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Great Texts on Worship: John 4:24
By Rev. Hughes Oliphant OldPrevious articles in the Great Text series by Hughes Oliphant Old:
Revelation 4-5 John 4:24Surely one of the touchstones of our thought on the subject of worship should be those words of Jesus, "...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 truth" (John 4:23-24, NIV). These words were spoken to the woman of Samaria, a fact very significant in understanding this statement.
The question we would all want to ask here is what is meant by worshiping God in spirit and truth. It is not exactly a transparent statement. One of the difficulties is whether the word "spirit" is to be capitalized. Should we read the text, "The true worshiper worships the Father in Spirit and truth?" The original documents of the New Testament did not use this way of distinguishing between the human spirit which each of us has and which is understood as the core of our being and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. It is really difficult to decide whether to capitalize the word "spirit" here. Checking out the various translations and commentaries one finds no unanimity.
Surely part of what is meant is that Christian worship should be in contrast to the worship of the Samaritans. Samaritan worship was notoriously contrary to God's Word. True worship, above all, should be according to God's Word. Samaritan worship was anything but. Samaritan worship was both idolatrous and irreverent. It was Jeroboam who built the sanctuary of Samaria as part of his rebellion against the house of David. Jeroboam set up golden calves in the sanctuaries he established. He ordained his own priesthood and developed his own rites. It was worship largely devised by human art and imagination, as was the pagan worship of Athens (Acts 17:29).
Another aspect of the meaning of this text is suggested by several other places in the Gospel of John which speak of the role of the Holy Spirit in worship. In the previous chapter Jesus had told Nicodemus, "No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit" (John 3:5-6, NIV). I suppose what this means is that worship is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the Spirit, nourished by the Spirit, and shaped by the Spirit. True worship only takes place when we are in the Spirit, that is, when we are in the bond of the Holy Spirit. John later on in the Revelation tells us about entering into the worship of heaven, "On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit" (Revelation 1:10, NIV).
Still another aspect of this text is that our worship should be in truth, that is, it should come from a true understanding of who God is. We should not imagine him to be a vengeful and cruel God who must be appeased by acts of self-deprecation or won over by rich presents. Nor are we to worship God by trying to control his power for our benefit. This is the mistake of magic. The magician tries to harness divine powers. It is against this approach that the third commandment intends to speak. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Exodus 20:7, KJV). We are forbidden to use the name of God in magical formulas or incantations. Such worship is an insult to God. It imagines Him to be dreadful, fussy, and peevish.
Surely one thing "worship in Spirit and truth" does not mean is that true worship has nothing to do with formal, regularly organized, corporate worship, but is rather a merely private subjective feeling of reverence for God. True worship has its subjective dimension, to be sure, and in fact the subjective element is essential to true worship, but it has its objective dimension as well. The teaching and preaching ministry of Jesus himself demonstrates its importance to the full worship experience. An essential part of true Christian worship is attending to the regular ministry of preaching and teaching provided by the Church. As Luther put it, a disciple is careful to learn from the master. It is the same way with the discipline of prayer. Jesus and the Apostles maintained the regular hours of prayer. (Luke 4:16; Acts 3:1, and Acts 4:23-20). They came together to observe the Lord's Day and the Lord's Supper. Not only has Jesus given us an example, but he has specifically commanded us to maintain those assemblies for his memorial. At the Last Supper Jesus made very clear that we are to celebrate the Supper as a regular memorial to himself, "Do this in remembrance of me" (I Corinthians 11:24-25).
There are a number of parallel passages which throw light on this text. We read in I Peter 2:4-5 (NIV), "As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Christian worship is not like the worship offered on the mountain of Samaria, nor is it even like the worship offered in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is worship performed in the body of Christ, and in the bond of the Spirit. It is spiritual worship in that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of God's people. It is spiritual worship because it is purified by the Holy Spirit and it bears fruit through the life and vitality and power of the Holy Spirit.
As we find it in Romans 8:26 (NIV), "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." It is the Holy Spirit who inspires us to pray, "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4:6, NIV). Christian worship is animated and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
There is yet another dimension of this. Christian worship is enlightened by the Spirit of Truth. In John 14:17 we find it is the promised Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Truth, who will teach us all things. "The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26, NIV).
Previous articles in the Great Text series by Hughes Oliphant Old:
Revelation 4-5 Hughes Oliphant Old, formerly pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana, teaches worship at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
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