There are several things necessary for worship to be “true worship.” First, God must be the object. By this we mean the one true God; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God referred to by Paul when he told the Athenians, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands…” (Acts 17: 22-24). The God to which Paul refers here is the One true God. He is the Creator of the universe. He is the omnipotent, omniscient, self-existent One. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). All other gods are figments of man’s imagination.

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Man is a worshipful being. Through the history of mankind, in every culture, whether in ignorance or knowledge, man has appealed to someone or something outside of himself for guidance and protection. Pagan idolatry is an example of that “ignorant” worship. Paul declared to the idolatrous Athenians, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-23).

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