A Commitment to Lifestyle Worship

The second priority of Religious Affections Ministries is a commitment to lifestyle worship. In John 4, Jesus revealed to the Samaritan woman the essential substance of worship — response of the spirit to truth. This emphasis delocalized and deformalized worship to reveal that worship encompasses all of life. Every action, thought, attitude, and affection of a Christian should be a spiritual response truth about God. Worship, therefore, is not limited to Sunday morning.

What this means for a believer, then, is that his life is a continual pursuit of holiness in response to revealed truth (Romans 12:1-2). It means that the same grace that brought him salvation also teaches him to say no to ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12). Nothing in the Christian’s life falls outside the realm of worship. In this sense, there is no sacred/secular distinction.¹ All of life is worship.

A Christian who truly understands this, then, will be actively critical in his daily choices. This includes the music he choses to fill his life. A believer who sees every activity as an act of worship will seek to be discerning in his musical choices and apply biblical principles and information from lesser authorities to help him arrive at good conclusions about his music. He will not just accept any music into his life; he will only participate with music that reveals a biblical response of his spirit to truth about God.

Too many Christians today view most of their lives as neutral. But since all of life is worship, nothing for a Christian is neutral.

© 2008, Scott Aniol. All rights reserved.

Scott Aniol

Scott Aniol holds a bachelor's degree in church music from Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC), a master's degree in musicology from Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL), and has studied theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MN) and Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained to to the gospel ministry by First Baptist Church (Rockford, IL) in April of 2004. As the executive director of Religious Affections Ministries, Scott speaks on the subjects of music and worship at various churches and conferences. His most recent speaking engagements include the Preserving the Truth Conference, Central Seminary’s Foundations Conference, International Baptist College, and Bob Jones Seminary. Click here to read and/or listen to important talks from Scott Aniol. Curriculum vitae

Endnotes:

1. I will note ways in which there is a sacred/secular distinction in a future post. [↩]

Related posts:

1. A Commitment to Biblical Worship