Spiritual Theology

The message that we were created to glorify God is powerful and simple, yet hard to put into practice. Yet, what is not often spoken about what this means and does not mean.  Many Christians know that we are to glorify God but do not understand what it means, or how to live a life that glorifies God. Nor do they understand the blessings that come with living such a life. Many Christians are living a life that is not in accordance with His plans and purpose for them, leading to much frustration, anxiety, confusion, and emptiness. This is because they are not seeking out His purpose but instead, relying on their own plans for their own lives.

The Purpose and Meaning of Life

The purpose of life is to glorify God, for all things were created through Him, by Him, and for Him. We exist for His glory. We were created for His glory. He is the Author of our story. Since the purpose of life is to glorify God, the meaning of life is found in glorifying God. The meaning of life is to live a virtuous, holy life that pleases God. It is to live a life founded on loving God and loving others. Glorifying God is the end goal of life and the means of doing so is to live a life of self-sacrificial love for God and others.

The distinction between purpose and meaning is critical. The purpose is why something exists, occurs, or happens. The meaning is what has value or worth. The meaning serves the purpose. It is connected to the purpose by the action ordered towards the purpose. Meaning exists if the thing concerned is ordered towards its purpose. Meaning does not exist if the thing is not ordered towards its purpose. A thing has meaning only when used rightly in accordance with its design, which in turn is ordered towards purpose. The design reflects the purpose of the things. It also implies the existence of a designer or creator.

Meaning ceases to exist if the thing is not used rightly. There are two ways in which a thing may not be used rightly. The first is its neglect, the failure to put the thing into proper or good use. The second is its abuse, the wrongful use of the thing. Both may be the result of a lack of proper and sound instruction, or wrong instruction, leading to misguided use owing to ignorance. The latter may also be the result of vice, in spite of having proper instruction, such as pride or vainglory.

If something has a purpose, the opposite is purposelessness. Since God is the foundation of the existence of all things, both the visible and invisible, the seen and unseen, the temporal and eternal, in which all things were created through Him and for Him, and God pre-existed all things with no beginning or end, all things serve to glorify God (Colossians 1:16-17). That is the end goal or purpose, which is why anything exists. All things exist to glorify God. A purposeful life is one that strives to glorify God; a purposeless life is one that does not strive to glorify God but seeks to satisfy the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Therefore, the beginning of a purposeful life is the mortification of the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. As the scriptures warn:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

(1 John 2:15-17)

We were not created for this world or the things in this world. Such things in the world are not necessarily inherently evil, such as food, work, or licit leisure activities, but rather, that these are not the purpose of life. It is not that things such as eating good food, music, sport or collecting seashells are inherently sinful or illicit. Rather, it is that pursuing any pleasure, treasure, comfort, or security in this world is not the purpose of humankind. Thus, pursuing anything in this world as the purpose for living is contrary to the purpose of humankind. Such things are to be used in way that is rightly ordered towards God which is to glorify God.

If something is meaningful, then its opposite is meaninglessness. Meaninglessness is to live for the things of this world, pursuing, and loving such things, and indulging in the pleasures, treasures, and comforts this life brings, and making any such thing one’s security. Meaningfulness then is to reject living for the world and the things in this world, and not pursue its pleasures, treasures, and comforts, and to not make any earthly temporal thing one’s security. It is to seek the transcendent, the spiritual, the heavenly, the eternal.

Humankind intuitively knows that one is to seek that which is heavenly, eternal, spiritual, and transcendent as is evident in the world religions, which all teach that there is a higher power we must worship, and that we must be detached from the things of this world. Buddhism teaches detachment from the world and the things of world. Taoism teaches that one must reject materialism and not cling so hard to the things of this world, and aggressively chase any worldly pursuit or gain. Hinduism also teaches that materialism is a vice and that those who are materialistic will not ascend to higher levels of spirituality. Islam and Judaism also condemn materialism as disobedience to God.

The ancient Chinese had a concept of a heavenly God, and worshipped through sacrifices, rites, and rituals. The Temple of Heaven (天坛) was built precisely to worship what they believed to be the heavenly God. Indigenous cultures all over the world worship nature spirits as a higher power and believe that humankind must due reverence to those spirits. There are countless animist religions in various forms around the world, adapted to different cultures, which all believe in transcendence and the spiritual realm, and that humankind was created for the spiritual, not the material. Even secular people who profess no religion believe that excessive materialism and being caught up in the treadmill of the whole entire corporatist system of living and existing to work in the corporate or professional world for money is draining, tiring, and wearisome.  

Indeed, the human heart knows deep within it itself that it was not made to pursue the things of this world, but to pursue that which is transcendent. That even unspiritual secular people with a materialist outlook find excessive materialism wearisome, even meaningless, shows that the human heart craves for something non-material, and something in which to find repose. For the human heart was indeed created by God to find rest in Him. As Saint Augustine famously said in his classic work Confessions, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”

So, what does it mean to rest in God? Resting in God is to find peace and joy in God, total satisfaction and contentment in Him, in knowing that all is well in God who can be totally depended on. Despite the afflictions, hardships, sufferings, sorrows, or pain that one may endure, one’s heart is unmoved, and one’s soul is unflappable to any disturbances and distractions this world brings. It is a mark of maturity in the spiritual life, to be unaffected by such. Only when one has reached this stage of the spiritual life has one become detached from the world and the things of the world, can one worship God in the true, proper, complete, and perfect way.

Loving God is the True Worship of God

It is often assumed one worships God by attending church regularly, taking the sacraments, and serving in church, but true worship does not consist in such things. True worship of God begins in the entirety of one’s whole being, from one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and is manifested in living a life of holiness. It does not begin in outward actions. Nor does worship comprise of outward actions. True worship is to live a life pleasing to God, walking in holiness, out of a true love for God and the things of God. It is to be as God is, which is to be holy as Saint Peter exhorted, “Be holy, for [God is] holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

Religious people think that the worship of God comprises of church attendance, receiving the sacraments, tithing, and serving in church, and that as long as one does such things and live an (outwardly) moral lifestyle, one is worshipping God. This is a total misconception, and precisely what the Pharisees taught, that as long as people followed the rules as their rabbis taught, they are worshipping God. Jesus, however, rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical, false worship:

This people [honour] me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

(Matthew 15:8-9)

Worship that is outward only, without a true love for God, a heart that truly desires God, is not true worship. It is hypocrisy which God absolutely despises. Such false hypocritical worship is worship done in vain, for it is unacceptable to God. Quoting Hosea 6:6, Jesus said to the Pharisees: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). The Pharisees thought that the worship of God consisted of offering sacrifices, but Jesus corrected their understanding, teaching that being merciful toward others in exercising charity towards them is what God desires, for Christ ‘came not to call the righteous, but sinners’.

By contrast, not only is the true worship of God born out of a genuine love for God but is the love of God, from which stems the desire to do the will of God. For as Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Whoever truly loves Jesus will keep His commandments to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 25:37, 39) for on these two commandments ‘hang all the Law and the Prophets’ (Matthew 25:40).

On these Two Greatest Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets because these encapsulate what it means to worship God: to love God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself. Loving God is the foundation of all true worship of and obedience to God. Adhering to the commandments of God without a true love for God is worship no worship of God but an abomination to Him, for it is rebellion; one’s heart desires one’s own self-will and rejects His will, amounting to a mere pretence of holiness through outward adherence to His commands. It insults God by replacing true adherence to His moral law, which goes beyond mere outward adherence, with a false obedience that does right, but which will is disordered, all while calling it holy.

Contrary to what religious people think, the Christian faith is not a set of rules. Many professing Christians think they are all so holy because they do not commit murder, adultery, lie, or steal, as if holiness is simply about following the moral rules, and also perhaps the ceremonial rules and rituals that some denominations follow, as well as some rules that their pastor, priest, or spiritual director may impose. These may be rules that do not actually pertain to morality but are still imposed to supposedly not give the appearance to evil, such as rules about whether people can interact with people of the opposite sex, whether women can wear pants, whether young people can attend university, and whether people can listen to certain kinds of music, such as rock, metal, or rap. They think they are so worthy of praise and deserving of God’s blessings because of their supposedly higher level of morality that goes far beyond that of the average person in following these rules – including all kinds of arbitrary rules. Nor is the Christian faith fundamentally a moral system whereby as long as one is ‘moral’ according to some definition of it as one interprets it, one lives a life pleasing to God. If that is so, many unbelievers who do not believe in Jesus will be able to enter Heaven because of their impeccable moral conduct, such as the many Muslims and Jews who follow the moral law of God, impeccably and zealously.

Holiness is not mere ‘morality’. It goes far beyond mere outwardly moral conduct as prescribed in the scriptures and church encyclicals. Holiness is the purity of heart, soul, and mind, mortifying the lusts of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. It is the continual sanctification of the soul which continually draws closer to God and mortifies the flesh. It hates all sin, both in oneself and others, not because of the harm it brings to oneself, but because of a love for God and strives for perfection, with its sole focus being to do all that which is pleasing and acceptable before God.

Loving God and One’s Neighbours is to Live Virtuously before God

What then does it mean to truly love God? To love God is to humble oneself before Him (James 4:10), in continual repentance (1 John 1:9) and give thanks to Him for all things (Ephesians 5:20). It is to walk in humility, justice, and mercy (Micah 6:8). That is the true worship of God. It is to live a life that serves God and one’s neighbours, out of a self-sacrificial love for both God and one’s neighbours.

It is to place others before oneself, to be concerned about their plight, their hardships, their afflictions, their sufferings, their pain, their longings, their needs. As Saint Paul exhorts:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:1-11)

Even Jesus Himself who is equal to God did not demand to be treated as an equal of God, but made Himself a servant of God and humankind as a mediator between both so that we may be reconciled to God. It was Christ’s mercy and justice that moved Him to lay down His life for us so that we may be reconciled to God. Christ, who is God, acted justly and executed His wrath against all sin which is death. Christ had mercy on the whole of humankind, taking on the just punishment we deserve for our sins, by dying for the sins of the whole world.

Christ’s death for our sins so that we can be redeemed is the greatest act of love in human history: it is God’s unconditional, limitless, selfless, undeserved, unmerited, self-sacrificial, genuine, and wilful love, a love that still loves, despite being totally rejected, scorned, mocked, and despised by the beloved, who is you, I, and the whole of humankind – every single last one of us. God’s love is a love that is far deeper than any kind of human love could possibly be and cannot be fully comprehended by human understanding. It is a love that is manifest by the total surrender of one’s self-will for the good of others, for their sake, not only without seeking anything in return, but totally to one’s own loss, pain, and suffering. It is a love that still loves, and still pursues the good of the beloved, even if the sacrifice is unappreciated, mocked, scorned, or ridiculed.

Christ’s love is truly the only Perfect Love, the love that we should all strive to emulate, first by laying down our lives for Christ who first died for us and laying down our lives for others. This is impossible for us to do perfectly as long as we have not fully mortified the flesh, owing to the Adamic nature we all were born with, but we must strive to do so, in working out our Salvation (Philippians 2:12). For living a life of self-sacrificial love for God and one’s neighbours is to live a holy, virtuous life.

Humility is the Beginning of the True Worship of God

The barrier to growing in a greater love for God and one’s neighbour is pride, the cardinal vice, the mother of all other vices which kills all virtue. In laying down His life for us, despite being equal to God Himself, Christ humbled himself in all manner of humility to become a servant. Christ who is just, died an unjust death. Christ who is deserving of all glory, honour, and praise, died an inglorious, dishonourable, unpraiseworthy, and undeserving death. Christ humbled himself to die the most humiliating death one could possibly die: for those who despised, mocked, and scorned him, in seeking to reconcile them to Himself to be in communion with Him, after they first rejected Him and were hostile towards Him in their enmity towards God. Not only that, He received the eternal punishment from God that his enemies deserved, having descended into Hell, and in so doing became completely separated from the love of God, His Father, with whom He had reigned co-eternally from the beginning over all the things, seen and unseen, visible and invisible. Only on the Third Day did He resurrect from the dead to defeat the sting of sin and the destruction of death. As the scriptures state:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

(Romans 5:6-11)

It is because of His humility that Christ was able to bring Himself to completely lay down His life for the whole of humankind so that whoever will call on the Name of the Lord will be saved, even knowing that many will reject Him. Humility is the beginning of holiness and the key to attaining all virtue. Without humility, there can be neither holiness nor virtue. Humility is the surrender of one’s self-will towards God and becoming dependent on God. All sin begins with self-will, in striving for independence from God. Independence from God is the essence of sin, for the essence of sin is the rejection of God and His love for us. Independence from God does not only involve pride, but is pride, for it is to deny the glory of God and arrogate it for oneself. The essence of pride is striving for one’s own glory; the essence of humility is living to glorify God and God alone.

Before one can worship God truly, one must fall prostate before God, and come to repentance before Christ, but true worship does not end there. Though requisite, humility alone is not enough to amount to the true worship of God. The worship of God must be in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). As the scriptures testify:

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

(John 4:24)

Worship of God must be in Spirit and in Truth

Worship cannot be done blindly but must be done in truth. One must come to the truth to worship rightly and that truth is Christ. It is not merely that the truth required to worship is in Christ; the truth is Christ Himself. For Christ is the mediator between God and humankind, whose death and resurrection is God’s grace to the whole world, enabling whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and calls on the Lord Jesus to be reconciled to God (Romans 10:13-15). Since God is the foundation of the world, and the Great ‘I AM’, who created all things, defines all things and is sovereign over all things, all things exist for His glory and all of humankind is to worship Him, giving due glory to God (Exodus 3:13-15, Colossians 1:16). Since humankind has lost its communion with God by rejecting God, it must be reconciled to Him, and that reconciliation is through Jesus who declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Jesus is the truth, for He is God, the definitive article, the beginning and end of all things, the foundation of all things, seen and unseen, visible and invisible, temporal and eternal. Truth is that which determines all other things. Jesus is the way, for He is the Mediator between God and humankind, whose death and resurrection offers the whole of humankind the means to be reconciled to God and live out its true purpose which is to worship God. Jesus is the life for in Christ is eternal life, the life that we were all created for, to enjoy communion with God for eternity.

Worship of God out of ignorance of the truth, such as that done by heretics or professing Christians with unsound doctrines is not only in vain, but an abomination to God. Unsound churches who worship God by speaking false tongues, pronouncing false prophecies and performing false miracles are not worshipping God in truth. Their preachers are false teachers who lead many astray to destruction. Their teachings appear spiritual and godly, but is unspiritual and ungodly, often using religious hypocrisy as an excuse to justify their error. They pervert scripture to justify seeking after the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Such perversion of scripture is the result of not worshiping God in truth. Such people proclaim the Name of Jesus, but do not truly know Jesus.

The worship of God must also be in spirit. Worship of God cannot be done in the flesh or by the works of the flesh, for it cannot obey God, ‘for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God’ (Romans 8:7-8). It is not merely by not committing the sins of the flesh as enumerated in Galatians 5:19-21, such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, unrighteous anger, and envy that one pleases God. These are merely the manifestations of living in the flesh, not the essence of living in the flesh. Since these are merely manifestations, not committing these sins of the flesh does not indicate that one is holy and virtuous. A person could be free of such sins, but still ungodly and unholy before God.  

Religious people love to point to the sins of the unbeliever and think of themselves to be so holy and so godly because they do not commit certain sins, such as drunkenness, adultery, or homosexuality. They think that abstaining from these select sins is what makes them holy before God. This idea, however, is utterly erroneous and heretical. Religious people are full of all kinds of lusts in the heart, envy, jealousies, and pride, and are always trying to find ways to justify it by perverting scripture, or the teachings of the church fathers. They are full of prideful, self-righteous anger, strife, dissensions, divisions, enmity, rivalries, as well as idolatry – all of which are as much sins of the flesh which they selectively interpret to only include sexual immorality, impurity, sorcery, drunkenness and orgies to justify their own sins. God hates all sins, not just certain sins religious people see in or target for criticism in others. The essence of all sin is rebellion against God, not in outward actions. Rebellion against God is the rejection of God and His love. Such sins are such, not because of the outward actions of these sins, but because of the privation of love for God. The sins of the flesh are always the result of detachment from God and the love of the flesh.

Piety towards God and Charity towards Neighbours is True Holiness

True holiness is not defined by simply abstaining from certain sins, but by practising charity, the cardinal virtue from which all other virtues flow. Jesus did not say to the sheep on the right that they would enter Heaven because they did not commit the sins of the flesh, such as adultery and drunkenness. Rather, it was because they practiced works of compassion for the needy out of a love for Christ, that they would enter Heaven:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

(Matthew 25:31-40)

Practising works of compassion for the needy is the heart of the Gospel, for it is the greatest act of love for one’s neighbour. Such is the greatest love for one’s neighbour, when one lays down one’s life for one’s neighbours, placing them above oneself in humility. It is easy to love those who have something to offer one for one’s own satisfaction, but this is not true agape (ἀγάπη) love. Agape love is the type of love that is spiritual, sublime, limitless, transcendent, unconditional, and unmerited by the beloved – that is the essence of what true love is. If one loves someone for what one can receive or gain from them, what good is that? What merit is that to you? There is no merit in loving someone for what one can receive or gain from him. For as Christ said:

If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

(Luke 6:32-36)

Love is not supporting or appreciating only those who support or appreciate you. Love is to will the good of others for their own sake, loving them as one would naturally love oneself, which is to put oneself and will one’s own good first. Love wills the good of the beloved, even if one does not receive or gain anything. Love perseveres even when it is hard to love the beloved, even when it hurts. Love endures the pain and strives to endure the pain. Love does not demand or even expect to be reciprocated. Instead, love simply wills the good of the beloved, no matter what the cost, how much it hurts, what one must endure, or what the beloved has done. The true measure of love is how much one is willing to endure pain, suffering, hardship, or affliction, purely for the sake of the beloved, and only purely for their sake.

Jesus died for our sins to reconcile us to Him out of His unconditional love for us, in spite of being sinners who scorned, mocked, and despised him (Isaiah 53:3). Likewise, to demonstrate his unconditional love, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute, Gomer, who was unchaste, unfaithful, and persisted in her unfaithfulness (Hosea 1:2). She did not love him and that was exactly what God was demonstrating. Despite the Israelites not loving Him at all, even despising him, He still did because that is what love is: to love despite not being loved back. Not only was he not loved by Gomer but being despised by her in her unfaithfulness, Hosea was also in a marriage covenant with her to which he was bound to be faithful to her, in spite of her unfaithfulness. This made his love for her all the more outrageous, crazy, insane, unfathomable, and unreasonable to human eyes, but that is exactly what God’s love for us is: love which loves unconditionally, limitlessly, selflessly, totally unmerited and totally undeserving – even deserving the opposite. How great is God’s love for us indeed! It is wonderous, unfathomable, unreasonable, and amazing!

The true worship of God then is to love God as He first loved us, and to emulate Him by practising such unconditional love towards others, to love people regardless of how they may treat us, how they may make us feel, or whether they offend us. To worship God is to be holy and live a virtuous life before God. Worshipping God does not comprise in works, even in acts of mercy towards the needy, but in holiness and virtue by exercising piety towards God and charity towards one’s neighbours. Acts of mercy towards the needy count for nothing, if not done out of piety towards God leading to charity towards one’s neighbours:

“Then [Jesus] will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

(Matthew 25:41-46)

Religious people who do such works only to gain favour from God, and not out of true piety before God and a self-sacrificial love for their neighbours are among such people! Such are those who profess Christ and have an appearance of holiness, but do not truly love Jesus and who blaspheme God by their profession of Christ but lack all manner of charity! Unbelievers are made ‘twice the son of hell’ by such people, as Jesus said of the Pharisees (Matthew 23:15) because of their false, hypocritical profession of Christ. They place a stumbling block before people.

These are the people who are arrogant, haughty, smug behind their wealth, and who attend church every Sunday, but who live like the people of world, in wanting to just enjoy this life, and having no care about those who are in pain, those who are broken, those who are suffering, and those who are needy. Such are those who neither know the true Gospel, nor live out the Gospel, despite being religious. That is a tragedy. That is a wasted life. That is a life that gives the unbeliever an excuse to blaspheme Christ, as opposed to one that causes the unbeliever to glorify God in seeing one’s good works done out of a genuine love for God and one’s neighbour.

How to Truly Worship God

True worship of God is piety towards God, and charity towards one’s neighbours, including one’s enemies. It is to love Jesus and emulate Jesus in his love for sinners, who despite being enemies, sought to reconcile us to God Himself, to walk in communion with Him, and find everlasting peace, joy, and love in Christ.

True worship of God requires one to humble oneself before Him in repentance, making oneself a servant of others just as Christ did, who despite being equal to God, made Himself a servant for all of humankind, dying the most humiliating, unjust death for the sake of those who mocked, scorned, and despised Him, so that they may be reunited with Him.

True worship of God is in spirit and in truth. Worshipping God in spirit requires one to mortify the flesh and its works, for one cannot worship God in the flesh or by any work of the flesh. The flesh is hostile towards God and the things of God, and so anyone who truly worships God does so by the power of the Holy Spirit, and mortifies the flesh. Worshipping in truth requires one to worship God in Christ, through Christ, and by His Power. It is impossible to truly worship God without Christ, for Salvation is through Christ alone.

We were created by God to glorify Him which is to love God and worship Him as the ultimate end. That is the true purpose of life. The true meaning of life is to live a holy and virtuous life before God, in piety towards God and charity towards one’s neighbours, ordered towards glorifying God.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

(Hosea 6:6)