Worship Him in spirit and truth

John 4:24

God is a Spirit 

- This is one of the first, the greatest, the most sublime, and necessary truths in the compass of nature!

There is a God, the cause of all things - the fountain of all perfection - without parts or dimensions, for He is Eternal - filling the heavens and the earth - pervading, governing, and upholding all things: for He is an infinite Spirit!

This God can be pleased only with that which resembles Himself: therefore He must hate sin and sinfulness; and can delight in those only who are made partakers of His own Divine nature.

As all creatures were made by Him, so all owe Him obedience and reverence; but, to be acceptable to this infinite Spirit, Our worship must be of a spiritual nature - must spring from the heart, through the influence of the Holy Ghost: and it must be in Truth, not only in sincerity, but performed according to that Divine revelation which He has given men of Himself.

A man worships God in spirit, when, under the influence of GOD the Holy Ghost, He brings all his affections, appetites, and desires to the throne of God; and he worships Him in truth, when every purpose and passion of his heart, and when every act of his religious worship, is guided and regulated by the "word of God".

First, The object of worship is supposed to continue still the same - God, as a Father; under this notion the very heathen worshiped God, the Jews did so, and probably the Samaritans.

Secondly, But a period shall be put to all niceness and all differences about the place of worship. The approaching dissolution of the Jewish economy, and the erecting of the evangelical state, shall set this matter at large, and lay all in common, so that it shall be a thing perfectly indifferent whether in either of these places or any other men worship God, for they shall not be tied to any place; neither here nor there, but both, and any where, and every where. Note, The worship of God is not now, under the gospel, appropriated to any place, as it was under the law, but it is God's will that men pray every where. 1Ti_2:8; Mal_1:11. Our reason teaches us to consult decency and convenience in the places of our worship: but our religion gives no preference to one place above another, in respect to holiness and acceptableness to God. Those who prefer any worship merely for the sake of the house or building in which it is performed (though it were as magnificent and as solemnly consecrated as ever Solomon's temple was) forget that the hour is come when there shall be no difference put in God's account: no, not between Jerusalem, which had been so famous for sanctity, and the mountain of Samaria, which had been so infamous for impiety.

[2.] He lays a stress upon other things, in the matter of religious worship. When he made so light of the place of worship he did not intend to lessen our concern about the thing itself, of which therefore he takes occasion to discourse more fully.

First, As to the present state of the controversy, he determines against the Samaritan worship, and in favour of the Jews, John_4:22. He tells here,

1. That the Samaritans were certainly in the wrong; not merely because they worshiped in this mountain, though, while Jerusalem's choice was in force, that was sinful, but because they were out in the object of their worship. If the worship itself had been as it should have been, its separation from Jerusalem might have been connived at, as the high places were in the best reigns: But you worship you know not what, or that which you do not know.

They worshiped the God of Israel, the true God (Ezr_4:2; 2Ki_17:32); but they were sunk into gross ignorance; they worshiped Him as the God of that land (2Kings_17:27, 2Kings_17:33), as a local deity, like the gods of the nations, whereas God must be served as God, as the universal cause and Lord.

Note, Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the murderer of it. Those that worship God ignorantly offer the blind for sacrifice, and it is the sacrifice of fools.

2. That the Jews were certainly in the right.

For, (1.) “We know what we worship. We go upon sure grounds in our worship, for our people are catechised and trained up in the knowledge of God, as He has revealed Himself in the scripture.”

Note, Those who by the scriptures have obtained some knowledge of God (a certain though not a perfect knowledge) may worship Him comfortably to themselves, and acceptably to Him, for they know what they worship.

Christ elsewhere condemns the corruptions of the Jews' worship (Mat_15:9), and yet here defends the worship itself; the worship may be true where yet it is not pure and entire. Observe, Our Lord Jesus was pleased to reckon Himself among the worshipers of God:

We worship. Though He was a Son (and then are the children free), yet learned He this obedience, in the days of His humiliation. Let not the greatest of men think the worship of God below them, when the Son of God Himself did not. (2.) Salvation is of the Jews; and therefore they know what they worship, and what grounds they go upon in their worship.

Not that all the Jews were saved, nor that it was not possible but that many of the Gentiles and Samaritans might be saved, for in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted of Him; but, [1.] The author of eternal salvation comes of the Jews, appears among them (Rom_9:5), and is sent first to bless them. [2.] The means of eternal salvation are afforded to them. The word of salvation (Act_13:26) was of the Jews. It was delivered to them, and other nations derived it through them. This was a sure guide to them in their devotions, and they followed it, and therefore knew what they worshiped. To them were committed the oracles of God (Rom_3:2), and the service of God, (Rom_9:4). The Jews therefore being thus privileged and advanced, it was presumption for the Samaritans to vie with them.

Secondly, He describes the evangelical worship which alone God would accept and be well pleased with. Having shown that the place is indifferent, he comes to show what is necessary and essential - that we worship God in spirit and in truth, John_4:23, John_4:24. The stress is not to be laid upon the place where we worship God, but upon the state of mind in which we worship Him.

Note, The most effectual way to take up differences in the minor matters of religion is to be more zealous in the greater.

Those who daily make it the matter of their care to worship in the spirit, one would think, should not make it the matter of their strife whether He should be worshiped here or there. Christ had justly preferred the Jewish worship before the Samaritan, yet here He intimates the imperfection of that. The worship was ceremonial, Heb_9:1, Heb_9:10. The worshipers were generally carnal, and strangers to the inward part of divine worship.

Note, It is possible that we may be better than our neighbours, and yet not so good as we should be. It concerns us to be right, not only in the object of our worship, but in the manner of it; and it is this which Christ here instructs us in.

  Observe,

a. The great and glorious revolution which should introduce this change: The hour cometh, and now is - the fixed stated time, concerning which it was of old determined when it should come, and how long it should last. The time of its appearance if fixed to an hour, so punctual and exact are the divine counsels; the time of its continuance is limited to an hour, so close and pressing is the opportunity of divine grace, 2Co_6:2. This hour cometh, it is coming in its full strength, lustre, and perfection, it now is in the embryo and infancy. The perfect day is coming, and now it dawns.

b. The blessed change itself. In gospel times the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. As creatures, we worship the Father of All:

as Christians, we worship the Father of our Lord Jesus.

Now the change shall be, (a.) In the nature of the worship. Christians shall worship God, not in the ceremonial observances of the Mosaic institution, but in spiritual ordinances, consisting less in bodily exercise, and animated and invigorated more with divine power and energy. The way of worship which Christ has instituted is rational and intellectual, and refined from those external rites and ceremonies with which the Old Testament worship was both clouded and clogged.

This is called true worship, in opposition to that which was typical. The legal services were figures of the true, Heb_9:3, Heb_9:24. Those that revolted from Christianity to Judaism are said to begin in the spirit, and end in the flesh, Gal_3:3. Such was the difference between Old Testament and New Testament institutions. (b.) In the temper and disposition of the worshipers; and so the true worshipers are good Christians, distinguished from hypocrites; all should, and they will, worship God in spirit and in truth.

It is spoken of (John_4:23) as their character, and (John_4:24) as their duty. Note, It is required of all that worship God that they worship Him in spirit and in truth. We must worship God, [a.] In spirit, Phillipians_3:3. We must depend upon God's Spirit for strength and assistance, laying our souls under His influences and operations; we must devote our own spirits to, and employ them in, the service of God (Rom_1:9), must worship Him with fixed-ness of thought and a flame of affection, with all that is within us. Spirit is sometimes put for the new nature, in opposition to the flesh, which is the corrupt nature; and so to worship God with our spirits is to worship Him with our graces, Heb_12:28. [b.] In truth, that is, in sincerity. God requires not only the inward part in our worship, but truth in the inward part, Psalm_51:6. We must mind the power more than the form, must aim at God's glory, and not to be seen of men; draw near with a true heart, Heb_10:22.

Thirdly, He intimates the reasons why God must be thus worshiped.

a. Because in gospel times they, and they only, are accounted the true worshipers. The gospel erects a spiritual way of worship, so that the professors of the gospel are not true in their profession, do not live up to gospel light and laws, if they do not worship God in spirit and in truth.

b. Because the Father seek'th such worshipers of Him. This intimates, (a.) That such worshipers are very rare, and seldom met with, Jer_30:21. The gate of spiritual worshiping is strait. (b.) That such worship is necessary, and what the God of heaven insists upon. When God comes to inquire for worshipers, the question will not be, “Who worshiped at Jerusalem?” but, “Who worshiped in spirit?” .............That will be the touchstone. (c.) That God is greatly well pleased with and graciously accepts such worship and such worshipers. I have desired it, Psa_132:13, Psa_132:14; Son_2:14. (d.) That there has been, and will be to the end, a remnant of such worshipers; His seeking such worshipers implies His making them such. God is in all ages gathering in to Himself a generation of spiritual worshipers.

c. Because God is a spirit. Christ came to declare God His Father, (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) Three persons of the Holy Trinity, to us (John_1:18), and this He has declared concerning Him; He declared it to this poor Samaritan woman, for the meanest are concerned to know God; and with this design, to rectify her mistakes concerning religious worship, to which nothing would contribute more than the right knowledge of God.

TRINITY - There is one eternal God. The OT condemns polytheism and declares that God is one and is to be worshiped and loved as such. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the LORD

is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul meaning (mind,will,emotions) and with all your strength" (Deut 6 v 4-5). He said through Isaiah, "There is no God apart from Me" (Isa 45 v 21). And this conviction of the unity of God is continued in the NT (see Mark 10 v 18; 12 v 29; Gal 3 v 20; 1 Cor 8 v 4; 1 Tim 2 v 5)  

 Note, (a.) God is a spirit, for He is an infinite and eternal mind, an intelligent being, incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, and incorruptible. It is easier to say what God is not than what He is; a spirit has not flesh and bones, but who knows the way of a spirit?

If God were not a spirit, He could not be perfect, nor infinite, nor eternal, nor independent, nor the Father of spirits. (b.) The spirituality of the divine nature is a very good reason for the spirituality of divine worship. If we do not worship God, who is a spirit, in the spirit, we neither give Him the glory due to His name, and so do not perform the act of worship, nor can we hope to obtain His favour and acceptance, and so we miss of the end of worship, Mat_15:8, Mat_15:9.

The Father Is God. God is the Father of Israel (Isa 64 v 8; Jer 31 v 9) and of the anointed king of His people (2 Sam 7 v 14; Ps 2 v 7; 89 v 27). Jesus lived in communion with His heavenly Father, always doing His will and recognizing Him as truly and eternally God (Matt 11 v 25-27;

Luke 10 v 21-22; John 10 v 25-28; Rom 15 v 6; 2 Cor 1 v3; 11 v 31).

 Before His ascension, Jesus said He was going to His Father (with whom He had a unique relation) and to the Father of the disciples (John 20 v 17). He taught His disciples to pray " Our Father..........."