Your Concept of God

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” — John 4:24

Jesus confronted the Samaritan woman at the well with the issue of true worship. He plainly told her, “Ye worship ye know not what.” Her worship was wrong because her concept of God was wrong.

People worship God as they conceive Him to be. True worship must be directed to the true God, otherwise it is the worship of an idol (a false god). John later wrote to Christians, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). Yes, even a Christian can be worshipping an idol if the god he worships is not the God revealed in the Bible.

I’d like to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson. (Before you disregard what Emerson said because he was a pagan, remember that even a broken clock is right twice a day.) He said, “The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal. The god of the Crusaders will be a crusader. The god of the merchants will be a merchant.” “This witness is true” (Titus 1:13). There is a direct correlation between the god you worship and the way you live your life. To a certain degree, you will resemble the “god” you worship. If your God is holy, you’ll tend to be holy. If your God is cruel and mean, you will have a mean streak in your character. If your God is compassionate, you will have compassion.

Some Roman Catholics stick a Saint Christopher statue on the dash boards of their cars for protection—He is the so-called patron saint of travelers. I heard of some seminary students in Boston who when they found a statue on someone’s slanted dashboard, they would tell the person, “It won’t work if it’s crooked.” Often the car owner would immediately try to straighten their statue so it was standing upright. While we may laugh at their foolishness, there is an element of truth to what those seminary students said—Your god won’t work if it’s crooked.

Make sure the God you worship is the God revealed in the Scripture, and not a god of your own imagination.