“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
In reflecting upon what constitutes worship, we realize it is simply about how mankind relates to and interacts with the Supreme Being, God. We deal with one another according to a certain equality, but giving the supreme place is worship activity by its very nature.
God made us to be in harmony with His supremacy by designing us to order our lives with respect to what we hold supreme. And this is exactly what every human being does.
We are somewhat like a computer that has one file which could be labeled “The Supreme.” And all activity is carried on and revolves around maintaining in first place whatever is entered into that file.
Now the computer analogy falls somewhat short in view of the complexity and depth of the human constitution, as indicated in the opening verse above. God should be loved supremely with the heart, soul, and mind. Since He is supreme, His will should always be done with no defection. His glory should be the supreme purpose of life. His Word should be believed and obeyed supremely over all humanistic ideas.
It would be an endless process to try to list the ways the supremacy of God should impact humanity.
The problem is that sin has corrupted the “Supreme File” in Satan’s effort to overthrow God from His rightful place in human hearts. Now self-gratifying idols are given the supreme place. And, to make things even worse, the conflict facing mankind has been subtly misrepresented.
The “sin-virus” seeks to escape detection by proposing the idea that the real conflict is not between two kinds of worship lives but between being religious or being intellectual - Bible vs. science.
Some are pretending their superior intellect lifts them above the “primitive” level of worshippers. However, this is a scam, a trick, a canard.
The truth is they do not worship the God of the Bible but deep in their hearts is a “Supreme File” filled with something. They also have assigned something or some group of things a supreme place in their lives that cannot be explained strictly by intellectual or rational exercise. They worship too.
A little investigation into the life of the Atheist with the guidance of the Bible will soon reveal that he too is directed in the deepest sense, not by science texts but by his gods.
Ian Kurylyk is pastor at Summerside Fundamental Baptist Church.
