We will all be sadly familiar with church disputes, and perhaps even divisions, over Sunday worship. For example, what do we sing in worship and with what accompaniment? Who can take part in various parts of the service? These are important questions, but a greater question is, how should we approach the whole topic of determining what we do and don’t do in Sunday worship?
Indeed, it is only in answering that question that we can find a stable basis to determine anything else. Without this foundation, our answer to other questions will simply be shaped by tradition and our personal cultural preferences. In other words, worship will be what we like, but with no real basis for why. Thankfully, the Bible does tell us how we should approach what we do in Sunday worship. The principle it sets out is clear: in worship we do what God wants and nothing more or less.
The Second Commandment and worship
This is drawn from the Second Commandment: ‘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’ (Exodus 20:4). Perhaps this seems a little perplexing. How do we get from a command about idols to a general principle about worship?
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