We worship God and Him alone. This is clearly taught in the Scriptures. But what constitutes acceptability? How can you know that when you attend a local church to express reverence to God that it pleases Him?
The book of Genesis, chapter 4, records the first incident of worship after the fall of man. It involves two brothers, Cain and Abel. Cain was a tiller of the ground. Abel was a shepherd.
“It came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect” (Gen. 4:3-5a, KJV).
Any activity aimed at reverencing God is regarded an act of worship. So, Cain and Abel’s offerings to God constituted acts of worship. What’s interesting here is that we have no record of God telling them to do what they did. Even though this incident occurred after the fall of man, these brothers desired to and intuitively knew how to express reverence to God. I believe that is true about all of us.
But as we see in the case of Cain and Abel, not all worship is acceptable to God. He accepted Abel’s but rejected Cain’s. Now we know God is no respecter of persons. So, what gives?
We Can’t Separate Our Heart from Our Worship.
The Lord said to Cain, Why are you wroth? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? (vv. 6-7a).
So, the problem was not with Cain’s offering but with his heart. God told him that if he would do what was right, his offering would be acceptable as well. But Cain rejected God’s counsel and went and killed his brother Abel (verse 8). This evil act on Cain’s part was the manifestation of what God saw in his heart. This is why God rejected Cain’s expression of worship.
Cain is a microcosm of many churchgoers today. They think that their relationship with God does not matter, as long as they come and worship Him. But God looks beyond our external expressions of reverence, and He looks on the heart. He makes His assessment of our religious expressions based on what He sees there.
We can’t separate our heart from our worship. I am not saying that a person should not come to church if he is not ready to give his heart to God. But I am saying that the condition of our heart has bearing on our worship. I am saying that worship that’s not from our heart is vain because it is not acceptable to God.
Copyright © 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.