Brother H. A. "Buster" Dobbs, the distinguished editor of the FIRM FOUNDATION, whom I have not met, writes, "I carry your name before the throne,. He is a man of God dedicated to New Testament Christianity. He has written much and admirably exposing "change agents," but now, I am sorry to say, he himself has made a change from New Testament Christianity:

Truly we should at all time have a right (respectful) attitude toward our parents, but it does not mean "unceasing" attention to our parents. We might be mowing the lawn or doing laundry or playing a guitar, but our respect for our parents remains unchanged and "unceasing."

Similarly, we should at all times have a right (worshipful) attitude toward God, but it does not mean "unceasing" worship. We might be mowing the lawn or doing laundry or playing the guitar, but our worshipful attitude toward God remains unchanged and "unceasing." This is because worship requires meditation (indeed, worship is meditation), and "unceasing" meditation is impossible. The "right (worshipful) attitude toward God" most of the time is in the back of our minds, but in the back or in the front, it is "unceasing."

Webster defines the word "attitude" as "a mental state, emotion, or mood." Respect for parents and worship of God are both mental and emotional, internal and non-physical. At times, not all the time, both respect for parents and worship of God are mad visible by external and physical actions, but the mental act of respect and worship remains internal and non-physical.

Brother Dobbs uses the vivid word "ongoing" to describe the "right attitude" toward God. Truly, the "right attitude" toward our parent and toward God is "ongoing." But the outward and physical expressions of the "right attitude" toward God and our parents are not continuous: they are punctuated by stop and go.

Brother Dobbs mistakenly writes, "To distinguish between the worship and the act it prompts may require a very sharp scalpel." Since worship is mental, and any act it prompts is physical, the distinction between worship and the act it may prompt is always clear.

The essence of worship is nothing physical. To worship is "to adore or to pay divine honors to a deity; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration" (Webster). For years I erred in speaking of the "five acts of worship." I did not understand the word "worship." The "fruit of the lips," singing, is not worship in itself, but it accompanies worship in the heart (Hebrews 13:15; 1 Corinthians 14:15). As long as men can honor God "with their lips" while "their heart is far from" God (Matthew 15:8), so long it is true that worship itself is wholly internal.

One uses hands and mouth in observing the Lords Supper, but the worship is in meditating on the wounded and bleeding body of Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:29). Some children bussed in for a five o’clock Bible story at the Northwest Church in Oklahoma City, wandering into a class room where the bread and the fruit of the vine had been prepared for the night services, helped themselves to the bread and grape juice. What the children did with hands and mouth is exactly the same that worshipers do. The only difference is internal.

As with singing, and as with the Lord’s Supper, so with the other three "acts of worsip" (as I formerly called them), the praying, the contribution, and Bible reading. Nothing external is worship. So I learned to speak of five expressions of worship, five acts that accompany worship. Finally I had learned "the quintessence of the essence" (a phrase borrowed for the late and beloved M. S. Mason) as to what worship really is.

Worship, then, is only one thinking. It is a soul communing with his Maker. It is contemplation of the Father. It is absorption in adoration of the I AM, BECAUSE I AM (Exodus 3:14; Psalm 96:1-13; Revelation 4:11; 5:9-13).

Brother Dobbs wonders "where the words doxia, lateria, and threskeia fit into this worship equation?"

Of the numerous appearances of doxa, "glory," in the New Testament, the one in Luke 2:14 fits beautifully "into this worship equation:" a "multitude from heaven with" and "angel" were "praising God, ‘Glory to God in the highest’" (Luke 2:14). Since worship is praising God, one way to worship is to give God doxa, glory.

Concerning lateria (latreia, "service" or "worship") brother Dobbs believes that "the NIV is about right in rendering the word … worship" in Romans 12:1. The context of lateria in Romans 9:4 points to NIV’s "temple worship," but the context of lateria in Romans 12:1 demands the translation "service," for "worship" only takes place in the mind (a stop and go meditation), which is not true in Romans 12:1. Romans 12:1 involves the physical "bodies" of all Christians as "living sacrifices" from their baptism until they die, twenty-four hours a day, involving, in brother Dobbs" words, "the whole of the life of the truly consecrated person." However, no one can worship, praising God in his heart, twenty-four hours a days. Therefore of the two meanings of latreia, only "service" fits Romans 12:1.

Brother Dobbs wonders how threskeia, "religion," (James 1:27) fits "into this worship equation." The aspect of religion depicted by threskeia is especially "external, that which consists in ceremonies" (Thayer), "outward forms of divine service" (Abbott-Smith). Hence threskeia religion is physical, external, and visible. One can be "religious" (threskos, James 1:26) by singing and praying aloud, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, and not worship at all. James does not equate care for orphans and widows as acts of worship, but he shows that "outward forms of divine service" (as, singing, the Lord’s Supper, etc) constitute a vain religion, impure and defiled, unless coupled with helping the needy.

Lest this article gets too long, let me close by saying I appreciate brother Dobbs’ writing, and whole-heartedly I agree with him that divinely given commands, "singing, praying, studying, communing, and giving," are "acts produced by worship."