Ever wonder what it looks like to give God your best worship? My own 'Worship is Life' journey has turned the notion of my best worship upside down! 

It all began with my search for the biblical definition of worship. Did you know that the word 'worship' is found nearly 200 times in the scripture? Did you further know that you can count on one hand the number of times it is found in the context of music and singing? It didn't take long for me to realize that God's description of worship is much deeper and broader than our current idea of what true worship involves.

As I began to study the context of these worship passages there is one word that I believe best describes the theme we see over and over again...relationship. Not just relationship with God, but relationship with God which translates into relationship with others. Love God, love people. You've heard it before, right? Yet the pull to please self and put relationship with God in a box continues to cause us to forget that the second greatest commandment is 'like' the first. 'Like' meaning the SAME! We love God when we love people. ALL the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments! (Matthew 22)

When Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another" (John 13:34a) he wasn't 'saying' something that hadn't been said before. He was 'showing' us a level of love that is deeper than we can manage on our own.

In the Jewish culture during the time of Jesus, a Jewish servant could not be asked to wash feet. Only a non-Jewish servant could be asked to stoop to that level of service. Jesus stunned the disciples by stooping this low to wash their feet. Then he says, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34b)

When I began to look at Scripture, and especially commands, through the lens of relationship, I saw over and over again that we worship God best when we love others. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27) "Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" (Amos 5:24) Just two examples of what we find over and over again.

Every command in the Bible is either in the context of how to do relationship with God or how to do relationship with others. Whether it is family, friends, acquaintances, or strangers, we worship God best when we love others. 

Want to know the meaning of life? The purpose of life? Relationship. Relationship with God which translates into relationship with others. Worship equals relationship. Worship is life!