February 06, 2010
I feel as though I have just looked into a pit!! I have looked more closely into Paul's argument against "Will Worship," and am horrified at the implications!
Col 2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship . .
This was a ferocious warning from Paul to a very spiritual group in the Colossian church. The word 'ἐθελοθρησκία ethelothrēskia' is only used once in scripture. It means "Will worship" - the worship of our own wills. The group Paul contended with was what we might now call charismatic, but who had gone astray. They saw visions and interacted with angels, did extravagant acts to abase themselves, had begun fanatically following Jewish rituals even though they were Greeks. The typical devotee was ascetic, and was "taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind . . ." Strangely, if we saw them today, we would likely not immediately see anything intrinsically wrong with them. We would just consider them a little strange. And probably these members would have been furious with Paul for saying such mean things about them.
But Paul saw truly, that they had been seduced away from Jesus by "will worship". However, this same phenomenon comes in many beguiling costumes. It is the same temptation that Peter fell into when he rebuked the Lord Jesus for thinking of getting Himself killed. Jesus actually called him "Satan," claiming, "you are not setting your mind on God's interests but man's." (Mark 8:33). Our own 'will worship' will inevitably direct us to what is in our own self interests. It may allow us to do many exhausting and exotic spiritual acts, but will never let us "set our minds on the things above" or to know what it is to have "died and (our) lives hidden with Christ in God." It promises much, but delivers nothing at all. Worse, Jesus calls it "Satanic" and Paul avows that it takes us away from our Prize. To a similar group in Galatia, he says that: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
This should cause us to fear.
We could call this 'will worship' a form of humanism which has crept into our churches and has seduced many from following the Lord Jesus fully, diverting them into ways that seem spiritual, but which seductively honour "fleshly minds". It is not as easy to recognize as outright sin, which is at least more honest (though not as pretty).
King Saul, for instance, was a most delightful man, humble, handsome, kingly, a brilliant strategist in war. Samuel, Jonathan, and David loved him very much, as did the people of Israel. But the two catastrophic mistakes he made revealed the true state of his heart. The first offence Saul committed was to perform a ritual pre-battle sacrifice himself rather than waiting for Samuel to do it. The second offence was to keep the best of enemy flocks to use as sacrifices to the Lord, against the Lord's express direction. At the same time he allowed Agag, the Amalekite, to flatter and beguile him into sparing his life, again against the direct command of the Lord. To add insult to injury, he rationalized his mistakes to Samuel as 'spiritual.' How could Samuel object to such altruistic actions? For these seemingly minor acts, Saul lost the kingdom and his own soul.
Another group, Korah, Dathan and Abirham, consulted their own carnal minds to determine whether Moses was really qualified to lead Israel. 'Will worship' told them that everyone was holy (especially themselves), that they were just as qualified as Moses, that a democratic approach was the right way to run the nation! Funny! This way does seem right, (especially to Western thinkers), but it led them and their whole families directly and dramatically into hell.
It is interesting that even the prophetic can mislead us if we have given ourselves over to "will worship". Ezekiel warns that if we have set our hearts on an idol of whatever sort (and most idols are associated with 'will worship'), the Lord will answer us according to our idol. "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and {then} comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols" Ez. 14:3,4
So it seems that the Lord will even allow prophetic words to deceive us and lead us astray if we have another agenda, another god that we follow, even if the 'god' be our own wills.
I hope no one will think that I am disrespecting any of the spiritual gifts, which I love because they come from our Lord Jesus through the most lovely Holy Spirit. But let us be careful lest 'will worship', a 'foreigner, uncircumcised in heart' come into our Most Holy Place and corrupt our worship of the Most High. Any teaching or teacher that diverts us from setting our direction towards losing our own lives to gain the Lord Jesus, obeying Him at any cost, following Him, abiding in Him - these must be set aside. We cannot afford to consult our own feelings in this, because our hearts will always misdirect us. We cannot afford to consult prophecy if our hearts are not pure, as we will again be deceived. We must consult the Word of God for our doctrines and our behaviors; we must demonstrate to the world, to heaven, and to hell, what is the 'good and acceptable and perfect' will of God. In doing so we will hate our own lives, our fatal tendency towards 'will worship.'