In Spirit and In Truth
A Series on Worship
#6: Decently and In Order
We’re continuing our series on worship. This is the sixth in a series of seven lessons on worship. Since I am purposely teaching these lessons as a group, I want to review a bit for those who haven’t heard the other lessons. I will mention that we are recording each of these lessons, and you will be able to order copies of them. I also plan to print up copies of the outlines of each lesson and distribute them in booklet form. I feel that the topic we are discussing is one of utmost importance, and I would like you to be able to go back and study what is said here.
We started off by examining the different words used for worship in the New Testament. We saw that the focus of New Testament worship is on the spiritual, not the physical. Our "bowing down" before God is now done in spirit and in truth, not in a physical way. We’ve seen that worship doesn’t just occur on Sunday, that our main worship, in fact, occurs outside of this building. We’ve seen that the focus in worship should be on what goes on inside, not the external acts. We noted that there are many acts of worship that we do as a body, not just the five that we have traditionally taught. We’ve also seen that much of what we do in worship comes more from tradition and culture than it does from biblical teaching. We have to be careful to use traditions without making laws of them.
With that as a background, let’s look at today’s topic: "Decently and in order." That’s a phrase that you may have heard used as regards worship. For many, it has been their basic definition of what worship should be. "I just want to be sure that things are done decently and in order." Let’s look a bit at the verse from which that comes, I Corinthians 14:40:
40 Let all things be done decently and in order. (KJV)
The context of this admonition is a discussion on miraculous gifts and their use in the church. I find it ironic that some of the concepts we use the most come from a discussion on speaking in tongues and prophesying! It’s also ironic that the "order" Paul describes in I Corinthians 14 includes allowing one man getting up to speak and being interrupted by another who in turn is interrupted by another. Paul says that each man is to allow the one interrupting to speak. Today that would be called disorder!
But Paul is taking a chaotic situation and trying to make order. He is teaching them that no tongues should be spoken in the assembly without translation and that speaking is to be done one at a time. He especially admonishes the women not to interrupt with questions, but to ask those later. Those are the things that this passage addresses.
Unfortunately, for many of us "decently and in order" became a watchword of fear, the ever present warning that God would not tolerate our "stepping out of line." We came to focus mainly on "not doing anything wrong." If we focus all of our attention on not doing what’s wrong, we may never get around to doing what’s right. You can’t achieve a positive result by focusing on the negatives.
Let’s say a man is going to make a trip from here in Stockdale to Houston. Before setting out, he checks the oil, water and tires on his car. He fills up with gas and heads out. He makes sure to use his seat-belt and carefully observes the speed limit. In fact, he is vigilant to follow all traffic laws, especially when he gets on the Interstate. And when he gets to El Paso, he begins to wonder why his trip is taking so long!
In our effort to "follow all the rules," let’s make sure that we do the right things. In sports, a team can’t just play "not to lose." We Spurs fans know that. How many times have we agonized over games where they had a big lead, then merely tried to protect it? You can’t win that way. You can’t get positive results by focusing on the negative.
Look at the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2. Jesus recognizes the church as a hard-working, doctrinally pure church. They will not tolerate false teachers. Yet look at what it says in verses 4 and 5:
Revelation 2:4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
This doctrinally-sound, active church was about to “lose it’s lampstand.” What does that mean? Verse 20 of chapter 1 tells us that the lampstands were the churches. They were going to lose their right to be a church of God! Why? Doctrinal problems? No. Love problems. They weren’t doing anything wrong… they had just forgotten to do what’s right! We can teach all the right things and still not be the church that God wants us to be.
For too long we have tolerated half-hearted, lackadaisical worship as long as it didn’t violate any commands. We’ve let people yawn their way through a "biblically correct" service, while condemning others for their zealous worship which doesn’t follow our rules. We’ve made worship about the rules and not about God. If you look through the New Testament, you never see someone being rebuked over a technicality. How often, how much, what kind… the very questions that trouble us the most are the questions that seem to concern the New Testament writers the least. Even the chaos in Corinth, which provides the context for the expression “Let all things be done decently and in order,” even that chaotic situation was the result of a heart problem, not a doctrinal problem.
There is a slogan that has long been popular in the Restoration Movement, of which the Churches of Christ are a part. The slogan is "Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent." We have long proposed to base our doctrine on what the Bible says and to refuse to speak where the Bible is silent.
What if decided that we wanted to grow a big church here in Stockdale? What if we proposed making changes in our worship just to make people feel more comfortable? Meet on Saturday night, when it’s easier for people to come. Serve Cokes and popcorn to make them feel at home. What if we proposed making changes in our worship to attract more people? People like bands… let’s bring in a band. People like movies… let’s show movies. Would we see these as valid reasons for making changes? Will comfort and popularity determine what is right and what is wrong? In the early days of the Restoration Movement, where the Church of Christ came from, in the early days some felt that baptism should not be overemphasized. They were afraid that it would be divisive, that some people would leave the church over it. I ask you again… is that our guide for doctrine? Will comfort and popularity determine the will of God?
If not, why do we impose restrictions using those very criteria? "Some people aren’t comfortable with that." "Some people might leave if we do that." "That’s just not what I’m used to."
When I first visited this church just about two years ago, one of the things that most attracted me was the worship. I found a people that worshipped God decently and in order, yet that at the same time felt the freedom to express that worship in non-traditional ways. And I could tell they made an effort to really worship God. Many things changed in the three months from when I visited until the time I came here. Above all, the atmosphere had changed. Worshipping God had become secondary; the focus was on pleasing people. "We can’t do this because someone will get mad; we can’t do that because someone will get upset; we have to do things this way now." From what I can tell, none of the changes occurred because of any biblical objections to what was going on. And that’s sad.
So I ask again, will comfort and popularity determine what is right and what is wrong? Will we adapt our doctrine to please people? (ourselves included) Or will we speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent?
What do we need to do?
(1) Focus on worshipping God and pleasing him. Remember David’s answer, when Michal criticized him over the way he was praising God in II Samuel 6:
2Sam. 6:20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” 21 David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel — I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
(2) Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. Quit using comfort and popularity as a guide.
(3) Stop giving too much importance to differences in worship styles. Focus on what is important.
(4) Worship God decently and in order… and with all our heart.
