19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet 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. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:19-24)
The conversation with the Samaritan woman reaches a climax. Jesus has to cross several hurdles in order to finally impact this woman’s heart.
- He crosses the cultural hurdle. Jews don’t talk to Samaritans…especially women.
- He crosses the material hurdle. Jesus had to get her to think of living water for her soul versus some kind of super-duper, never-thirst physical water.
- He crosses the moral hurdle. Jesus had to gently confront her sin of multiple sexual relationships as evidence of her desperate thirst for living water.
The final hurdle is often the most difficult. The religious hurdle. “Okay,” she asks, “You seem to know a lot of stuff. Tell me, which religion is correct? The Jews or the Samaritans? Where does real worship take place? In Jerusalem or in Samaria? At this temple or at that temple?”
That same question often gets asked today in different ways. “Which church is correct?” “Should I be Baptist or Presbyterian, Episcopalian or Catholic?” “Or should I go to a church, temple, synagogue, or mosque to find God?”
How does Jesus answer? To truly worship God, we absolutely must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is not a matter of location or ethnicity or label. It is a matter of the heart and of the mind.
We must worship in spirit. It must be sincere. It must come from a heart gripped by one’s sin, aware of one’s own spiritual need and thirst, and calling out for God’s mercy and grace.
And we must worship in truth. It must be based on truth, on reality. We can’t invent God in our own image to match our own religious desires. We must know Him in truth. We must let the reality of His existence and the certainty of His character change our thinking and bend our will to His, not vice-versa.
Jesus makes it clear…”salvation is from the Jews.” In other words, God’s revelation to the Jews in the Old Testament and through Jesus Christ in the New Testament is the accurate revelation of Himself. The Bible is the objective definition of who God is. True worship must conform to the character of God as revealed in Scripture.
The Jews, as a whole, knew who God was (in truth) but they failed to worship Him from their hearts (in spirit). The Samaritans, as a whole, had a hunger for the Lord (in spirit) but failed to accurately grasp who God was (in truth) because they rejected much of the Old Testament in favor of their own formulations of God.
Both miss the boat. True worship must be in spirit and in truth. Both are essential. I must know who God is in my mind and I must yield to Him in my heart.
God is actively seeking these kind of worshipers. Which is why I must ask myself, “Am I worshiping God in spirit and in truth?” Am I letting His Word renew my mind, transform my thinking, conform my will to His? And am I truly yielding to His Spirit, allowing His grace to soften my heart, remove my pride and my idols, and fill me with His love? To ignore either one is to go through the motions of religion but to miss true relationship with God.
Lord, may You find me to be one of Your true worshipers today.
