Religious Duty or the Love of God

 The core of the Christian faith is the love of God. Worship, service, morality and virtue are also part of it, but if everything is not moved by God's love, we go wrong.

There are Christians who always want to worship, and that is a good thing. The saints and angels in heaven worship God.

On the other hand, worship can be a problem when worship becomes so important as a religious duty that we always strive to sing and worship and arouse reverent feelings in ourselves.

Worship is not primarily an activity, but an experience in which we enjoy communion with God.

Worship can be sparked spontaneously by the presence of God, but worship is also a decision to love God, but we must understand that our love does not come from ourselves, but from God's love for us.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 Jn 4:10 NIV

God's command is that we love God with all our hearts, but we can be so duty-orientated that we strive to stir up love and worship within ourselves so that we no longer receive and enjoy God's love for us.

Morality and virtue are also good and necessary, but we can focus on virtue in such a way that we have a rod in our hand to threaten and criticise ourselves or others. This blocks the love and grace of God.