the word:

1. To honor or show reverence for, as a divine being or supernatural power. This includes the act of expressing that reverence—worshiping.
2. To regard with great or extravagant respect, honor or devotion.
3. A form of religious practice with its creed and ritual.

The Bible has many commands from God to honor Him and to show Him reverence (worship), and there are quite a few commands for just how we are to worship Him. 

In the Old Testament, Israel worshiped in the Tabernacle and later, the Temples, following a very specifically laid-out performance of that worship. Their entire worship system was not only to show their reverence for God but also to set aside their sin and to point them forward to the time when their faith would become reality in the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God.

In the New Testament, the New Covenant, our worship is no longer to be an outward form or ceremony but rather an inward worship of the heart. The Holy Spirit is sealed in every believer and our spirit worships Him (John 4:23).

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are some outward behaviors that are indications of our inward dedication to God, but they are expressions of what is in our hearts, not a form or practice that in themselves have any power to change our hearts.

Our problem seems to come as described in the second definition above, not when worship is directed at God but when it is directed towards other things or people: our wealth, our looks or possessions. Or, as the lesson says: “… money, power, sex, themselves, rock stars, actors, politicians.”

Or even the Law. 

You may wonder why I include the Law, but it is a serious problem for a lot of people who call themselves Christians. They forgot—or perhaps never knew—that being a Christian is all about a relationship, not “doing”. They may earnestly try to obey a list of rules and laws while not giving more than lip service to the Giver of life. They think it is all about doing, not being, without quite realizing that no one can ever “do” enough to measure up to God’s standard—which is perfection.

When we do realize that painful truth, it tends to lead to one of two extremes—either we try even harder while comparing our assumed success to the apparent failure of others to make ourselves feel superior. Or we give up in despair when we realize that we can never be good enough.

But the Bible offers a third option—stop “doing” and start “being”. Rest in the promise of eternal life in Jesus (John 3:15, 16; 1 John 5:13; John 6:40; John 17:3; Romans 6:22; Galatians 6:8 and many others).

Rest in the certainty that He did all that is required for our salvation and just accept it by faith (Ephesians 2:8).

Rest in the knowledge that all of our sins are already forgiven (Micah 7:19; Galatians 1:4; 1 John 4:10).

Rest in the knowledge that Jesus lives His life in you (Galatians 2:20).

When Jesus said: “Come unto Me all you who labor and are weary and I will give you rest”, He wasn’t talking about giving you one or two days off each week. He was talking about salvation and our trusting Him to hold us safe. We no longer have to work to earn it or keep it, as He promised to never lose anyone who comes to Him. 

The lesson has a remarkably true statement here:

“Whatever we love the most, whatever we focus most of our attention on, whatever we live for, that is what we worship.”

The really sad thing is that so many people essentially worship the Law without realizing that it brings only death, never life. It’s whole purpose was to point to our hopeless condition and the fact that our only hope is in Christ, not to be a way of earning forgiveness or eternal life. 

Read 1 Corinthians 15:56 which says “the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”. 

The “sting” of death, the painful, final reality of it, is sin that condemns us and our very nature which is dead in sin unless it is made alive in Christ. And notice that the power of sin is the law. According to Romans 3:20, the purpose of the law is to point out our sin, not to save us from sin. In fact the whole of Romans 7 is quite clear that the law kills while the Spirit gives life. 

If you think that once the Law, the tutor (Galatians 3:23-25) came you have to revert back to the Law to keep yourself saved, you are not trusting in Jesus to keep you. All of Galatians, but particularly chapter 3, is quite clear—if you want to keep the Law you have to keep all of it. And, since that is humanly impossible, the Law brings only death, not life. 

The lesson quotes Jesus from John 4:

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” 

But somehow, the author does not seem to understand what it means to worship God “in spirit”:

“True worship of the Lord must be “in spirit,” that is, it must stem from love of God, from the experience of knowing Him personally.”

I may be misunderstanding him here, but this seem to reduce worshiping in spirit to merely “knowing God personally”. There seems to be no understanding that it is our spirit that worships God, not just our mind, even though Jesus was quite clear in what He said. And having His Spirit in us is the only way that we can possibly “know Him personally”.

This longer quote from the lesson says something profound:

“We can be tempted to worship ideas that have been postulated, theorized, and put into practice. We also can deify the brilliant minds of the philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians who trademarked these ideas. The problem is that often these ideas can clash with Scripture, yet because they are now currently taught and believed to be true, people try to incorporate them into Christian education. However, the only way that can be done is to compromise the faith, which often means twisting and distorting the Scriptures in order to try to make Scripture fit with current ideas.”

In this week’s lesson alone, there are numerous examples of “twisting and distorting Scripture” to make it fit in with cherished Adventist ideas. The twists include things like this:

• worship in the last days (meaning keeping the seventh-day Sabbath) 
• using Revelation 14 to push the idea of a last-days command to obey the 10 Commandments
• the denial of the Biblical truth that we have a spirit
• the idea that “true worship” is simply a matter of obeying commands
• a complete denial of the Biblical reality of hell and the lake of fire
• equating our spirit with mere emotion
• limiting the result of sin to “ugly, damaging and degrading” while ignoring the greater reality of the death of our spirit which we inherited from Adam

But the worst twist is found in Friday’s lesson, in a quote from Ellen White, in Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2:

“They seem to think a profession of the truth will save them. When those sins which God hates are subdued, Jesus will come in and sup with you and you with him. You will then draw divine strength from Jesus, and you will grow up in him, and be able with holy triumph to say, Blessed be God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

While it is true that merely saying you believe will not save you, this quote openly contradicts Scripture by saying that Jesus will not come in until you subdue sins (become sinless). And then it tops that by saying that once you have stopped sinning, THEN (and only then) you will have “divine strength from Jesus”!

One problem with this view is that it is not the sins people commit that are the problem—it is the fact that they have not accepted the forgiveness of sin provided on the cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit that made dead spirits live.

Furthermore, this completely reverses the Biblical way—no one even comes to God unless He draws them first. And this side of heaven, no one will stop sinning; this fact was the reason for Paul’s cry of desperation in Romans 7 where he acknowledges that even though his spirit is alive in Christ, his flesh still sins. 

If we have to stop sinning before we can “grow in Jesus” no one would ever be saved. Praise God that that is not the Biblical reality! †