Equipped to Worship in Spirit and in Truth
“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.””
The woman that Jesus was talking to had a skewed vision of worship. She revealed her misdirection as soon as she said the word “ought.”
If you have an “ought” then you’ll also have a place, a time, a method, and punishments for getting any of those things wrong. Worship as a part of ought is obligation and rules, and too easily disconnected completely from the heart and soul of who a person is.
It’s easy to say you ought to go to church on Sunday and still do what you want on a Saturday.
The woman at the well in this passage brings up a couple of different religious issues with Jesus. She’s about as off-topic as He is while she reveals her state of coming from a world of rules and regulations. If worship was all about rules and regulations, we could just design the system to perfectly execute the act of worship while we watched. We’d develop worship automation and let the worship take care of itself from there.
But Jesus jumps through all of that to what the real point of worship is. He gives a bold declaration of what God wants from anyone that would worship Him:
“Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
It’s in the spirit because it’s not just motions and activities. There is something deep down in your soul that is activated (?) involved (?) participating (?) captivated (?) with God. Ask any 2nd grader reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before their school day. They might have the hand over the heart and all of the words recited correctly, but their soul and spirit are just coasting through the start of the school day.
God is looking for worship that is sincere and from the depths of who we are, even if it’s angry at Him! (To see how much God loves interaction, even if it’s angry at Him, read Psalms, Job, the life of Jacob, dialogues of Moses and God, and the rest of the Bible.) This is what Jesus means that worship must be done by our spirit.
And to worship in truth is very close to worshipping in spirit. Are we ready to be honest with God while we worship Him? When we give Him the glory He deserves and we don’t hide anything from Him, we’re worshipping in truth. The sincerity of knowing we don’t deserve anything He has to give us, but at the same time living in such a way that we try not to waste His grace, is worshipping in truth.
It’s no wonder God is looking for worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth because that’s the same clear way He has revealed Himself to us in Jesus.
Sincerely, deeply, and honestly.
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