In my devotions, I was reading Matthew 15. Jesus made a rather stark judgment upon the Pharisees. He declared that all their worship was vain (worthless, of no effect, empty) because they were teaching their own rules instead of God's. Here these people went to elaborate ends and had extravagant ceremonies that they used in their worship program. Yet it all the effort meant nothing to Jesus. It may seem like a brutal statement but please understand that the central element of worship is to focus on God in Spirit and Truth (see John 4:24).
This is not an either-or statement. Worship must encompass both Spirit and Truth. So Jesus declared to the Pharisees that it didn't matter what they felt or how they performed. It boiled down to the fact that their worship was worthless because they weren't teaching the Truth about God. This is a tremendous lesson that we as a individuals and church must understand.
When a church or individual promotes or teaches that which is not true, it doesn't matter how elaborate, how beautiful, how exciting, how wonderful worship may feel. God looks upon all of it as VANITY. The word in Greek can mean "fruitless effort." When truth is lacking, God sees no fruit in the worship, no value in what occurs, nothing that honors Himself.
We, as individuals and church, must guard our worship. We must honor Him in truth as well as Spirit.
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