"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24)In the first century AD, the ministry of the Lord Jesus declared to the world a radical and unprecedented path to spirituality and religious communion. The Gospel of John tells the story of a woman at a well, who tries to have a religious argument with the Savior of humanity. Jesus draws her into conversation, instead of dismissing her or ignoring her, and shows her deep heavenly truths, just as He desires every day to draw you and I into conversation with Him, to show us how to worship God in spirit and in truth.
It is interesting that church history is riddled with disagreements about words, meanings, and rituals, but rarely have there been great discussions or councils to better understand what it means to worship in spirit and truth. Christians have spent two thousand years trying to usurp the authority of Scripture and the prerogatives of God by attempting to determine what is right or wrong, what the church is or is not, who may be called a Christian in good standing or who may not. Jesus offers the secret of true worship and religion to a woman who would not even have been considered a believer in those times. The secret begins, not with what men and women seek, but with what God seeks: "A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks" (John 4:23).
To worship in spirit means that Christians must remember that God is spirit, that His Being is far beyond the limitations of our imaginations or the suggestions of the physical world. There is no science that can fully grasp who and what God is or what He does, there is not even a theologian or saint who can fully explain Him. Only Jesus Christ, whom we encounter through the revelation of the scriptures, can show us God (Colossians 2:9). Matters pertaining to the spirit are understood through revelation from God, and grasped by faith in that revelation: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible" (Hebrews 11:1-3). The invisible and eternal, then, are where the faithful make their home: "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18). The life of faith is a life of deep meditation and wonder, reverance and awe for the Godhead, and a distancing of oneself from the lures of the visible, corruptible world. It is a life steeped in the Spirit, whose ways are not the ways of the physical body or the physical elements: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). Life in the spirit begins with the reverance and humility of Moses for the Lord (Exodus 3:5-6), the intimacy and hospitality of Abraham with God (Genesis 18:1-15), the penitent heart and readiness for service we see in Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5), the burning passion of David for all things holy (2 Samuel 6:12-20), the commitment, discipline and loyalty of the Recabites for maintaining a godly lifestyle (Jeremiah 35), and moreover the prayerful closeness seen in the communion of Jesus the Son with God the Father (John 17). The life of the spirit is the prayerful life of faith that steps into the invisible and eternal world of the Spirit, the world made known to us through revelation.
Without truth, however, the Christian cannot begin to live in the Spirit, for Jesus is our way, life and truth (John 14:6) and our gate into the life of the Spirit because of His passion and resurrection. Truth is what sets us free (John 8:32) from the mirage of physical life and the illusion of our desires and darkened minds. Truth comes from the Word, Jesus (John 1), for whom we were made, who implanted Reason in our hearts or minds so that we would have a means to communicate with Him and know Him. A spirituality without reason is empty, for it rejects the beginning and end of all things (Revelation 1:8). One way of thinking of "Spirit and Truth" then, is to think of revelation and reason. Worship is thus the intersection of God's will revealed and our reasoned response to conform our wills to His. Logic, reason, and the search for truth help us to have faith in good faith, to be honest in approaching God, and to handle His Word carefully and respectfully, and thereby draw others out of darkness into the light of the Word. Of reason, or wisdom, the Scripture says: "The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began" (Proverbs 8:22-23); "Now then...listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord" (Proverbs 8:32-36). A love of the truth means that the reasoning Christian will follow the words of Jesus (Mark 9:2-8) and the Scriptures rather than the traditions of humans, because the Scriptures reveal Jesus (John 5:39-40).
The apostles were very careful with the truth, and they added nothing to what Jesus had entrusted to them: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements" (Acts 15:28); "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned" (Galatians 1:6-7); "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ" (Philippians 1:27); "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15); "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1); "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings" (Hebrews 13:9); "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and morning star rises in your hearts. Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:16-21); "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and which has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:1-4); "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book" (Revelation 22:18-19). Likewise, modern Christians should follow the example of the apostles and make no place for strange teachings that originate in human traditions or ideas, most of which are negative--forbidding things Christ never forbid, reducing men and women to mechanical pawns in a deterministic, predestined game of chance by denying free will, breaking up fellowships over pointless quarrels, living by oppressive rules rather than by good deeds done from devotion and faith, forcing particular political positions on the consciences of congregants, allowing sinful activities to be rationalized and thereby harming both the sinner and the one sinned against, assigning people to hell and usurping God's prerogative to judge and vindicate, suppressing the truth about how one becomes a Christian and substituting fables instead, or any of the myriad other instances of vain ideas that have plagued the church for two thousand years. Truth is positive, powerful and uplifting. It is the mark of an upright life and a clean conscience. It gives us confidence in our conversion and assurance of our salvation. The strange teachings of men estrange us from the good news of Jesus Christ and have nothing to do with the freedom that comes through grace and truth in the Son of Man: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).
Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth means life in Jesus and in His Holy Spirit, a life of words and actions that have been inspired by the One and Only, who is love (1 John 4:8). When all of our thoughts and deeds have been inspired by love for God and love for our fellow man (Mark 12:29-31), however imperfect our love may be, then we shall begin to draw closer to the perfect love, who is God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit.
