Is “All Of Life” Worship?
IS “ALL OF LIFE” WORSHIP?
Yeow Chin Kiong
A "worship service" of the churches of Christ refers to the Sunday (i.e."first day of the week") assembly (i.e. "coming together") of Christians (i.e. "disciples" or "learners" of Christ, Acts 11:26) to participate in five distinct acts of worshipping God as instructed by His word. These acts are prayer (Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 14:13-17), singing hymns (1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16), hearing God's word preached and taught (Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 14:18-19; 23-25), partaking of the Lord's Supper, i.e. "breaking of the bread" (Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 11:20-21; 23-33) and the collection for the saints (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
The scriptures regarding these necessary elements of worship in assembly written by Paul have been categorically declared as "the commandments of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 14:36-38). Paul's teachings of his "ways in Christ" have been taught "everywhere in every church" (1 Corinthians 4:16-17; see also 1 Corinthians 16:1), being authoritative.
The Christian, as a disciple or "learner" of Christ (Acts 11:26), should never go beyond the word of God as preserved in scripture. In Paul's warning of the divisions in the church which going beyond the inspired word can bring about, Christians are warned, "... that you may learn in us (i.e. Paul and the early church evangelist Apollos) not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. For who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have which you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Corinthians 4:6-7).
In the early 1980's a few influential brethren among the Malaysian and Singaporean churches began to circulate the teaching that "ALL life is worship." They did this to push back against the sound churches' insistence upon staying true to the elements of worshipping God as He has laid them in His word. These unsound brethren swung the worship pendulum to the extreme by suggesting that ALL of life can constitute "worship," i.e. devotion directing all honor and glory to God. The bottom line was that, to them, any and every conduct and activity of men and women can be offerred as "worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24). By implication, their position sets aside the need to practise any of the elements of scriptural worship in assembly. To them, brethren would not even need to assemble at all to worship, not even if they are NOT hindered from doing so! After all, "ALL of life" gives them unlimited possibility to replace the scriptural elements of worship with anything and everything in life, including aspects of life which God hates. For the obvious example, sin is undeniably a part of the life of any human of the age of accountability (1 John 1:8-10). We must confess and leave our sins (Acts 3:19), NOT worship God with them unwashed from us.
Indeed, it has been proposed to our All-life-is-worship brethren that their mistake is not in their being wrong about their understanding concerning the concept of "worship." Clearly, it is their misunderstanding of the meaning of the simple English word "ALL," which means "without exception". In truth, all life is NOT worship; only what God in His word says constitutes worship is. It is not for the worshipper to insist otherwise.