ViaCrucis
Confessional Lutheran
- Oct 2, 2011
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Love is fine. But why worship?
If one's mother is worthy of love; then God, being God, ought to be likewise regarded as worthy of love, high esteem, praise (etc). That is the etymology of the English "worship", worth+ship (from Old English worðscip). Worship, as a noun, states the condition or the state of worthiness (hence the archaic use as an honorific); as a verb it is the act of acknowledging that worth. That the object of praise, honor, etc is--indeed--worthy of it.
The act of loving one's own mother, or of acts of filial devotion, are indeed a sort of "motherly worship"; to acknowledge that one's mother is worthy of being loved, of being honored, of being treated a certain way.
If one is able to understand why a mother would be worth being loved by her own son or daughter; then it shouldn't be terribly difficult to understand the idea that God--as Creator of all things, as Sovereign of the universe, as He who is absolute Love and all Good (etc)--is worthy of being lauded, adored, to receive praise and honor from the lips and lives of His people.
If God is who Christ and the Scriptures have revealed Him to be--the good and heavenly Father from whom are all blessings, the good Creator God, One who willingly invests Himself into the suffering of the world through the sending of the Son, etc--then it's kind of a "well, duh" in my mind. Why would I not, how could I not speak thanks and praise to and of this God? Acknowledge that this One is worthy of it, exceedingly so.
-CryptoLutheran
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