There are times when I will be talking to believers about worship, and they will say something along the lines of, “well, I worship every day. All of life is worship. I’m worshipping now as I do my job.”

I know that they want to believe this, because it sanctifies their job. There is nothing wrong with the desire to see our callings as ordained by God. The work we do is a calling from God. When we take up a job, we are to do it for the glory of the LORD, taking dominion of the task before us, so that when it is done in faith, He is glorified. In doing our jobs, we are being obedient to the LORD. All Christians should have this view towards their jobs.

The problem is that even though we are told to do all things for the glory of the LORD, we are not to assume that we are worshipping God in our daily callings. Work and worship are quite different. In fact, when we worship God, we are to cease from work. The two do not overlap. In both the Old and New Testament, we see the different words used for “work” and “worship,” showing that the two words are not the same. One can work, or worship, one cannot do both since the spheres are different callings from God.

We get this in our instructions of when we are to worship found in the Ten Commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

¹² ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

This is one of the foundational principles for worship, showing us that we are to cease from work on the Sabbath, or as we do under the New Covenant, the LORD’s Day. But more importantly, we see the worship and work are not the same. One might say: “well, the commandment doesn’t say to worship.” The rest of Deuteronomy details worship. But here in the commandment, we are given the principle of 1 day in 7. We work on 6 days, and 1 day we worship. Work is to cease on the LORD’s Day.

But to be more clear, we need to look at the Hebrew word for work. It is: mᵊlā’ḵâ. It means to labor. It points to our occupation, and we are commanded to work for six days. Strong’s put it this way:

מְלָאכָה mᵉlâʼkâh, mel-aw-kaw’; from the same as H4397; properly, deputyship, i.e. ministry; generally, employment (never servile) or work (abstractly or concretely); also property (as the result of labor):—business, cattle, industrious, occupation, ( -pied), officer, thing (made), use, (manner of) work((-man), -manship).

What about worship? What are we to do for worship? Fundamentally, when we worship, we are to make sacrifices to the LORD. Work is about producing. Worship is about sacrifice. We see this when Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him, as YHWH had instructed Abraham to do.

Genesis 22:5

And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

The worship that Abraham is to do, is sacrifice. He thinks he will sacrifice his son, knowing that if he does, the LORD will raise him up again. But he ends up sacrificing a ram that the LORD provided. This is a key to our worship. It is about sacrifice. We go to worship for sacrifice. But the LORD provides the sacrifice. We just offer ourselves, and He cuts us up with His word, then works in us, and then feeds us, all through the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made on the cross.

Back to the word for worship in Hebrew. It is: šāḥâ. It has the idea of bowing down, prostrating oneself, humbling oneself before a superior. Strong’s puts it this way:

שָׁחָה shâchâh, shaw-khaw’; a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God):—bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.

Hopefully you can see the two concepts are different. We work unto the glory of the LORD during the week, but it is not worship. We gather with the people of God on the LORD’s day, but it is not work. The two have different goals and function.

What about the New Testament?

The best passage for this is one of God’s stated purposes in sending Christ.

John 4:24

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

A lot of evangelicals miss the mark on this verse, because they don’t give it the value that it should have. They are so often focused on John 3:16 (thereby missing the fulness of the John 3), that they come to the conclusion that we are to focus merely on missions. But the Father’s purpose in missions is worship. Worship takes priority. The Father sends the Son, so that there will be true worship. (For more on this, you can listen to the sermon on this subject here).

Hopefully here we can lay this to rest, because the Greek word used for worship is: proskyneō. It means to prostrate oneself before another. As Strong’s puts it:

προσκυνέω proskynéō, pros-koo-neh’-o; from G4314 and a probable derivative of G2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand); to fawn or crouch to, i.e. (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore):—worship.

This is not the picture of work at all. In fact, let’s look at “work” in Greek as well. The Greek word for work is: ergon. Strong’s explains it this way:

ἔργον érgon, er’-gon; from a primary (but obsolete) ἔργω érgō (to work); toil (as an effort or occupation); by implication, an act:—deed, doing, labour, work.

We are to ergon during the week, and proskyneo on the LORD’s day. To say we worship during the week is to confuse the meaning of the two words.

Conclusion

To work is labor. It is a calling, and we should treat it as such. But work is not worship. These are two different functions for the Christian. We work during the week, and worship on the First Day of the week. Yes, we should see our work as a calling from God. But let us not mix up the two.

If you would like to learn more about Covenantal Worship, then go here for a series of sermons on the topic.