A Look at "proskuneo"

Jesus was told to bow before Satan. This is the action of "proskuneo", translated "worship" in most English Bibles.

It's the same word Jesus uses in John 4. The "action of worship" here is bowing. It is not singing. It is not praying. It is not sacrificing a ram or burning incense. It is bowing/prostrating.

Jesus answered, "You shall bow before ('proskuneo') Yahweh your God, and serve ('latreia') him only."

You can proskuneo before the porcelain throne, but that is not the proskuneo which God wants. He wants your spirit to proskuneo before him, in truth, regardless of the prostrating your body might be doing. If your body is proskuneo-ing before the porcelain throne because of food poisoning, while your spirit is truthfully proskuneo-ing before God, thankful for his incredible design of the human body, he is pleased about your spirit's truthful proskuneo-ing.

It's not the outside of the cup that is all important. It's the inside of the cup. Get the inside clean, and the outside will be clean also. Proskuneo-ing before God is not about tithing on pennies, or long prayers, or wearing the right garments, or saying the correct phrases, or prostrating your body in this temple or that one, on this holy day instead of that one, while eating this food but not that one, while doing this ritual this way not that ritual that way. Adultery is not just about the act; it's about the heart. It's not what you put into your mouth that defiles you, or a failure to first ritually wash your hands; it's what comes out of your heart.

Don't you get it? "Worship" is not about externals - "don't touch, don't taste, don't handle, do this ritual not that one". God wants your "essence", not your ability to properly interpret and follow rules: a robot can do that. He wants your free-will-given Self. That's a 24-7 thing, not a 2-hours-on-Sunday-morning thing.

In John 4, Jesus is not saying that God no longer wants ritual service according to Moses, but he does want ritual service according to Jesus. That's not the message there. That's not the message we should be teaching from there.