“Woman, believe Me” (John 4:2121Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. (John 4:21)). The Lord more than meets every desire of the Samaritan’s heart. Here we have the first unfolding of Christian worship ever given by God to man. “The Father” was to be worshipped-what a revelation! It is no longer a question of Jehovah God of Israel. There is a richer display of God and far more intimate. It was God as the Son knew Him and was making Him known in the fullness of love and fellowship, bringing His own that were in the world into the conscious relationship of children as born of Him.
No wonder that, in presence of such nearness and the worship that befits it, the Samaritan’s mountain melts and the sanctuary of Jerusalem fades away, for the one was but the effort of self-will and the other but the test and proof of the first man’s inability to meet God and live. Christian worship is found on the possession of life eternal in the Son and on the gift of the Spirit as the power of worship.
Ye Know Not What
“Ye worship ye know not what” (vs. 22). It is remarkable that the Lord does not say “who,” but “what,” for in Judaism God dwelt in thick darkness, and the testimony rendered by the Levitical system was that the way into the holiest had not yet been made manifest. When Christ died, the veil was rent and eternal redemption found: The worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sins and are invited to draw near. Such is Christianity, God having revealed Himself as the Father in the Son through the Spirit. To know Him, the only true God, and Him whom He had sent to reveal Him, even Jesus, was life eternal. We know therefore whom we worship, and not merely “what.”
Who Can Worship?
It is an hour now when the true worshipers worship the Father. Who and what are they? The epistles answer with one voice that they are God’s children, born of Him through the faith of Christ, and sealed by the Spirit consequently as resting on His redemption. So the Apostle says that we worship by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in flesh (Phil. 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)).
What is said of the worship excludes all but true believers, for they are to worship in spirit and truth. How can any worship who have not the Spirit and know not the truth?
In Spirit and Truth
“They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (vs. 24). The Lord’s words express more than the necessity of having the Holy Spirit or of acquaintance with the truth, though this would suppose the Christian with his Christian privileges. But He says that they worship in that character, not merely that they have the Spirit and the truth in order to worship. A real Christian might act unspiritually and not according to the truth. However true the worshipper then, if he were grieving the Spirit or dishonoring the Lord, this would not be to worship in spirit and truth. Clearly, none but “the true worshippers” could so worship, though on a given occasion or in a given state they might not in fact as they ought.
The Father seeks the true worshippers. Undoubtedly, when sought, they gather unto the name of the Lord and enjoy His presence by the Spirit. It is not enough that they are washed and thus are every whit clean; it is not only that they have the Spirit, the spring of praise and power of continual thanksgiving. What confidence for them! What grace in Him! Yet is His seeking such true of every Christian. May they answer His grace by eschewing all that is unworthy of it in this evil day.
God Is a Spirit
“God is a Spirit” (vs. 24). It is the nature of God which is here in question, not the relationship of grace which He now reveals in and by Christ. And this is not without the greatest importance for us, for He must be worshipped correspondingly, and He most fully provided for this, seeing that the new life we enjoy is by the Spirit and is spirit, not flesh (John 3:66That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)), as indeed He begot us of His own will by the word of truth, and we are thus born again. Assuredly we should walk and worship in the Spirit, if we live in the Spirit. As God is a Spirit, spiritual worship is all He accepts. It is a moral necessity flowing from His nature a nature fully revealed in Him who is the image of the invisible and we should not be ignorant of it, we who are born of Him as believers in Christ.
W. Kelly (adapted from On the Gospel of John)