Worship is for God and not for us. God is the audience of our worship. He alone is the One whom we are to please in our worship. While worship is a fundamentally vertical act, it is one with horizontal impact (cf. COLOSSIANS 3:16, 1 CORINTHIANS 14:23-24).

Today, I wish to talk with you regarding The Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW). If the VPW answers the question of whom our worship is oriented towards, the RPW answers the question of what we do in the worship of God. If God is the Audience of our worship, then God must be the Determiner of how we worship Him!

In the worship of God, we do not ask, “Show me where it says we cannot do this”. To do so, we will end up doing a JUDGES 21:25 on public worship: Everyone will do what is right in his own eyes!

In the worship of God, we ask, “What has God’s Word commanded me to do in worship?” Our aim is to worship God as He has commanded, in all the ways and only those ways that He has commanded.

Following the RPW, a simple order of worship (liturgy) of the Christian Church is as follows:

Invocation (Call to worship)
Sing Scripture
Pray Scripture
Read Scripture
Preach Scripture
Benediction/Doxology

Between Invocation and Benediction/Doxology, the RPW applies. We may not, indeed we must not, include any element of worship here whereby God did not command. As we search the Bible, it is clear that God commands us to sing, to pray, to read, and preach His Word.

To have a proper understanding of RPW, we must make a distinction between elements and circumstances of worship.

Elements are the essence of the command — what God requires of us. For example, God commands us to sing (PSALM 95:1-2) and COLOSSIANS 3:16 calls us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (together they are called “the word of Christ”). Hence in our public worship, we sing Scripture – either the very words of God (psalms) or themes from the Word of God (hymns and spiritual songs).

In contrast to elements, we have circumstances. Examples of circumstances include what musical instruments we use (if any), what songs we sing, how many songs we sing, and the style of the accompanying music.

Churches committed to RPW will insist on singing as a must in public worship; however, these churches may make different decisions concerning the circumstances of worship. To apply RPW to the circumstances of worship would result in the sinful situation of “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”.

The Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW) with its two common dangers/misunderstandings can be pictured as follows:

Rejecting RPW in the worship of God . . . Every man does what is right in his own eyes

Regulative Principle of Worship What God commands, that we do . . . in worship!

Applying RPW to the circumstances of worship . . . Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men

May we worship God as He has commanded, in all the ways He has commanded, and in nothing but the ways He has commanded, so help us God!

WEI En Yi