Why Does God Demand We Worship Him? (Part 2)

Second, the Bible is clear that there is only one reason God ever gives humans any commands at all. In Deuteronomy 6:24, Moses wrote: “And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.” According to this verse, God’s commandments are always given for the benefit of those who receive them. In 2 Peter 1:3, we read that God’s divine power “has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” If God does not need human worship, why then does He so adamantly command it? He commands worship, “for our good always,” so we can have everything we need for “life and godliness.”

Why Do We Need to Worship God?

With a proper understanding of what the Bible teaches about God, worship, and God’s relationship to humans, we can easily answer the initial question, “Why does God demand that we worship Him?” The simple answer is, “Because humans need to worship God in order to experience their best possible life.” I think, however, that if this article ended with that answer, the reader would be less than satisfied. What we really want to know is why is it best for humans to worship God? What is it about the fact that humans need to think and say that God is awesome, almighty, worthy of praise, honor, and glory that helps humans achieve their highest potential?

The answer lies in the fact that it is always best to understand, recognize, and admit the truth of objective reality. Furthermore, a person must recognize objective reality in order to behave in a way that will bring about the most beneficial outcome. We can illustrate this truth in a number of ways.

Imagine that a person needs to cross the Grand Canyon. A failure to recognize and admit the truth of gravity could bring about catastrophic results. Gravity is real. It is powerful. If a person wants to go across the Grand Canyon, a refusal to admit this, or a momentary lapse in judgment, in which this reality is not considered, can be fatal. Now, there are several options that a person has for getting across the canyon safely. That person could fly across, recognizing that he would need some source of power, such as hot air in a balloon or fuel for a plane. The individual could build a bridge, a rather costly endeavor, but given the time and resources, one that would be effective. Whatever the person chooses, however, he must calculate the Law of Gravity. The second he attempts anything that does not take that reality into account, he is destined for failure. He must think, believe, and understand that gravity is real, powerful, ever present on Earth, and something to remember and think about.

Take the example of the theoretical “Perpetual Motion Machine.” You may be aware that the U.S. Patent Office has been forced to refuse to consider all patents for any machine that claims it can run forever without an external source of energy. They have taken this stand because the Second Law of Thermodynamics states, in layman’s terms, that all closed systems are moving toward a state of disorder. If no more energy is coming in, and energy is less usable after every energy transaction, then eventually all machines run down. You can imagine a wise engineering professor who has been teaching mechanical engineering for many years explaining this situation to his eager class of new recruits. What does he insist that they recognize and learn? There are no perpetual motion machines. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is real. It is powerful. It cannot be broken. Every machine you ever build must admit this truth. He does not want the students to think and say these things so that the Second Law feels good about itself. He wants them to admit the truth so that they can build machines that work.

What happens, then, when an objective reality that needs to be recognized and admitted is “housed” in a person? All of us have experienced this to some degree. Imagine you are in a trivia game and there is a sports fanatic on your team. Every sports question he gets right. He has studied sports stats all his life. He collected sports cards from the time he could read. Your team is asked a question about Barry Bonds and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Who does your team want to answer the question? You do not ask the guy who knows science or the girl who has a doctorate in English literature. You turn to the sports guy who insists that he knows the right answer.

Now, I said we have all experienced this “to some degree,” but let’s take our illustration a step further. What if this man actually does know every single fact about every sport ever played? Any actions that failed to recognize this reality could be catastrophic. Imagine your team is asked a sports question worth 10 million dollars. Your teammate confidently says he knows every question about sports that could be asked and insists that you let him answer it. He explains that if you do not, your team will lose 10 million dollars. He is not bragging. He is not trying to force you to build up his ego. He simply wants you to admit the truth that he knows more about sports than you do, so that your team achieves the best outcome.

Any good sports team understands this concept. If there is a person on a football team who is quicker on his feet, more agile, and throws the ball faster and more accurately than anyone else on the team, everyone needs to recognize that he should play quarterback. If those on the team or the coaches refuse to recognize and admit this truth, they will not arrange the team in the best way. When it comes down to the wire, and a 70-yard pass needs to be made, the quarterback would not be bragging to say that he needs the ball and can make the throw better than anyone else on the team. He is simply stating a truth that everyone involved with the team needs to recognize and admit.

Let us shift this discussion slightly and consider how we often train children to think and behave. Imagine a mother is sitting with her child at the park. They are watching the other kids play. One little boy runs past a young girl, bumping her, causing her to fall. He immediately stops, apologizes, and helps her to her feet. The mother might turn to her child and point out the boy’s actions and explain that this is the correct way to behave. When we see laudable, honorable, just, loving, kind, benevolent, wise, competent behavior, we praise it so that it will be imitated. In this case, the child who performed the kind deed may never hear the words of the mother, but both the mother and her child need to recognize and admit the justice and kindness of the action if they want to behave in a just, kind way.

Of course, all illustrations break down at some point and do not provide a perfect analogy to the concept that is being illustrated. These illustrations can help us see, however, that recognizing and admitting reality is the only way to make decisions that will provide the best possible outcome. That being the case, any attempt to help us understand reality is one that will help us get the most out of life. If it is true that God is all-powerful, a refusal to admit this will only cause us harm. God asks us to understand this, say it to ourselves, to other people, and back to Him, not to stroke His ego, but to help us make the best possible decisions.

You can imagine the engineering professor demanding: Professor: “Say it again class. What must be calculated in all machines?” Class: “The Second Law of Thermodynamics.” Professor: “Why must it be calculated?” Class: “Because it never fails.” Professor: “Where and when does the Second Law work?” Class: “Everywhere in the Universe all the time.” Professor: “What will happen if you forget this Law?” Class: “You will be a terrible engineer!” You can see how this would go. The Second Law does not need us to understand it and “praise” it. We need to understand it in order to function properly in a world where it is a reality.

Does It Seem Like a Little Much?

Even knowing the truth, that we need to recognize objective spiritual reality, some will argue that the repeated insistence by the God of the Bible that humans worship Him is overkill. Why does God feel the need to repeat, over and over, that humans recognize His power, brilliance, and majesty?1 And if God already knows all this about Himself, why does He require that humans keep repeating back to Him how good, glorious, and awesome He is?

First, God often wants us to express to Him things He already knows. When He asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Genesis 3:11), God already knew the answer. Adam needed to confess his sins to God for his, Adam’s, sake, not to provide God with information. In the New Testament, Jesus taught His disciples to pray and ask God for things such as food and forgiveness. He then explained to them that “your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). God does not need us to inform Him of His majesty. We need to keep repeating it back to Him so we do not lose sight of the truth of it.

Second, the history of humankind reveals that humans come pre-programmed with a religious instinct to worship something. When humans aim their praise and worship toward the wrong entities, it ends in sinful behavior that leads to disaster and destruction. The apostle Paul wrote about how the pagan Gentiles “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things….[A]nd worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:23-25). Even with God’s repeated and insistent demand that humans recognize the spiritual objective reality of His all-mighty nature, humans turned their attention to “those which by nature are not gods” (Galatians 4:8).

We can illustrate what happens when a person attributes to something a power it does not have. Imagine a person believing that a dense rock will float. He is standing on the deck of a ship, ties himself to a large rock, and jumps in the water, fully trusting that he will float. His attributing the ability to float to something that does not have that ability could easily cost his life. Or think back to our Grand Canyon example. What if a person believes that a trash bag acting as a cape is stronger than the force of gravity? He jumps off, fully trusting the ability of his plastic cape, yet his “flight” does not end how he planned. When people worship the wrong entity or idea, they “serve” things that are not the ultimate, all-powerful reality, and it can never lead to their best life.

Modern, enlightened individuals may insist that they do not worship anything. They do not bow down to statues, or anything else for that matter. They believe in themselves, in the power of humanity to do good and make moral progress, and they hope for a better world that will come about when we get rid of religious baggage and traditional monotheistic thought. Try as they may, however, to deny their instinct to worship, they have set up an idol in their hearts—themselves. Moses warned about such self-worship. In his speech to the Israelites, who were going into the land of Canaan, he told them about all the good things God would do for them. They would “eat bread without scarcity” and “lack nothing” (Deuteronomy 8:9). He warned them to beware not to “forget the Lord your God” (8:11). And how would they forget a God who performed miracles, brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, fed them manna for 40 years, and personally directed them through the wilderness?  “[T]hen you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth’” (8:17). Humans cannot bring themselves into existence. They do not have the power to make the Sun rise and set. Humans are so limited that we cannot “add a single hour” to our lives (Matthew 6:27, ESV). How then can we pretend that we are the ultimate reality, responsible for our own success and final destiny? No, when humans put themselves in the place of God, their end is destruction, their god is their appetites, and their glory is in their shame (Philippians 3:19). History has shown that only a constant recognition and repeated recital of God’s reality and true nature grounds a person in the understanding of objective reality.

Conclusion

God is the ultimate reality. He is infinite in all His attributes. He knows everything, has all power, is all-loving, never makes a mistake, and wants only what is best for His creation. When we recognize and admit these truths, we are able to make the best possible decisions. When we fail to admit these objective spiritual realities to ourselves, to others, and to God, we are arranging our physical and spiritual lives in ways that can only end in catastrophe. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6).

Endnotes

1 The admonitions are actually scattered over a period of 1,600 years and addressed to many different people.

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CHRISTIAN

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Wednesday, December 24, 2025