We should agree to consult the church historic as a guide and standard for expressions of reverence. The prayers, songs, sermons, liturgies of Christians across 2000 years and five continents are neither infallible nor our final authority. They are, however, highly illuminating, instructive, and corrective, living as we do in an age of flippancy, irreverence and amusement. Their errors are likely not ours are are therefore highly visible to us and easily avoided. Our own errors are invisible to us, and seen more clearly when the contrast of earlier ages highlight our own deficiencies and faults. By allowing the church triumphant to have a voice at the table, our decisions on reverence will not be an echo chamber for our prejudices. We will hear what thousands of Christians before our time considered reverence to be.

Will Christians ever agree on whether certain acts of worship are reverent? In glory, perhaps, but on this side of Heaven, unanimity is impossible. A more modest goal is that thoughtful Christians should limit their discussion about reverence to those who agree on some basic principles. Proverbs warns against debating with fools and scoffers, and many a Christian has disobeyed this advice and found only angst, dishonour and wasted time. Serious discussion can be conducted only by serious people. What then should be the marks of serious-mindedness when it comes to discussing reverence?

First, we should agree that reverence toward God is required (Prov. 1:7, 9:10; Heb. 12:28-29). Few will disagree with this premise, but it is nonetheless important to state, since God Himself states it. We are not debating over a mere cosmetic preference, but over a fundamental posture towards God.

Second, we should agree that it is possible to be irreverent towards God. Again, this sounds pedantic and almost patronising to state, but it is important that we agree that somewhere on the worship spectrum people cross a line from acceptable to unacceptable worship. We may certainly disagree on where that point is, but if it is always further out than what people are actually doing, it may as well not exist. Sincerity and good intentions are ever taken by modern evangelicals to be the panacea for any perceived irreverence, and consequently few are ever charged with heteropathy. This is the equivalent of acquitting criminals by asking them if they meant to be evil, and releasing them if they answer “no”. No one thinks his evil is unwarranted evil; similarly, no one thinks he is being deliberately irreverent.

Third, we should agree that God’s Word regulates worship, and that the primary guard against irreverence is to restrict ourselves to what God commands by precept or inferred principle.

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