God’s Way, Not Ours – The Second Commandment

God’s Way, not Ours

Exodus 20:4, 5

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God…”

We are not to bow to anything other than God, nor to give our heartfelt devotion to any created thing. God calls us to show our love for Him by worshiping Him, bowing before Him in private and corporate acts designed to acknowledge His greatness and worthiness (the root of “worship”) and to remind us of our dependence upon Him. We must pay attention to everything God speaks in His Word about how we should worship Him. We are not free to pursue this activity any way we choose; worship is not about us and what we want. Worship is about God and what He prescribes as the kind of behavior that will help us remain devoted exclusively to Him. He knows what’s best to keep our hearts and minds focused on Him. We need to listen to what God has to say concerning how we are to worship Him.

How sure are you that the worship you offer to God each week – privately and in corporate worship – is what He has prescribed? How much do you really understand about worship, and the different elements and forms of worship?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.