Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

By Dave Jenkins

When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, their conversation eventually turned to worship.

The woman said to Him:

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” (John 4:20).

Behind her statement stood centuries of disagreement between Jews and Samaritans. Where should God’s people worship? Which location was legitimate? Which tradition was correct?

Jesus’ answer moved the conversation beyond a dispute over geography and pointed toward the fulfillment of God’s redemptive purposes in Himself.

He said:

“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father” (John 4:21).

Then He declared:

“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” (John 4:23–24).

Few statements in Scripture are more important for understanding Christian worship.

Jesus tells us whom we worship, how we worship, why truth matters, and how His coming changes the worship of God’s people.

And His words confront many of the assumptions about worship that remain common today.

Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth: The Question of True Worship

The Samaritan woman’s question did not arise in a vacuum.

The Samaritans and Jews disagreed profoundly about worship. The Samaritans accepted only the Pentateuch as Scripture and worshiped at Mount Gerizim. The Jews worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem, where God had appointed worship under the old covenant.

Jesus did not pretend those differences were insignificant.

He told the woman plainly:

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).

That statement is important.

Jesus did not respond to competing religious claims by saying that sincerity was all that mattered. He did not suggest that both traditions were equally valid expressions of spirituality.

Truth mattered.

The Samaritans were wrong about God and His revelation.

Yet Jesus also announced that something greater was happening.

“The hour is coming, and is now here.”

Throughout John’s Gospel, the language of Jesus’ “hour” points toward His saving mission, especially His death and glorification. The coming of Christ was bringing God’s redemptive plan toward its fulfillment.

The question would no longer center upon Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem.

The center of worship was standing beside the well.

Worship Is Centered on Christ

Jesus’ words cannot be understood apart from His identity.

Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus cleansed the temple. When the Jewish leaders demanded a sign, Jesus answered:

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).

John then explains:

“But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:21).

Jesus is the true temple.

Under the old covenant, the temple represented God’s dwelling among His people. Sacrifices were offered there. Priests ministered there. God’s people gathered there according to His command.

But all of these things pointed beyond themselves.

Christ came as the fulfillment.

The sacrifices pointed to His once-for-all sacrifice.

The priesthood pointed to His perfect priesthood.

The temple pointed to God’s presence with His people, fulfilled ultimately in Christ.

This is why Christian worship is necessarily Christ-centered.

We do not approach God through a geographical holy place. We approach the Father through the Son.

Jesus says elsewhere:

“No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

There is no Christian worship apart from Christ.

The Father Seeks Worshipers

Jesus says something remarkable in John 4:23:

“The Father is seeking such people to worship him.”

Christian worship begins not with humanity searching successfully for God but with God seeking sinners.

The entire story of redemption demonstrates this.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God came seeking them.

God called Abraham.

God redeemed Israel from Egypt.

God sent the prophets.

And in the fullness of time, God sent His Son.

Jesus Himself said:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

We worship because God first acted toward us in grace.

This destroys every basis for boasting.

Christians are not worshipers because we were wiser than everyone else or because we discovered the correct spiritual path.

We were lost.

God sought us.

Christ saved us.

The Spirit gave us life.

The gospel transformed rebels into worshipers.

Christian worship is therefore a response to divine grace.

God Is Spirit

Jesus grounds His teaching about worship in the nature of God:

“God is spirit.”

Because God is spirit, He cannot be confined to a particular physical location.

This does not mean the physical world is unimportant. God created our bodies, and Christian worship involves embodied people gathering together, singing, listening, praying, eating the Lord’s Supper, and serving one another.

But God Himself is not limited by physical space.

Solomon recognized this even when dedicating the temple:

“Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).

The temple was never meant to suggest that God could be contained within a building.

And with the coming of Christ, the temporary structures of old-covenant worship reached their fulfillment.

Christian worship is not made holy by a particular mountain, building, stage, atmosphere, or location.

It is acceptable because believers come to the Father through Christ.

Worship in Spirit

What does Jesus mean when He says true worshipers worship “in spirit”?

The phrase has sometimes been reduced to emotional intensity, spontaneity, or a particular feeling during worship.

Someone may say, “The Spirit really moved,” because the music became powerful or the congregation experienced a highly emotional moment.

But Jesus is saying something far deeper.

True worship arises from hearts made alive by the Holy Spirit.

Apart from God’s saving work, human beings do not naturally worship Him rightly. Paul teaches that fallen humanity exchanges the truth about God for a lie and worships created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

Sin corrupts worship.

We need more than better religious habits.

We need new hearts.

Jesus had already told Nicodemus:

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

The Holy Spirit gives spiritual life.

Therefore, worship in spirit is worship flowing from those who have been made alive by God’s Spirit and who approach Him from the heart.

Paul similarly writes:

“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).

True worship cannot be manufactured by external techniques.

Music cannot regenerate.

Atmosphere cannot regenerate.

Lighting cannot regenerate.

Emotional intensity cannot regenerate.

Only the Holy Spirit gives life.

Worship in Truth

But Jesus does not say merely that worship must be in spirit.

It must also be “in truth.”

Spirit and truth belong together.

Truth means our worship must correspond to God’s revelation of Himself.

We cannot worship God faithfully while believing false things about Him.

We cannot invent our own version of God and call the resulting devotion Christian worship.

God determines who God is.

And He has revealed Himself through His Word and supremely through His Son.

John has already told us:

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Jesus declares:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Truth in John’s Gospel is inseparable from Christ.

To worship in truth is therefore not merely to possess correct information, though correct doctrine matters tremendously. It is to worship the true God according to His revelation, through the Son who is the Truth.

Christian worship must be grounded in Scripture because Scripture reveals Christ.

Spirit Without Truth

The church gets into serious trouble whenever spirit and truth are separated.

Emphasis on “spirit” without truth easily becomes subjective spirituality.

The determining question becomes:

What did I feel?

What did I experience?

What seemed powerful?

What did I sense God saying?

Experience begins functioning as an authority.

But spiritual experiences are not self-authenticating.

People in false religions have profound experiences. New Age practitioners describe encounters they regard as spiritual. Mystics throughout history have claimed visions, revelations, impressions, and extraordinary encounters.

Intensity does not prove truth.

This is precisely why Scripture repeatedly calls Christians to discernment.

John writes:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1).

Experiences must be tested by the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture will never lead Christians contrary to Scripture.

Truth Without Affection

There is an opposite danger.

We can affirm correct doctrine while worshiping with cold hearts.

A person can sing theologically precise words while thinking about something else entirely.

A church can defend biblical worship while losing wonder at the God it worships.

Jesus rebuked religious people who honored God outwardly while their hearts remained far from Him (Matthew 15:8).

Biblical truth should never produce spiritual indifference.

If we understand who God is, we should stand in awe.

If we understand the seriousness of sin, we should grieve over it.

If we understand the cross, we should marvel at grace.

If we understand the resurrection, we should rejoice.

If we understand God’s promises, we should trust Him.

If we understand Christ’s return, we should live with hope.

Truth should ignite affection.

The problem is not emotion.

The problem is emotion untethered from truth.

And the answer to cold orthodoxy is not less truth. It is truth believed, loved, and applied by the Holy Spirit.

Worship According to God’s Word

If worship must be in truth, Scripture must govern Christian worship.

This principle has enormous practical implications.

The church does not possess authority to invent whatever worship practices seem effective.

God’s Word must shape our singing.

God’s Word must shape our preaching.

God’s Word must shape our prayers.

God’s Word must shape our understanding of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

God’s Word must shape how pastors shepherd congregations in worship.

This does not mean every faithful church must look identical. Scripture leaves room for legitimate differences in circumstances and expressions.

But freedom is not autonomy.

Christian liberty never gives the church permission to disregard God’s revelation.

The fundamental question must remain:

What has God said?

Worship Is More Than Music

One reason clarity about John 4 matters is that modern Christians sometimes use the word “worship” almost exclusively as a synonym for music.

We speak of the “worship time,” meaning the singing before the sermon. Musicians are called the “worship team.” A person responsible for music may be called the “worship leader.”

There is nothing inherently wrong with such language, but it can unintentionally narrow our understanding.

Singing is worship.

But worship is much bigger than singing.

When God’s people gather, they worship as they hear Scripture read.

They worship as the Word is preached.

They worship through prayer.

They worship through congregational singing.

They worship through giving.

They worship through baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

And Christians worship God throughout the week by presenting their entire lives to Him.

Paul writes:

“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).

Worship encompasses the whole Christian life.

Worship Is Trinitarian

John 4 also gives us a profoundly Trinitarian vision of worship.

We worship the Father.

We come through the Son.

We worship by the Spirit.

The Father seeks worshipers.

The Son makes reconciliation with God possible through His saving work.

The Spirit gives life and enables believers to worship.

Christian worship is therefore not vague spirituality.

It is communion with the Triune God.

This protects us from reducing worship to techniques.

Christian worship is not primarily about creating the right environment.

It is about approaching the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit according to the truth God has revealed.

The Gospel Creates True Worshipers

At the heart of John 4 is a woman who desperately needs grace.

Her life was marked by sin and brokenness. Yet the Savior sought her.

Jesus exposed her sin, revealed truth to her, and ultimately disclosed His identity as the Messiah.

The conversation about worship cannot be separated from the gospel.

Sin makes us false worshipers.

Christ makes sinners true worshipers.

At the cross, Jesus bore the wrath deserved by His people. He rose from the dead, conquered sin and death, and now gives eternal life to everyone who believes in Him.

Through Christ, sinners who once worshiped created things are reconciled to their Creator.

This is why the gospel must remain at the center of Christian worship.

We do not gather to celebrate ourselves.

We gather because the Lamb was slain.

We gather because Christ has risen.

We gather because sinners have been forgiven.

We gather because the Father has adopted us.

We gather because the Spirit dwells within us.

We gather because Christ is coming again.

The Worshipers the Father Seeks

The Father still seeks those who worship Him in spirit and truth.

That means churches should care deeply about truth without becoming cold.

We should desire genuine affection without manufacturing emotion.

We should welcome joy without sacrificing reverence.

We should value beauty without making aesthetics our standard of truth.

We should sing passionately while understanding what we sing.

We should reject both lifeless formalism and experience-driven spirituality.

Above all, we should continually return to Christ.

The Samaritan woman began the conversation concerned about the proper mountain.

Jesus directed her toward something greater.

The true temple had come.

The Messiah was standing before her.

And through Him, sinners could become the worshipers the Father seeks.

Christian worship remains centered on that same glorious reality.

The Father has revealed Himself.

The Son has accomplished redemption.

The Spirit gives life.

Therefore, let us worship the Triune God with minds filled with truth, hearts filled with gratitude, lives marked by obedience, and eyes fixed upon Jesus Christ.

For “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).