Jesus says these words in John: "God is spirit and those who would worship Him must do it in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24).
The context here is the scenario with Jesus at the well and the woman from Samaria. Jesus has just convinced her that He is the Christ because He has told her about her life. She is confused by this stranger but she marvels at His intimate knowledge of who she is. She then makes the statement about places of worship, pointing to the reality that the Jews believed that only the Temple was the appropriate place to worship. This statement has a whole host of connotation: not only is she referring to the place of worship, but she is also referring to the what of worship, namely, the ceremonial Law of Torah.
Jesus, though, indicates that a time is coming and has now arrived in Him that the worshipers of God will worship God purely, in spirit and in truth. Jesus' statement is remarkable because it flies in the face of the presumptions of Judaism of His day, which saw the worship of God as an ethnically exclusive activity. For anyone to truly worship they would have to become a Jew first.
Additionally, Jesus is taking the monopoly of worshiping God out of the hands of the Jews and giving it to the scope of humanity. Now, anyone and everyone can worship by these requirements, as God had always intended: in spirit and in truth. While this might seem, at first glance, to be enigmatic Jesus is saying that worship has a specific energy, the spirit, and a specific content, the truth.
This energy is the Holy Spirit. He is the exciter, the comforter, the empower, and the initiator of worship. He is the spirit of worship, and He is the One who initiates and activates the worshiper's heart for worship.
This content, the truth, is the Word of God. It is the Word itself that forms the backbone for any and all worship. If worship is not based on or does not come from the Word of God, then it is not worship. There are a great many things that claim to be worship but lack the Word of God, that is, Christ. Because of this, they cannot be worship.
In the end, the Spirit works in conjunction with the Word in the worshiper's worship of God. If we desire to worship, then, we need only prayer for the Spirit and engage in His Word. In this way, worship is made available for every human who calls on the name of the God, crying out that Jesus is Lord and King!
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