We begin with the subject of living participation in worship. This is a necessary starting point, for we live in the midst of many, who though professing to be Christian, have come to regard worship as something either optional and/or in a false individualistic light. For many, the idea of a serious discussion of worship from the Scriptures is a thought which has never entered their mind.

The calling to the regular worship of God is inherent in the many explicit exhortations to prayer, praise, and to hear the Word of God found in the Scriptures. It is found in the very calling to preach the Word and the calling to desire that Word that we may grow thereby, I Peter 1:22. There are three aspects to this calling, both stated and assumed in Scripture.

• The calling to private, personal worship, prayer, and meditation on the Word. Psalm 119:97; Matthew 6:5
• The calling to family worship is implied:
  • In I Peter 3:7, “...that your prayers be not hindered.”
  • In Ephesians 6:4 concerning child-rearing, “...bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
  • Many passages in Proverbs and examples of the family worship of the Old Testament saints. Proverbs 1:8; Deut. 6:7.
• The calling to corporate public worship in the church.
  • The explicit statement of the New Testament in Hebrews 10:25,
    “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is...”
  • The example of the apostolic church in Jerusalem, Acts 2:42, and Troas, Acts 20:7.
  • In the principle of the law of the Sabbath, which moral principle has not ceased. Exodus 20:8-20
  • Which Sabbath is now the Lord’s Day, Revelation 1:10; Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:2.
  • In the very existence of the church.

The regular worship of God is a spiritual necessity for the life of faith and grace because God works faith by the Word, Romans 10:17 (also 13-15) and God gives spiritual blessings to us in the way of prayer, James 5:13-16.

The regular worship of God, especially corporate worship, is inherent in the nature of salvation. God does not save mere individuals. He saves a body, a church, I Corinthians 12:27. To separate oneself from the church is self-amputation from Christ, I Corinthians 12:14-20.