Love as a part of worship
Not sure this is the right forum, but here goes anyway.
Question: can any being—human or spiritual—legitimately worship God without love? Or, is love a necessary component of worship?
Theoretically, I think it is quite conceivable that worship of false deities is accomplished without love, but can a similar loveless worship be transferred to worship of the true God and still be worship?
Would appreciate your input.
i don’t think the Bible says straightforwardly, but it can probably be easily deduced from the 10 commandments (first being to worship only God) summarizing in loving God with all our being.
Certainly a reasonable deduction.
Do angels, or other spirit beings for that matter, necessarily love when they worship, or can (do) they worship without love?
Lee
is that it would be consistent with the nature of God that they experience love. although to what extent it is different from how we experience it is interesting to think about.
Then it is necessary to love what one worships or it is not worship?
How does this fit in with Satan’s temptation of Christ to “…fall down and worship me (Matt. 4:9)?” Is that then a de facto call to Christ to love him?
Lee
that is interesting, because I think, in the end, won’t all people worship God (bow the knee) but they don’t all love Him.
So, maybe love isn’t absolutely necessary for strictly worshipping, however, I think God, for His people, requires/inspires both together.
Discussion