Worship is about honoring God as God and he has always given men a means to worship him.

Abel made his offering by faith and was accepted. Cain did not and was not. God asked Cain, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?” But Cain persisted in his own way. See Genesis 4:1-8 & Hebrews 11:4 on this). We can choose to do well today!

Nadab & Abihu died because the gravity of coming before God escaped them. They failed to make a distinction between the holy and the profane (common) and offered the profane rather than the holy (See Leviticus 10:1-11). What makes something holy? What God chooses is holy. Anything else is common or profane. We can still make that distinction today.

Worship was what the woman at Jacob’s well asked about in John’s gospel chapter 4. She knew that her people worshiped in Mount Gerizim while the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. Jesus said, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”

Jesus was clear and he was blunt. The Samaritans did not know what they were doing because they made it up without guidance from God to do so.

But in answering her Jesus said something wonderful:

“But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24

How important must real worship be if God is looking for true worshipers?