In the New Testament serving God is actually the same thing as worshipping God. You cannot serve God without worshipping Him. Neither can you worship Him without serving Him. For instance, in Matthew 4 the Lord Jesus was tempted by the Devil concerning worship. Referring to the kingdoms of the world and their glory, the Devil said to Him, “All these will I give You if You will fall down and worship me” (v. 9). The Lord Jesus answered, “It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve” (v. 10). Here we see that to worship actually means to serve. Hence, to worship God is to serve God. Without serving God we cannot render real worship to Him.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:9b Paul says that the believers at Thessalonica “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” Literally, the Greek word rendered “serve” here means to serve as a slave. As used in verse 9, the word serve is all-inclusive. It includes everything we do in our daily living.
God is living because He is true, not false. Thus, in 1:9 Paul speaks of serving a living and true God. The church of the Thessalonians was made up of believers serving a living God who is true. This is also what we are doing today. The fact that we are serving a living God proves that we are in God the Father (1 Thes. 1:1). If we were not in the Father, we would not be serving a living God.
In 1:9 the word “living” is mentioned before the word “true.” It is rather easy to serve a true God; it is not so easy to serve a living God. Nevertheless, we need to serve a living God. God must be living to us and in us in our daily life. He should be living in our speech, in our behavior, and every aspect of our daily life.
By our daily life we prove that God is living. If God were not living, our daily life would be very different from what it is. Our present living is a testimony that the God whom we serve is living. He is living in us, and He controls us, directs us, and deals with us. He will not let us go. Rather, in many matters He corrects us and adjusts us. The fact that God controls us and directs us, even in such small things as our thoughts and motives, is a proof that He is living. We live under the control, direction, and correction of a living God. As believers in Christ we must live a life which bears the testimony that the God we worship and serve is living in the details of our life. The proper Christian life should bear a testimony that God is living. The reason we do not do or say certain things should be that God is living in us. The God whom we worship and serve is living not only in the heavens but also in us. We have turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. No doubt, when God is living to us in our experience, He is also true.
When we come to serve God, or worship God, we need to have a pure conscience, a conscience purified from dead works or from any kind of offense. Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” On the cross, Christ offered Himself to God in a human body, which is a matter of time. But He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, who is of eternity, without any limit of time. Because Christ offered Himself by the eternal Spirit, His blood has an eternal efficacy to purify our conscience so that we may serve and worship the living God.
The blood of Christ purifies our conscience to serve the living God. To serve the living God requires a blood-purified conscience. To worship in dead religion or to serve any dead thing rather than God does not require our conscience to be purified. The conscience is the leading part of our spirit. The living God, whom we desire to serve, always comes to our spirit (John 4:24) by touching our conscience. He is righteous, holy, and living. Our defiled conscience needs to be purified so that we may serve Him in a living way. To worship God in our mind religiously does not require this.
Hebrews 9:14 speaks of “dead works” and “the living God.” Because we were dead (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13), whatever we did, bad or good, was dead works in the sight of the living God. The book of Hebrews does not teach religion; it reveals the living God (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22). To touch this living God we need to exercise our spirit and to have a blood-purified conscience. The blood of Christ was shed for the forgiveness of sins (Matt. 26:28), and the new covenant was consummated with it (Heb. 10:29; Luke 22:20). It has accomplished eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19), and now it washes us from our sins (Rev. 1:5; 1 John 1:7) and purifies our conscience so that we may serve and worship the living God.
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