The phrase “spiritual worship” may be rephrased as “reasonable or rational service”.   This phrase has a special meaning and is unique to these verses.  Separately, the words have deep meanings:

• Spiritual: logical, rational, compelling, reasonable
• Service: ministering as a priest, worship

Together they lead us to the conclusion that there is no other course of action. That is, in everything we are to serve and worship the Almighty God by presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice (2 Cor 6:3-4, Tit 2:7).

Many events recorded in the bible help us discover the deep truth of this conclusion.    For example, upon hearing our Lord say “I am”, those who were sent by the Chief Priests and Pharisees to bring Jesus to Pilate, went backward and fell to the ground (John 18:5-6).  A careful reading of this event reveals that they fell on their faces – effectively they were compelled to worship him.   This was the only logical and rational response to the Lord’s great declaration (Rom 14:11).

The original word translated here as ‘service’ only occurs a few times in the bible.  It has the key thought of priestly worship (as indicated in Heb 9:1, 6).

Worship is important to God (Exo 34:14) and he explicitly tells us we are to worship him in spirit and truth (Joh 4:24). He has also provided many examples of worship. In the context of this discussion, Abraham’s offering of Isaac (Gen 22) is particularly helpful as it shows us the characteristics of sacrifices that are acceptable to God, these include:

• They should be from the heart. Abraham willingly offered the thing that he valued most.
• They should reflect our appreciation of God. God gave Abraham (and Sarah) a miracle son (Gen 18:10-11, 14).  Abraham, I believe, saw this as the greatest gift God had given him.  We should do the same by bringing to God our appreciation of His Son (God’s greatest gift to us) through praise.
• They require us to separate from the world unto God. Notice how Abraham (and Isaac) alone made the trek to the place where God was.

Each of us (no exceptions!) is blessed with the remarkable responsibility and privilege to bring God the praise of our lips in whatever service we are called to do – this is the only rational course of action!