Definition · Webster 1828 · Scriptures · Corruption · Roots · Usage · Related
📖 Biblical Definition
Reverence in worship is the godly fear, awe, and holy respect with which the creature must approach the worship of the holy God—a deep sense of His majesty, holiness, and greatness that produces humility, seriousness, and carefulness in drawing near to Him. Scripture everywhere requires it: ‘let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire’; ‘God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him’; ‘the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him’; ‘worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.’ Reverence flows from a right apprehension of who God is—the infinite, holy, majestic Lord before whom the seraphim veil their faces and cry ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ before whom Isaiah was undone, before whom Moses removed his shoes and the elders fall down. To approach such a God carelessly, flippantly, or irreverently is to dishonor Him and to forget what worship is. Reverence does not mean cold, joyless solemnity or mere external propriety; it is fully consistent with joy, even with exuberant praise—the saints rejoice before God with trembling, and worship Him with gladness—but it is joy mingled with awe, gladness that never forgets the greatness of the God who is its object. Reverence governs the manner of worship: the seriousness of approach, the carefulness to worship as God directs, the humility of the suppliant, the attentiveness of the hearer, and the holy gravity that befits the presence of the Most High. It must be guarded on two sides. Against irreverence—the casual, flippant, entertainment-driven, overly familiar approach that treats God as a buddy and worship as a show, forgetting His holiness and majesty. And against a dead, formal solemnity that has the outward forms of gravity without the inward fear and love of God. True reverence is the fruit of a heart that truly knows God—awed by His holiness, humbled by His majesty, and yet drawn near in glad love through Christ—and it ought to mark every approach to Him, that we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines REVERENCE as fear mingled with respect and esteem; veneration; the holy awe and respect due to God, especially in worship.
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REVERENCE, n. — 1. Fear mingled with respect and esteem; veneration. ...Reverence is nearly equivalent to veneration, but expresses something less of the same emotion. It differs from awe, which is an emotion compounded of fear, dread or terror, with admiration of something great. We feel reverence for a parent, and for an upright magistrate, but we stand in awe of a tyrant. This distinction may not always be observed.
REVERENCE, v.t. — To regard with reverence; to regard with fear mingled with respect and affection; to venerate.
📖 Key Scripture
Hebrews 12:28-29 — "...let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire."
Psalm 89:7 — "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him."
Habakkuk 2:20 — "But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him."
Psalm 2:11 — "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Reverence is corrupted by the casual, flippant, entertainment-driven worship that treats God as a buddy and forgets His holiness—and, oppositely, by the cold, dead formalism that has the forms of solemnity without the inward fear and love of God.
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Reverence in worship is corrupted, in our day most pervasively, by the casual and flippant familiarity that has overtaken much modern worship. God is addressed and spoken of as a buddy or a therapist; worship is styled as a relaxed, entertaining, comfortable experience; the gravity, awe, and holy fear that Scripture requires are dismissed as stuffy and off-putting; and the consuming fire before whom the seraphim veil their faces is approached with a breeziness that would be thought rude before an earthly dignitary. This forgets who God is—the infinite, holy Lord of heaven and earth—and what worship is—the creature’s awed approach to the Most High. Irreverence dishonors God, trivializes worship, and betrays a heart that has lost its vision of His majesty. The familiarity that breeds it is not the warm intimacy of the child with the Father (which is reverent love) but the careless contempt of the soul that no longer trembles.
Reverence is corrupted, on the other side, by a cold and dead formalism that wears the outward forms of solemnity—hushed tones, grave faces, stately ceremony—without the inward reality of the fear and love of God. This is reverence’s hollow imitation: the body bowed while the heart is far off, the appearance of awe without its substance, gravity that is mere decorum rather than the trembling of a soul that beholds its God. True reverence is neither the flippant familiarity of the casual nor the cold propriety of the formalist, but the godly fear of a heart that truly knows God—awed by His holiness, humbled by His majesty, yet drawn near in glad love through Christ. It is fully consistent with joy—indeed with exuberant praise—for the saints rejoice before God with trembling; but it is joy that never forgets His greatness. The recovery of reverence restores to worship its proper gravity and awe: we approach a consuming fire, and must serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear, our gladness mingled always with the holy trembling that befits the presence of the Most High.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on serving God with reverence (eulabeia, godly caution) and fear (deos)—the LORD greatly to be feared (Hebrew yārē’) in the assembly.
Usage
"Reverence in worship is the godly fear and awe with which the creature approaches the holy God—‘our God is a consuming fire.’"
"Reverence is consistent with joy: the saints rejoice before God with trembling—gladness mingled with awe."
"Casual flippancy treats God as a buddy and forgets His holiness; dead formalism has the forms of gravity without the heart’s fear."