WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH

What does it mean to worship God in Spirit and in Truth? Read on and find out in this article 😉

John 4:19‭-‬24 ESV
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

In this famous story Jesus is telling a Samaritan woman that a time is coming when those who are limited to a place of worship (which at that time was Jerusalem because the Temple was there), that in the new covenant bought by His blood, we who were once lost actually become The Temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20) and thus being carriers of God’s presence do not need to go to a place to seek Him but that we can access Him and experience WHEREVER we are and WHATEVER TIME we want to.

The Jews knew that God’s holy place on earth was at the temple in Jerusalem while the Samaritans believed God’s holy place on earth was at Mount Gerizim but Jesus states that none of that will matter once He has accomplished His mission on the cross for the sake of humanity’s sin, reconciling man to God once and for all. After all as the first Christian martyr Stephen said in Acts 7:48-50,

“the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,
Or what is the place of My rest?
Has My hand not made all these things?’”

Secondly, He also tells her that salvation is from the Jews because God specifically chose them (Deuteronomy 7:7; Romans 3:1-2; 9:4-5), gave them the Law and the prophets, taught them how to truly worship Him and through them the Messiah, the Saviour of the world came. They worshiped the one true God; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel (Exodus 3:13-15). The one true God is the God of Israel as seen in the Scriptures and in this new covenant the only way to Him is through Jesus Christ of Nazareth (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5).

Thirdly, Jesus tells her that true worshipers MUST worship God in spirit and in truth. What does this mean? To worship God in spirit means that we, first of all, must become born again, born of the Spirit (John 3:3-6). We as human beings are born into a sinful world with a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12-14) and therefore we are separated from God by sin (Isaiah 59:1-2) and we cannot have a relationship with God let alone worship Him.

When we accept that we are sinners in need of a saviour and that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, accepting Him as Saviour (from sin) and as LORD of our lives we become born again (Romans 9:9-10) and we have relationship with God (Ephesians 2:1-6). And thus, we are able to have access to God because our spirits (the image of God in us – Genesis 1:26-27) which died at the Garden of Eden through sin (Genesis 3:3; 6:3) are quickened and made alive and therefore we who were fleshly and soulical (have body and soul but a dead spirit) are now truly spiritual and can communicate with God. We can talk with Him and He can speak to us. This is the first step to true worship, becoming born again.

From then on we can truly worship God. True worship to God is not done for the sake of human approval and praise (Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18) but only to please God (and with the right motive to inspire men too, if need be). We are to seek Him with the whole heart and not with wrong motives cause God is ahead of us you see, He already knows why you want to seek from Him whether with the right or wrong motives.

(A religious Jew praying in public 2000 years ago)

I should also emphasize that worship is not just singing in church as many people assume. One could be knowing and singing all the Gospel/Christian songs that are there and yet spiritually dead and on their way to hell. True worship is seeking Jesus with the whole heart, pleasing Him in all our thoughts, words and actions, motives, intentions and priorities as shown in the Scriptures. True worship is offering ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1-2; I Thessalonians 5:22-23), holy and acceptable to Him (I Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 12:14; I Peter 1:15-16) and bearing fruit because this is the true evidence that we know and worship God; not our religious proclamations but our faith evidenced/shown by our fruit/works (James 2:14; I John 5:2-3).

When worshiping God through songs of praise and worship and prayer we should give God our full attention and fully reflect and meditate on the words we are saying when we sing so that they can have meaning and not just a normal dead religious experience that doesn’t transforms us. We can lift up holy hands, bow before the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, shout, sing and pray in tongues, prostate yourself, sit, dance, stand up, be silent and whatever it is you do (don’t necessarily force people to do what you do) to accompany your praise and worship to God through singing as long as it is done with a proper heart motive and as seen in the Scriptures.

Obviously, singing songs of praise and worship is one aspect of worship to God (again, as long as it is done Biblically and with the right motive) but worship is not singing entirely because WORSHIP IS A LIFESTYLE that reflects the life and Gospel of Jesus Christ here on earth.

If you are not saved, that is, born-again please read this article here and accept Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Saviour and Love. He loves you too much. Please make this decision today, you will never regret it.