In the home meetings we have to tell the attendants that Christian meetings are for the worship of God and the Lord Jesus. To worship God and the Lord Jesus does not necessarily mean that we have to kneel down or bow down to adore Him with praises and thanks. We can worship God and the Lord Jesus by preaching the gospel, teaching the truth (Acts 5:42), breaking bread to remember the Lord (2:46), fellowshipping one with another (2:42), and praying (2:42; 12:12). In our understanding, in our realization, and in our spirit we should do all things with the sense of worshipping God and the Lord Jesus. We should make this matter clear to all the saints. The New Testament does not indicate to us that to worship God and the Lord Jesus is just a matter of kneeling down or bowing down. The New Testament does tell us, however, that in our Christian meetings we should preach the gospel, teach the truth, break bread to remember the Lord, fellowship one with another, and pray.
To be one with the Lord in preaching the gospel for the salvation of sinners is a kind of worship. When we go out to knock on people’s doors to afford the Lord a way to save them, this is counted as a kind of worship to God and the Lord Jesus. John 4 records the Lord Jesus conversing with a sinful Samaritan woman regarding drinking the living water (vv. 10, 14). Eventually the Lord Jesus revealed that to contact God the Spirit with our spirit is to drink of the living water (4:24), and to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God. The sinner was satisfied with the Savior’s living water, and the Savior was satisfied with God’s will in satisfying the sinner (4:32). The revelation in John 4 shows us that the worship of God is contrary to the concept of religion.
The Muslims worship God by taking off their shoes and bowing down in prayer for a long period of time. Although this is a mere religious form, they consider that what they are doing is the best worship rendered to God. We Christians do not worship God and the Lord Jesus in that way. One of the ways in which we worship God is by preaching the Lord Jesus as the gospel to save sinners. The Bible does not tell us definitely that when we worship God and the Lord Jesus, we should bow down or kneel down. To think that worshipping God and the Lord Jesus is merely a matter of bowing down or kneeling down is according to the religious concept. We must drop our religious and natural concepts concerning the proper worship of God and the Lord Jesus.
Soon after I received the Lord, I met with a group of Christians who had a prayer meeting every Tuesday night. During that meeting, they always sang a hymn first, and then they knelt down to pray for at least one hour. Quite often while we were kneeling, a number of people fell asleep. I do not think that this constituted a pleasant worship to God. Rather, when we talk one with another in our spirit, the Spirit of God, who is God Himself, participates in our talking. This is the best worship.
Suppose that a loving mother prepared a good dinner for her son who came back home from school after half a year. If this son knelt down and bowed down to the mother and even fell asleep in this posture, do you think the mother would be pleased? She might rebuke her son. The mother will feel happy and pleasant if her son eats the food she has prepared and if he talks to her while he eats. There is a similar record of mutual fellowship in the Old Testament in Genesis 18 between Abraham and God.
Genesis 18 gives us a record of the Lord Jesus coming to Abraham in the form of a man even before His incarnation. Abraham prepared water for the washing of His physical feet (v. 4), and he asked his wife to prepare a good meal (vv. 6-8). That Man with the two angels ate that dinner, and Abraham served it. We may have never considered that the record in Genesis 18 shows us Abraham’s worship to God. Abraham even walked with Jehovah to send Him off, and during this walk, Jehovah talked to Abraham and Abraham prayed (vv. 16-33). Actually, Abraham’s prayer was a personal, human, and friendly talk with Jehovah. According to James 2:23 Abraham was called a friend of God. God, as Abraham’s friend, opened up His heart to Abraham to tell him of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. By this talk, Abraham’s divine Friend indicated that Abraham’s nephew, Lot, would be damaged. We may say that Abraham’s talk to Jehovah was a prayer. Abraham asked Jehovah to do something in order to spare Lot’s life and family.
In Genesis 18 there is a record of Abraham’s worship, Abraham’s prayer, but his worship to God, his prayer, was not in a religious way. His prayer was a personal, human talk. Genesis 18 gives us a record of two friends talking to one another while they walked together. What a beautiful picture of genuine prayer and worship! Even in the ancient times in the Old Testament, God came to visit Abraham in a human form and in a human way to receive Abraham’s service, Abraham’s worship, Abraham’s prayer. Abraham’s worship, his prayer, was his conversing with God in an intimate, human way as a friend, and this is the best prayer.
I was taught from my youth that the best way to pray was to kneel down. There is nothing wrong with kneeling in prayer, but prayer is not merely a matter of kneeling. The best way to worship, to pray, is to talk to God, to converse with the Lord Jesus in a human way as a part of our daily walk. The picture of the Lord Jesus coming as a friend to Abraham in Genesis 18 is marvelous. The Lord was not sitting on a throne in Genesis 18, telling Abraham, “I am your Master. I am the sovereign One. You have to bow down to Me.” The Lord came to Abraham in a human way, visiting Abraham as a friend. He received worship in a human way from His human friend, and He talked to His human friend in a very intimate and personal way. Abraham’s worship of God in Genesis 18 was well-pleasing to God. Abraham and Jehovah’s talking together like intimate friends is the best worship, the best prayer.
In one of the beginning meetings with the new ones, we need to let them know that the real worship to God is to talk to Him as our friend. We need to tell them that the very God has our human nature and that He is the same as we are. Furthermore, they need to realize that we are sons of God who have the divine life and the divine nature, so we are the same as He is. He is divine and human, and we are human and divine. Thus, we can have an intimate conversation, an intimate contact, with our Triune God. God does not like us to merely see Him as the Almighty God. God desires us to realize that He is like us and that we are like Him. From the very beginning of man’s creation before his fall, man was made in the image of God.
We need to make God known to the new ones. Do not go to the new homes and tell them, “Now let us worship God. He is the holy, Almighty God. He is so high, and we are so low. He is so great, and we are so small. Let us all kneel down.” If we instruct the new ones in this way, we are similar to the Muslims. We need to take some time to explain to the new ones and to teach them to know God by talking to Him in an intimate way. The desire of God’s heart is for man to worship Him in an intimate, friendly way. God is not happy with our worshipping Him with the concept that we are small, fearing God to the uttermost and bowing down to the great God. God wants us to enjoy Him as our food and our drink. When we go to the home meetings, we need to forget about the natural, religious way to meet as in Christianity. That way to meet is not scriptural.