. . . It should also be added that the words for worship in Paul are never used of or for the Holy Spirit . . . While I will examine some Pauline passages that include the risen Jesus in various expressions and acts of worship it should be stated that there are no such examples of worship or expressions or acts of worship being given to the Holy Spirit. In short, there is no evidence that the Holy Spirit was directly worshipped in the Pauline faith communities and the Pauline letters do not seem to show any indication that the Spirit was worshipped. While the Pauline letters exhibit evidence of triadic passages (Rom 8:1-4; 1 Cor 12:4-6; 2 Cor 13:13[14]; Gal 4:4-6; cf. Eph 1:3-14; 4:4-6; 2 Thess 2:13-14; Titus 3:4-6), Paul never makes the Holy Spirit a recipient of worship as he does with God. The Holy Spirit in Paul seems to play a subjective experiential role in Christian worship as Paul describes his communities as those “who worship by the Spirit of God” (Phil 3:3 ESV) but again is never the object or recipient of worship. The NET for Phil 3:3n5tc states that “the NT does not seem to speak of worshipping the Spirit explicitly” (italics in original). The closest one comes to seeing a possible reference to a form of worship by way of prayer to the Holy Spirit is in the sole passage of 2 Cor 13:13(14), a passage I will deal with below under “Wish Prayers” . . . (Tony Costa, Worship and the Risen Jesus in the Pauline Letters [Studies in Biblical Literature vol. 157; New York: Peter Lang, 2013], 317 n. 18)
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