God Doesn’t Accept Worship From a Disobedient Heart

Prophets such as Amos spoke powerfully about justice and righteousness (as in Amos 5:21-24). What does it mean for Christians to work for “justice” and “righteousness” in today’s world? How do we do this without taking away from the essentials of the gospel message (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)? In other words, how do we avoid a offering only a "social gospel", and how do we offer pleasing worship to God?

What it was saying in 1 Samuel 15:22 was it's better to obey God in the first place than to have to offer a sacrifice to ask to forgiveness afterward disobeying. God's mercy is always there, but it's better to obey in the first place. He gives the commands He does for a very specific reason and even if we don't know His reasons we must trust Him that He knows best. I have seen in my life over and over that God's way is always the best way. I have tried to do it my way over and over again and then just once or three hundred more times just to make sure. He is always right. I think it is hard to understand God's ways because they are so contrary to the world's ways, but we must obey God regardless of what the world says or does.

God said:
Amos 5:21-24

“I hate, I despise your feast days,
And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
 Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
 But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.

If we do not obey God both in word and deed, by following the teachings in the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we cannot offer Him acceptable worship. Worship from a disobedient heart is completely unacceptable to God. Think about it. Would your Mother’s Day gift mean much to your mom if every other day of the year (except Mother’s Day) you disrespected her, ignored her requests, and/ or ignored her desire for relationship and communication (didn’t read her texts or answer her phone calls)?  The gift would be an insult and a hurtful reminder to her of the lack of relationship between the two of you. It would have been better to offer no gift instead. Sometimes we think that God will “understand” our heart, and yes, He does perfectly understand our hearts, and yet that does not excuse bad behavior.

As far as justice in the world goes, justice without righteousness is impossible. The biblical definition of justice is: ”conforming to the appropriate norm or standard”. We cannot execute true justice in the world without personal righteousness. True justice is conforming to a righteous standard. This is impossible if one does not live righteously. This is perhaps why we cannot properly execute justice and only God can, because only God is truly righteous. The only righteousness we have comes from God. All our righteousness (without Christ) is like dirty rags before God (Isaiah 64:6).

Isaiah 64:6
“But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.”

The only way we know righteousness is to obey God, because only God can define for us what is righteous. Our ideas of righteousness are not the definition of righteousness. It is imperative that we know what the Word of God has to say about righteousness because that is the only way we will ever know what righteousness is (that and through the Holy Spirit in us).


Our only way to righteousness lies in Christ. There is no other hope for us. Only Christ can stand righteous before God, and cover our sinfulness by His atoning death and sacrifice (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). He is risen and alive! Jesus IS our justice and righteousness. He alone is the foundation for our ever-present living faith.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

The Risen Christ, Faith’s Reality

"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,"

Jesus is our righteousness. He takes over, and does what we cannot do for ourselves. What we can do now through the power of the Holy Spirit is obey God. We need to take personal responsibility for each of our selves and obey God to the best of our ability, even when it's hard and we don't feel like it. We don't have to like it, we just have to do it. We have to love and trust God enough to obey Him. Even when it looks like it can't be done, if God said it we must do it. When we make the choice to obey, God steps in and does what we cannot do. With God all things are possible.

There are many different worship leaders today in the world, but the only acceptable worship leaders (and all worshipers) before God are not those with the most money and popularity, but those who are obedient to God in both word and in deed. All worshipers must be righteous before God by the blood of Christ and through obedience to God, but especially those who are leaders. God takes the act of worship leading very seriously. It's not just a musical gig; it's leading others in worshiping the living God of every universe who is fully righteous and incomparably holy.