Worship

Greek word - (proskuneo G4352)

Quiz - Choose the answer that is closest to what you think WORSHIP is.
A - what is done at church
B - to praise
C - to reverence
D - to bow down

Problem - Misleading, Incorrect, Misused

KJV Example - "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

Explanation

Worship has many meanings today. The main meaning given to it is praise, singing, and prayer. Worship is also often used to identify the main Sunday morning service of a church, the Worship Service. This is different from what worship used to mean.

Our style of worship has changed a lot in the past one hundred years. It used to be quiet and reverent with heads bowed. Now it is loud and exciting with hands and heads raised to heaven. This has affected the way this word is understood in the Bible.

This new style of worship in Christianity is different than worship in other religions. In other religions, worshippers come to their temples or shrines and bow before their deity. Christians only bow their heads when they pray. Bowing is not what they do when they worship.

The King James Version translates a few different Greek words as worship. Each of them mean something different. The one I am talking about in this lesson is proskuneo, the most common one. It is the Greek word behind 60 of the 80 times worship appears in the New Testament. It is also similar in meaning to the Old Testament Hebrew word for worship, shachah.

52 times that the Old Testament tells of someone bowing, it is this Hebrew word for worship translated as bow instead of worship. 99 times it is translated as worship and 9 times as do obeisance. So in the Old Testament, worship is bowing.

Proskuneo means the same thing. It means to prostrate oneself in homage. It literally means to kiss (kuneo) forward (pros). It is what a person does when he comes before a king. It is how Christians are supposed to show submission to their God, their King of Kings. But Christians do not bow to their king.

What I have just told you about the word, worship, is nothing new. It has been around for over a hundred years. Thayer in 1889 defined worship as kneeling or prostration to do homage. Strong in 1890 defined it as to prostrate oneself in homage. But most Christians do not know this.

Why? How is it that most people in our churches do not know the real meaning of worship in the Bible? I will let you answer that question.

Worship is bowing. It shows a person's submission and respect to God.

The proper way to greet God is not to jump up and give Him a high five or to put your arm around Him and pat Him on the back. No, you bow with your face to the ground. God is looking for people to treat Him this way (John 4:23).

The temple in Jerusalem was a place where people came and bowed down before God. Most people miss this point. Some call the temple a place of praise. The first time I heard it called this, I was baffled. I did not remember the temple ever being called a place of praise in the Bible. Eventually, I realized where it came from. They mistakenly thought that proskuneo was worship and worship is praise. It is not.

In the Bible, worship is bowing down.

Modern Synonym - bow down

Bible Version Tally (how other versions translate this word) - worship (48 of 50)

Breakthrough Version - "God is a spirit, and it is necessary for the people bowing down to Him to bow down in spirit and truth" (John 4:24).