True worship

In the midst of the dialogue between Jesus and the woman at the well, we see an interesting sidelight into worship.

The woman stung by the truth of her own life, tries to divert Jesus, saying, “I see you’re a prophet. You know, our ancestors worshiped God here, but you Jews say we have to worship in Jerusalem. What do you say?”

This argument was one of the big disputes between the Jews and the Samaritans, and perhaps this woman was looking to anger Jesus by bringing this topic up.

But instead Jesus answered compassionately, saying,

Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Yet 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.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:21-24)

In short, Jesus said, “It doesn’t matter anymore where you worship. What matters now is how you worship.”

What did Jesus mean?

First, our worship needs to be based on God’s truth. The problem with the Samaritans’ way of worship was that they worshiped “what they didn’t know.”

Years before, when the northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered and exiled, other groups of people came to inhabit Israel and intermarried with the remaining Jews.

In doing so, however, they had not only mixed races, but had mixed religions. As a result, they had a confused view of God, and you can’t worship God that way.

But God also desires that we worship from our spirits. He’s not just interested in our “form.” He wants us to worship from our hearts.

More than that, he desires that our whole lives be praise to him. That as we live each day, living for him, and touching the lives around us, that our whole lives would sing out his glory. That’s what it means to worship in spirit.

How about you? Are you worshiping in truth?

You cannot worship in truth if you have a wrong view of God as the Samaritans did. You need to accept God as he has revealed himself, not as you want him to be.

How has God revealed himself? Through his written Word, and the living Word that is his Son.

The apostle Paul wrote,

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. (Colossians 2:9)

If you want to know who God is, look at Christ.

Are you worshiping God in spirit? Not just in song, but with your whole life?

A song my friend wrote has stuck with me throughout the years. One line. One prayer.

Let my life to You be praise.

May you worship God in spirit and in truth this day, and every day.