Teens and Christ
← Prayer and Worship

Lesson 5 of 6 · 8 min

Worship Beyond Music

Why Christians sing, and why worship is bigger than a song set.

Worship means worth

To worship is to declare something's worth and order your life around it. Everyone worships something — the question is what. Christian worship names God as worth more than achievement, approval or comfort.

Why singing

Singing puts truth into memory and body. It is also communal: a room of people singing the same words is practising the unity it is describing. This is why the church has always sung, from the psalms to hymns to whatever your church plays this Sunday.

The whole of life

Paul calls presenting your body — your ordinary daily life — a living sacrifice, and calls that your spiritual worship. Studying honestly, working carefully, treating people well: worship in the same sense as any song.

Key passages

  • Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

    Romans 12:1

  • Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

    Colossians 3:16

  • Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

    Psalm 95:6

Reflect

If someone watched your week, what would they say you treat as most valuable?

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Next: Fasting, Silence and Solitude

Where this came from

We're not experts — these are the sources we used while researching this page. Read them yourself, keep digging, and hold us to them.

  1. [1]The Holy Bible — Blue Letter Bible interlinear and lexicons

    Primary source for every lesson; Strong's and BDB/Thayer entries for word studies.

  2. [2]The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381) — full text and history, Britannica

    The doctrinal frame for the lessons on God, Christ and the Spirit.

  3. [3]N. T. Wright, lectures and articles archive (NTWrightPage)

    New Testament scholarship drawn on for the gospel, kingdom and resurrection lessons.

  4. [4]Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican) and the Westminster Confession of Faith

    Consulted side by side wherever a lesson describes how different traditions teach a doctrine.