“But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)
A long-standing hatred existed between the Jews and Samaritans at the time of Christ that dated all the way back to the days of Jacob and his sons. But John 4 tells us that one day while journeying from Judea to Galilee, Jesus sent his followers on ahead so he could fulfill a divine appointment with a Samaritan woman at one of Jacob’s wells.
In the middle of the dialogue that passed between the Lord and the woman of Samaria that day, Christ unveiled a rare jewel of significance as it relates to worship. After realizing this man had intimate knowledge of her personal story, the woman attempted to divert their discussion away from her personal failures and toward their differences in religious practices… a diversion which the Lord redirected to teach her (and us) about true worship.
In contrast to both the Samaritans’ mixture pagan religious practices and the legalistic religious rituals of the Jews which Christ harshly criticizes in Matthew 15:7-9, here he tells her, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him,” (John 4:23).
Christ explains that true worship is not determined by personal preference, or synagogue locations or the external ceremonies of the old ceremonial system. Rather, he reveals that worship which God has prescribed emanates from the Spirit of God demonstrating that is its by 1) God’s Prescription, and 2) without the shadows of the worship at the temple, in this way, drawing the whole heart of a child of God to his Father.
But not only does true worship engage the whole heart toward God, it must be supported with a properly informed knowledge of God consistent with his written Word. Both are essential for God-honoring worship. This worshipful union of spirit and truth is well iterated by the 18th-century American pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards in this way, “I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth.”
As we grow in knowledge about God as his child according to his prescriptions, the deeper our relationship with him can also grow. The deeper that relationship, the deeper our worship. And the deeper our worship, the more God is honored and glorified in us and through us. As Edwards so well explains, focusing on the truths of God is the right and proper way to inflame and influence the heart in passionate, responsible worship commanded by the Father – that level of worship that he seeks from us as his children.
Contemplations:
- Lord, I see how important this one attribute is where Christ connects worship with God as spirit. I see its practicality in terms of your nearness. This is why Christ came to fulfill all things needful so God could be worshipped in accordance with his pure nature as spirit by those whom the Father seeks to worship him.
- Lord, do many Christians really think about that verse in John 4 or what the implications are? The Father seeks worshippers. The Father desires The Father wants his children to worship him aright. And I know this is only possible through Christ!
- Lord, why do people sacrifice true worship of you as a pure spirit because they have a need to fill their churches with that which is attractive to unbelievers? The natural man always loves natural worship. It is easy for him. Shall we not do away with all the pomp and circumstance in our churches to worship in spirit and truth?
- Lord, help me know the truth, listen to the truth, live the truth, for this is hard. Job’s worship was from, “a perfect and an upright man,” (Job 2:3). Help me in this.
- Help me worship the Father, a pure spirit, from an upright heart in spirit and truth. And I know the idea of “pure spirit” affects every area of my service to you on every level, every day, in all I do. It is your will, it is Christ’s work, and it is the Spirit’s persuasion for me to understand what it means and how it practically applies in my own walk, so that I can live to God, through Christ, in the power of the Spirit knowing God’s nature as a pure spirit. This truth affects everything I do as a Christian.
Further References for John 4:24:
2 Cor. 3:17; Phil. 3:3; Psalm 145:18; Deut. 4:12
