In my time as minister in Rotterdam I visited a patient who was a member of my congregation in one of the hospitals there. After I had read the Bible and prayed with the ward, I visited with the other patients to greet and exchange some words with them.

One of the patients responded to my handshake in a friendly way by stating: “I believe too, Reverend, but not the same way as you do. You, of course, go to church, and you have to, otherwise you won’t get paid. I don’t go to church, but I worship God my own way.”

I replied with a question: “And you think, of course, that I then also do that my own way?”

“Certainly,” he said, “everyone does that his own way, doesn’t he?”

“Still, there’s a problem,” I continued our conversation, “and that is the question of whether God is really pleased with it.”

He looked at me enquiringly, so I gave him an example to explain what I had stated. “I think you’re a nice man,” I said, “and imagine that I wanted to show that by doing something nice for you. One day you happen to be away from home, so I get my spade out of the shed and go and completely dig up your garden, from back to front. That evening you come home and you have a fit. ‘Who ruined my garden?’ you shout. ‘All my plants have been chopped up and turned over. My bulbs have been split and my tubers have been hacked to pieces!’ I did that, and I though I was doing a good thing for you. What did I do wrong?”

I didn’t get a reply, so I answered that question myself. “I should have first asked you what you would really like and after that I would have done a nice thing by doing what you wished. You need to give someone what he would really like to receive. I should have asked you what you wanted very much before doing something nice for you.”

He already understood where the conversation was going. “That’s also how it is with God. We shouldn’t try to worship Him our own way. That doesn’t please Him. We need to do it his way. And you read that in his Word, in the Bible. That counts for me and for all people.”

There was also opportunity to talk with him about all those different churches and religions. He agreed with me, but found it annoying. “It’s because everyone thinks they can worship God their own way,” I said to him. “If only we’d all just inquire as to what God wants, it would be completely different. The answer to that question is often clearer than most people would admit.”

Since then I use this incident when I have to explain to my catechism students what self-willed worship is, as it comes to the fore in the second commandment. We’re guiltier than we think of sin against this commandment, which forbids image worship. Let’s always ask ourselves what the Holy God thinks of our worship.

Characteristic of self-willed worship is that by means of it people feel themselves to be quite unique Christians. Characteristic of true worship is that with Paul you ask: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” Pride brings division. Humility unites.

Something for us to note in this day and age of self-willed worship! So many today seek to satisfy their own feelings rather than seeking God’s will in worship. The result is the man-centred, casual, and disorderly contemporary worship found in many churches today, rather than the orderly worship God seeks, for instance in 1 Corinthians 14:40.