Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 4:24

God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.

24. God is spirit, and must be approached in that part of us which is spirit, in the true temple of God, ‘which temple ye are.’ Even to the chosen three Christ imparts no truths more profound than these. He admits this poor schismatic to the very fountain-head of religion.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

God is A spirit – This is the second reason why men should worship him in spirit and in truth. By this is meant that God is without a body; that he is not material or composed of parts; that he is invisible, in every place, pure and holy. This is one of the first truths of religion, and one of the sublimest ever presented to the mind of man. Almost all nations have had some idea of God as gross or material, but the Bible declares that he is a pure spirit. As he is such a spirit, he dwells not in temples made with hands Act 7:48, neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things, Act 17:25. A pure, a holy, a spiritual worship, therefore, is such as he seeks – the offering of the soul rather than the formal offering of the body – the homage of the heart rather than that of the lips.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 4:24

God is a Spirit, and they that worship Hill must worship Him in spirit and in truth

God is a Spirit

There are two ways of knowing and describing God–Affirmatively, which ascribes to Him whatever is excellent; Negatively, which separates from Him whatever is imperfect.

The first is like a painting, which adds one colour to another to make a lovely picture; the other like a carving, which cuts away what is superfluous. The latter is the easier. When we say that God is infinite, immense, immutable, they are negatives. Spirit, too, is a negation–not a body. We transfer the term to God because spirit is the highest excellence in our nature. It is signified in the Divine Name (Exo 3:14), and expressly declared in text and Heb 12:9.

I. THE DOCTRINE. God is a pure spiritual being. Other-wise

1. He could not be the Creator. Every artificer has his model first in his mind.

2. He could not be One. If He had a body He would be capable of division. Where there is the greatest unity there is the greatest simplicity Deu 6:4).

3. He could not be invisible (1Ti 1:17; Joh 5:37). Sometimes a representation is made to the inward sense (1Ki Isa 6:1), but not of the Essence. Sometimes men are said to see Him face to face (Gen 32:30; Deu 34:10), but only in the sense of fuller manifestation.

4. He could not be infinite (2Ch 2:6). The very heavens have their limits.

5. He could not be independent. What is compounded of parts depends on those parts, and is after them; as the parts of a watch are in time before it. But God is not so (Isa 44:6).

6. He would not be immutable (Mal 3:6).

7. He could not be omnipresent (Deu 4:39; Jer 23:24), since a body can not be in two places at the same time.

8. He could not be the most perfect Being. The most perfect is the most spiritual and simple, as gold among metals is most free from alloy (1Jn 1:5).

II. THE OBJECTION. How can God be a spirit when bodily members are ascribed to Him?

1. This is in condescension to our weakness. We arc not able to conceive a spirit but by some physical attribute.

2. These signify the acts of God as they bear some likeness to ours. His wisdom is called His eye; His efficiency, His hand and arm; by His face, we understand the manifestation of His favour; by His mouth, the revelation of His will; by His heart, the sincerity of His affections, etc.

3. Truly those members which are the instruments of the highest actions are thus employed.

4. These may be figuratively understood with respect to the Incarnation.

5. We must conceive of them, therefore, not according to the letter but the intent. When Christ calls Himself a Vine, Bread, Light, who understands Him literally?

III. THE USE. If God be a pure spiritual Being, then

1. Man is not the image of God according to his external form, but in the spiritual faculties (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10). It is unreasonable to form any image of Him. This was forbidden by Pythagoras, undreamt of by the Romans for 170 years, and deemed wicked by the Germans. God has absolutely prohibited it (Exo 20:5; Deu 5:8-9; Isa 11:13).

(1) We cannot fashion His image. Can we that of our own souls?

(2) To do so would be unworthy of God (Jer 10:8; Jer 10:14; Rom 1:23-25 : Exo 32:31).

(3) Yet is natural to man.

2. Our conceptions must be directed towards God as a pure, perfect spirit, than which nothing can be conceived more perfect, pure, and spiritual. Conceive of Him as excellent without any imperfection; a spirit without parts; great without quantity; perfect without quality; everywhere without place; powerful without members; understanding without ignorance; and when you have risen to the highest, consider Him as infinitely beyond.

3. No corporeal thing can defile Him, no more than the quagmire can tame the sunbeam.

4. He is active and communicative. The more anything approaches the nature of spirit, the more diffusive it is–air, e.g. As a spirit God is

(1) Possessed with all spiritual blessings (Eph 1:3);

(2) Indefatigable in acting. If we be like God, the more spiritual we are, the more active we shall be.

5. He is immortal (1Ti 1:17).

6. We see how to communicate with Him; by our spirits. We can only know and embrace a spirit with our spirits (Psa 51:17; Eph 4:23).

7. He only can be the true satisfaction of our spirits.

8. We must take most care of that wherein we are most like God.

9. We must take heed of those sins which are spiritual (2Co 7:1). (S. Charnock, B. D.)

The spirituality of God

I. GOD IS INVISIBLE. We can only see what has form. It is no imperfection in our vision that it cannot see what it was never made to see. A spirit can only be known by its operations through a material body. God manifests Himself not to sense, but to experience.

II. GOD CANNOT ASSUME A MATERIAL FORM, for it would confine Him, whereas He is everywhere. Whoever imagined the form of God. The most rapt prophet has only seen light unapproachable as His symbol.

III. GOD HAS ASSUMED TERMS BY WHICH HE HAS MANIFESTED HIMSELF.

1. The pillar of cloud.

2. The burning bush.

3. The elements, as at Sinai.

4. A more definite form in Isa 6:1-13.

5. In the fiery furnace as a man.

6. As the angel of the covenant.

IV. GOD HAS REVEALED HIMSELF IN THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST. The image of the invisible God. (J. T. Duryea, D. D.)

Of God and His natural perfections

I. THERE IS BUT ONE GOD. We are led to this

1. By the light of nature. There can be but one infinite and supreme; it is a contradiction to suppose otherwise. The wiser of the heathen philosophers had their one supreme god.

2. By revelation (Deu 32:39; Isa 43:10; Mar 12:29).

II. THIS GOD IS A SPIRIT.

1. He is incorporeal and invisible (Col 1:15; 1Ti 6:16; Joh 5:37).

2. He lives and acts (Joh 5:26; Psa 36:9).

3. He has understanding and will (Psa 104:24; Eph 1:11; Isa 28:29; Dan 4:35).

III. THIS GOD IS AN INFINITELY PERFECT SPIRIT, and is distinguished in a transcendent manner from other spirits.

1. An infinite Spirit (Isa 40:15-17).

2. A self-sufficient and independent Spirit (Exo 3:14; IsaJob 22:2, 3; Rev 4:11).

3. An eternal Spirit (Psa 90:2; Psa 9:7; Psa 102:27).

4. An unchangeable Spirit (Jam 1:17).

(1) In His being and perfection.

(2) In His glory.

(3)In His blessedness.

(4) In His decrees (Job 23:13; Psa 32:11; Is

46:10, 11).

(5) In His promises (Isa 54:10; Mal 2:6).

5. An omnipresent Spirit (Jer 23:24; Act 17:27-28; Psa 139:7-10).

6. An all-knowing Spirit (Psa 147:5; Heb 4:13; Job 34:21-22). On this ground He challenges the heathen (Isa 41:22-23). All this He knows of Himself without any external medium (Is Psa 94:10).

7. An Almighty Spirit (Psa 33:6; Eph 3:20).

Application

1. How absurd and abominable are all images of God (Jer 10:8, Rom 1:23-25).

2. What awful sentiments should we entertain of Him.

3. What a dreadful enemy and what a comfortable friend He must be.

4. How thankfully should we embrace a gospel revelation which makes Him accessible. (J. Guyse, D. D.)

The nature and worship of God

I. GOD IS A SPIRIT. All the substances with which we are acquainted are resolvable into material and spiritual. Between them there is this essential difference, that no matter, however refined, can be so organized as to be capable of originating a single feeling. Where, therefore, there is a judgment, will, afflictions, there is the subsistence which we call spirit. Of this kind is the spirit of man. But human and angelic spirits are finite; God is infinite. Because God is an infinite Spirit

1. He is present in every place, and therefore His worshippers may in every place find Him. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?

2. From this property arises the perfection of His knowledge, His omniscience. However matter may be extended, it would possess no consciousness of any object with which it might come in contact. But when we conceive of spiritual presence we conceive of consciousness and knowledge too. Wherever we are present we know. Apply this to God. He is present to mark the risings of desire. Let this admonish the sinner. But it is at the same time most encouraging to the real worshipper, who is conscious of his own sincerity, to know that God searcheth the heart.

3. Hence arises the consideration of His ceaseless activity. We feel conscious of something of this in ourselves. We find no weariness in the operations even of a finite spirit; the power of the soul is now far too mighty for the feebleness of the body. But My Father worketh hitherto, etc. Every faithful worshipper is absolutely sure, not only of the notice of His eye, but of the unwearied operation of His hand.

4. We thence infer the unchangeableness of His nature. An infinite Spirit must, of necessity, be immutable. Even we, imperfect and changeable as we are, yet, in some degree, partake of this property. The body grows and increases in strength, and then it weakens and decays. Not so the spirit; that remains essentially the same. There are two kinds of change of which created spirits are capable, and which strongly mark their natural imperfection: they may change from good to bad; and from good to better. But God fills the whole orb of perfection at once.

II. GOD OUGHT TO BE WORSHIPPED because

1. He ought to be acknowledged; and publicly worshipped, because publicly acknowledged.

2. It is in acts of religious worship that we acquire just views of ourselves. If we do not regularly draw nigh to God, there will spring up within us a principle fatal to our peace and destructive of our salvation. The acts of solemn worship always prevent our thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.

3. We have no reason to expect the slightest blessing except through the medium of His worship. God will be inquired of by us.

4. The exalted pleasure which the soul receives from religious worship. How amiable are Thy tabernacles, etc.

5. It is one direct means of preparing us for heaven. A great part of the happiness of heaven will consist in worship.

III. WE MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.

1. In truth.

(1) In opposition to the shadowy dispensation of the law.

(2) In a true manner: that is, in the way which He has Himself appointed through the mediation of Christ.

2. In spirit. It is possible to worship Him in truth, and not in spirit. Orthodoxy does not necessarily produce piety. What is implied in this. It is to worship Him

(1) As a known, and not as an unknown, God. The understanding is thus called in.

(2) With a submissive will. Where the will is in rebellion, God cannot be worshipped.

(3) With the affections.

(a) Desire.

(b) Faith or trust.

(c) Gratitude. (R. Watson.)

Christian worship a necessity

When Felix, the youthful martyr of Abitina, having confessed himself a Christian, was asked whether he had attended meetings, he replied, with an explosion of scorn, As if a Christian could live without the Lords ordinance. (Rendall.)

True worship is spontaneous

A little girl went out to pray in the fresh snow. When she came in she said, Mamma, I couldnt help praying when I was out at play. What did you pray, my dear? I prayed the snow.prayer, mamma, that I once learned at the Sunday School: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. What a beautiful prayer! And here is a sweet promise to go with it: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. And what can wash them white, clean from every stain of sin? The Bible answers, They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (R. A. Bertram.)

God is a Spirit

God is a Spirit, as man is a spirit. There is no difference as to what may be termed the popular characters of spirit, between the spirit of man, and God, considered as a Spirit; for God made man in His own image. But there is one great and radical difference. Human and angelic spirits are finite; God, whom we worship, is infinite. (R. Watson.)

Spiritual worship essential

We cannot be truly said to worship God if we want sincerity; a statue upon a tomb, with eyes and hands lifted up, offers as good and as true a service–nay, it is better, it represents all that it can be framed to, but for us to worship without our spirits is a presenting God with a picture, an echo, voice, and nothing else, a complement; a mere lie, a compassing Him about with lies. (S. Charnock.)

What is spiritual worship

Our worship is spiritual when the door of the heart is shut against all intruders, as our Saviour commands in closet-duties. It was not His meaning to command the shutting of the closet door, and leaving the heart door open for every thought that would be apt to haunt us. (S. Charnock.)

Gods spirituality a necessity

If God were an infinite body, He could not fill heaven and earth, but with the exclusion of all creatures. Two bodies cannot be in the same space; they may be near one another, but not in any of the same points together. A body bounded He hath not, for that would destroy His immensity; He could not then fill heaven and earth, because a body cannot be at one and the same time in two different spaces; but God doth not fill heaven at one time, and the earth at another, but both at the same time. Besides, a limited body cannot be said to fill the whole earth, but one particular space in the earth at a time. A body may fill the earth with its virtue, as the sun, but not with its substance. Nothing can be everywhere with a corporeal weight and mass; but God, being infinite, is not tied to any part of the world, but penetrates all, and equally act, by His infinite power in all. (S. Charnock.)

The spirituality of God

The knowledge of God is the foundation of all true religion.

I. GOD IS A SPIRIT. In proportion as we are able to subject objects to the process of analysis and combination, we ascertain their true properties. Hence, the material world is more known than the immaterial.

1. We learn, that the spiritual mode of existence attributed to the Deity is essentially different from any sensible or material mode. When our Lord, therefore, said, that God was a Spirit, He asserted there was an infinite difference in all the essential properties of His nature from matter in any of its possible modifications.

2. The vast superiority of a spiritual over a material or compound nature. Mind is universally esteemed more valuable than matter in its most beautiful forms. But the superiority of spirit is not only apparent over matter, but over a nature compounded of matter and spirit. Once more; this compound nature is inferior to the spiritual, inasmuch as it is necessarily liable to change: it has an inherent tendency to dissolution. Again, spirituality of essence appears to be the condition of infinite perfection. It is that alone in which infinite perfection can inhere. We have already seen that mind is the test of power, wisdom, intelligene; and that none of the moral perfections of Jehovah can be predicated of simple matter. Justice, goodness, love, and compassion, are principles that belong exclusively to spirit. But we cannot infer, from the possession of these moral excellences, that God is simply spirit; for these qualities may attach to a complex nature, as they sometimes do in man. It is the infinity of His perfections that indicates the exclusive character of His essence.

II. DRAW SOME PRACTICAL DEDUCTIONS. The first is suggested by the context. They that worship Him. The construction of the sentence denotes the necessary connection that subsists between acceptable worship, and the nature of the object worshipped. If God is a Spirit, then we must worship Him with our spirits.

2. The spirituality of the Divine essence is the foundation of an intimate union between God and His intelligent creation, and should encourage our approach to Him. It forms a union of nature which could not subsist were He mere matter, and which cannot be with regard to substances that are exclusively material.

3. The spirituality of the Divine nature constitutes God an inexhaustible source of blessedness. We are conversant in the present world with material objects; they are the occasion of a great portion of our pleasures. But we are all conscious that they are an unsatisfying portion. To conclude: What a character of condescension and mercy does our subject give to the gospel of Jesus Christ: that economy of grace which makes God known in the Person of His Son. (S. Summers.)

The nature of acceptable worship

I. LET US OFFER SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON PUBLIC WORSHIP.

1. All places are alike acceptable with God.

2. Public worship should be conducted according to the Word of God.

3. Public worship is the duty and privilege of all believers.

4. Public worship requires due preparation and right feelings in entering upon it.

5. Public worship should be constant and regular.

6. Public worship should be followed by reflection and prayer.

II. THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE DIRECTIONS CONTAINED IN THE TEXT. God is a Spirit, etc. That is, He is not a corporeal being, therefore not confined to any locality, etc.

1. God is a Spirit, therefore He requires the worship Of the mind.

2. God is an invisible Spirit, and therefore He must be worshipped in the spirit of faith.

3. God is a great and glorious Spirit, and therefore we must worship Him in the spirit of reverence and fear.

4. God is a holy Spirit, therefore we must worship Him with contrition and prayer.

5. God is a merciful and gracious Spirit, and therefore we should worship Him in the spirit of confidence and hope.

6. God is a Spirit of infinite benevolence and love, and therefore we should worship Him in the spirit of affection and delight.

7. God is an omniscient Spirit, and therefore we must worship Him in sincerity and truth.

Application:

1. Remember your constant unworthiness and need.

2. Christs preciousness and merit.

3. And the Spirits willingness to aid you, if you seek His influences. (Jabez Burns, D. D.)

Christian worship

The spirit of adoration is as old as the records of humanity. Adam heard the voice of God in the garden. Abel offered sacrifice to an unseen power; and the guilty Cain bowed with his gift, though it was not accepted. From the border line of light, where authentic history fails us, we feel our way back towards the birth of man by the ruins of temples and the fragments of solemn tradition. Of early races and nations that have perished, we know, in many instances, nothing more than this–they worshipped. The disposition to worship belongs to the structure of the human soul. Religious ideas are changed by the progress and diffusion of knowledge. Forms and theories of worship are shattered and left behind by the enlargement and march of the intellect. Is it probable that worship itself will be outgrown? Sometimes we hear of fears that it may be so–that the advance of science will yet eradicate the tendency to prayer and homage. The answer is this: Is it likely that the progress of science will degrade human nature and extinguish one of the deepest elements of human nobleness? With the gain of knowledge we instinctively associate the advance of our race. Think, for a moment, of this globe filled with inhabitants, and no spire or dome of praise on it, no pulse or throb of adoration in all its millions! Think of this globe simply in its physical aspect, a crust of fossils and a core of fire, spinning in the bleak immensity, and bearing myriads on myriads of intelligent creatures yearly around the sun, without wonder, without awe, without any cry from brain or heart into the surrounding mystery ! Suppose that the minds of these multitudes shall be cultured far beyond the average of even the most favoured classes now, would you account it an advance of human nature, if all this knowledge was gained at the cost of the sense of a vast, incomprehensible power, within whose sweep the world and all its interests is bound? Worship will cease when wonder dies in the heart of man, and when the sense of the infinite is expunged from his soul. Is the progress of knowledge likely to produce either of these results? How can all the light we can collect and concentrate from finite facts release us from the conception of the infinite, or help us to enclose it within the tiny measure of our thought? And when has science so explained anything as to banish wonder from the mind that appreciates the explanation? Ah! against what folly are we arguing thus? Our knowledge in this universe to dry up the springs of awe, and deliver us from the weakness of adoration? Let the man come forward who is ready to say, under the starry arch of night, I know so much of nature that I blow as a bubble from me the thought of God, and count it childish to entertain the thought of a Sovereign Mind! Did Newton feel like saying that? Would Herschel say that in his observatory? If they had said it, should we think of them as greater men than now? It will not be the progress of knowledge, but the decay of the noble elements in human nature, that will ever banish worship from the world. Indeed the glory of knowledge is in fellowship with the devout sentiment. There are three purposes for which we may study truth–to obtain power over nature, to cultivate and enlarge our minds, and to discern and acknowledge a revelation from a boundless and invisible thought. I say nothing in disparagement of the first two. They are essential to civilization. The last is not inconsistent with devotion to the others. But if men stop with the first two, do they not miss the highest relations of truth? It is to refresh men with this noblest relation of truth and knowledge that churches are built. Worship is the exercise which the Church is to sustain. And all the aspects of truth which will bend the mind of man in humility, and exalt it in adoration, are legitimately within the range of the pulpit, and are, indeed, a portion of its trust. I have said that the glory, of knowledge lies in the acceptance of truth as a manifestation of an Infinite mind. And this is a conception that cannot be outgrown. It is ultimate. We can grow in the acknowledgment of it, in the power and blessedness which acquaintance with it brings; but the wisest man that will ever live will never go beyond it. Civilization depends on the continuance of faith in the personality and holiness of God. It is only through that faith that the consciences of men will be illumined, the will of man curbed, the devotion and sacrifice of heroes in the cause of truth inspired and confirmed. But there is still a higher conception connected with the personality and purity of God–the word Father. God is one, God is holy, God is the Father–the Infinite is love; then the attraction is complete in the heavens for allthe faculties of man, and for all human faculties in every race, in every age, and in all stages of progress and attainment. We owe this final revelation to Jesus Christ. The sense of mystery, the sense of beauty, the will, the conscience, the affections–all are drawn upward to that name with which, through Him, the Infinite has clothed Himself. Adoration of the Father is the distinctively Christian worship. (T. Starr King.)

The nature and worship of God

I. THE NATURE OF GOD.

1. Being a Spirit, He is a living substance; for though all living things be not spirits, every spirit is a living thing. The soul and angels are spirits, therefore live, but not in themselves (Act 17:28). God lives in and of Himself (Joh 5:26; Psa 36:9).

2. He is incorporeal, or without body (Luk 24:39). The Anthropomorphites and Audiarii of old, and so some new heretics, have asserted that God has a body, contrary to Rom 1:23; Is

40:18. Objection: God is said to have

(1) a head (Dan 7:9);

(2) a face (Psa 27:8; Psa 34:6);

(3) eyes (Psa 34:15);

(4) hands (Psa 38:2; Act 4:28);

(5) a mouth (Mat 4:4);

(6) ears (Psa 31:2);

(7) arms (Exo 6:6; Isa 53:1);

(8) fingers (Exo 31:18);

(9) Bowels (Isa 63:15).

Answer: (1) God speaks after the manner of men and to our capacity. We see by the eye: by that, therefore, God signifies to us His omniscience, etc.

3. He cannot be felt, because no body. Objection, Act 17:27. Answer: We cannot feel God Himself, but by His creatures (Rom 1:19-20).

4. He is invisible and cannot be seen (Job 9:11; 1Jn 4:12). No man can see Him (Exo 33:20; 1Ti 6:16). Reason: God has no body, shape, nor colour, and we cannot see our souls. Objection: God appeared to Abraham (Gen 18:1), and to Israel Deu 5:24), and others. Answer: Only by special manifestations of His glory. Objection: We shall see God (1Jn 3:2; 1Co 13:12). Answer: With our soul, not with our bodily eyes.

II. THE WORSHIP HE DESIRES. Not as if no external rites were to be used. Christ Himself lifted up His eyes (Joh 17:1); knelt (Luk 22:41); fell on His face (Mat 26:39); and instituted the sacrament (see also Eph 3:14; Act 21:5). We are to worship in spirit and in truth.

1. Not with the types and shadows of the Old Testament, but according to the truth of them as exhibited in the New (Joh 1:17; Joh 17:17).

2. Not under any bodily shape, because He is a Spirit. The Samaritans worshipped Him under the representation of a dove on Mount Gerizim; hence their worship was called strange worship by the Jews. This was not to worship in truth (Rom 1:23-25). But we are to worship God only am a Spirit, and so truly, not entertaining our gross conceits, or making any picture of Him (Deu 4:14-16).

3. Not only with external, but with internal worship.

(1) By performing all our devotions with our minds (1Co 14:15).

(2) By preferring Him in our judgments before all else (Psa 73:25).

(3) By submitting our wills to His (Luk 22:42).

4. By putting our trust and confidence in Him (Psa 37:3-6).

5. By devoting ourselves wholly to His service and obedient to His commands (1Sa 15:22).

Application:

1. This is the only worship acceptable to Him (Isa 1:11-12).

2. This is agreeable to His nature; He is a spirit and knows the heart Eze 33:31). (Bp. Beveridge.)

Spiritual religion

Our religion is true, deep, high, and broad in proportion as it grasps the fact that God is a Spirit, and as it recognizes that that which gives life and force to natural and historical religion is spirituality.

I. This aspect of the Divine nature CLEARS AWAY MANY PERPLEXITIES AND DIFFICULTIES WHICH GATHER ROUND THE DOCTRINE OF GOD. The same is true regarding man considered as a spirit.

1. The forms of expression borrowed from nature which describe God–rock, fortress, shield, etc.

will mislead us if taken literally.

2. The same is true with regard to the anthropomorphic expressions of the ancient covenant–hands, feet, husband, king, father.

3. And yet again with reference to the metaphysical words of a later time–procession, generation, substance, person. Each of these taken literallyleads us away from the spiritual, essential nature of God. But

4. There are three supreme. Biblical definitions which are all of a spiritual character: God is Spirit, Light, Love. Let us hold fast to these; they express the moral nature of God and the very essence of the Christian faith.

II. This same aspect tells us how GOD WILLS THAT THE WORLD SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO HIM.

1. Not by compulsion.

2. Not by the external decrees of authority.

3. Not by reproaches and curses.

4. Not by mere miracles and signs of outward power, which, although secondary means of persuasion, are not the main instruments.

5. But by the internal evidence of the spirit of Christianity, which was the earliest method.

III. IT IS THROUGH THE INWARD SPIRIT OF THINGS, AND NOT THROUGH THE OUTWARD FORM, THAT GOD IS APPROACHED.

1. It is not the letter of any creed or ordinance, or even of the Bible, but the meaning and inner spirit which vivifies and explains everything. The letter killeth, the Spirit giveth life.

2. The signs and ordinances of religion derive all their force from the directness with which they address our reason, conscience, and affections. The outward form may vary, but if the inward meaning is the same the essential grace is there.

3. God can be worshipped on heath or mountain side or upper room as well as in the most splendid cathedral; but also in the cathedral as well as on the heath, etc. And that is the more spiritual aspect of religion which recognizes the possibility of both; which comprehends the highest manifestations of the human spirit in architecture, music, painting, poetry, and yet steadily subordinates them to the moral purposes of truth, justice, and purity.

4. It is not the sublime and the grand, but the mean, ugly, and barbarous which binds itself to idolatrous usages; not the vast aisles of a venerable abbey, hut the narrow cell; not the awe-inspiring figures wrought by Raphael or Michael Angelo, but the hideous block picture. Luther said, Do not listen to those who open their mouths and call out Spirit, Spirit, Spirit! and then break down all the bridges by which the Spirit can enter. No! Make the best of all the gifts of God. They are all bridges, but only bridges. (Dean Stanley.)

The simplicity of Christs sublime disclosures

Pythagoras taught the maxim to his disciples and scrupulously observed it himself, Never wear the types of the gods upon your rings. That is to say, do not publish your highest and most sacred truths to the ignorant and uninitiated. Jesus Christ acts here, however, on a totally different principle; in the fulness of His heart He makes to this poor sinful woman some of His sublimest revelations. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

God like the wind

This disclosure doubtless is of infinite depth; but that exquisite saying of Gregory the Greats that Scripture has depths for an elephant to swim in and shallows in which a lamb can wade, is capable of being pushed a little further. Oftentimes the same Scripture is at once a depth for one and a shallow for another, and thus it is here. We shall do little honour to our Lords skill in teaching, His adaptation of His words to the needs of His hearers, if, in seeking high things, we failed to find in these words some simple truth, such as that poor ignorant woman was capable of grasping, and such as at that moment she needed. God is a Spirit; we must not miss, assuredly she did not miss, the significant image on which this word reposes; like the wind therefore, to which He is likened, breathing and blowing where He will, penetrating everywhere, owning no circumscriptions, tied to no place, neither to Mount Zion nor to Mount Gerizim; but rather filling all space with His presence (Psa 139:7; 1Ki 8:27; Isa 66:1), in His essence and, as involved in this very title, free. On this it follows that they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (Abp. Trench.)

The worship God desires

The best, the purest, the holiest and most pious worship of the gods is to worship them with a heart and tongue always pure, upright, and untainted. (Cicero.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 24. God is a Spirit] This is one of the first, the greatest, the most sublime, and necessary truths in the compass of nature! There is a God, the cause of all things – the fountain of all perfection – without parts or dimensions, for he is ETERNAL – filling the heavens and the earth – pervading, governing, and upholding all things: for he is an infinite SPIRIT! This God can be pleased only with that which resembles himself: therefore he must hate sin and sinfulness; and can delight in those only who are made partakers of his own Divine nature. As all creatures were made by him, so all owe him obedience and reverence; but, to be acceptable to this infinite Spirit, the worship must be of a spiritual nature – must spring from the heart, through the influence of the Holy Ghost: and it must be in TRUTH, not only in sincerity, but performed according to that Divine revelation which he has given men of himself. A man worships God in spirit, when, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, he brings all his affections, appetites, and desires to the throne of God; and he worships him in truth, when every purpose and passion of his heart, and when every act of his religious worship, is guided and regulated by the word of God. “The enlightened part of mankind,” says Abu’l Fazel, “knows that true righteousness is an upright heart; and believe that God can only be worshipped in holiness of SPIRIT.” Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 254.

“Of all worshippers,” says Creeshna, “I respect him as the most devout, who hath faith in me, and who serveth me with a soul possessed of my spirit.” Geeta, p. 68.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

God is not a corporeal being, made up of blood, and flesh, and bones, having senses as bodies have, to be pleased with sensible things; but he is a spiritual Being, the Father of spirits, and requireth a spiritual service proportioned to his being; and therefore those that pay a religious homage to him, must do it with their spirits, and according to the rule that he hath prescribed, in truth and reality. This is now the will of God; and though he required of his people under the law a more ritual, figurative service, yet that is now to cease; and therefore the woman of Samaria need not trouble herself which was the truest worship, that at Mount Gerizim, or at Mount Zion, for both of them were very suddenly to determine, and a new and more substantial spiritual worship was to succeed, to the learning of the way and method of which she was more to attend, and not to spend her thoughts about these things which were of no significance, and tended only to minister questions of no use.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

21-24. Woman, c.Here arethree weighty pieces of information: (1) The point raised will verysoon cease to be of any moment, for a total change of dispensation isabout to come over the Church. (2) The Samaritans are wrong, not onlyas to the place, but the whole grounds and natureof their worship, while in all these respects the truth lies with theJews. (3) As God is a Spirit, so He both invites anddemands a spiritual worship, and already all is inpreparation for a spiritual economy, more in harmony with thetrue nature of acceptable service than the ceremonial worship byconsecrated persons, place, and times, which God for atime has seen meet to keep up till fulness of the time should come.

neither in this mountain noryet at Jerusalemthat is, exclusively (Mal 1:111Ti 2:8).

worship the FatherShehad talked simply of “worship”; our Lord brings up beforeher the great OBJECT ofall acceptable worship”THEFATHER.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

God is a spirit,…. Or “the Spirit is God”; a divine person, possessed of all divine perfections, as appears from his names, works, and worship ascribed unto him; [See comments on Joh 4:23]; though the Arabic and Persic versions, and others, read as we do, “God is a spirit”; that is, God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: for taking the words in this light, not one of the persons is to be understood exclusive of the other; for this description, or definition, agrees with each of them, and they are all the object of worship, and to be worshipped in a true and spiritual manner. God is a spirit, and not a body, or a corporeal substance: the nature and essence of God is like a spirit, simple and uncompounded, not made up of parts; nor is it divisible; nor does it admit of any change and alteration. God, as a spirit, is immaterial, immortal, invisible, and an intelligent, willing, and active being; but differs from other spirits, in that he is not created, but an immense and infinite spirit, and an eternal one, which has neither beginning nor end: he is therefore a spirit by way of eminency, as well as effectively, he being the author and former of all spirits: whatever excellence is in them, must be ascribed to God in the highest manner; and whatever is imperfect in them, must be removed from him:

and they that worship him; worship is due to him on account of his nature and perfections, both internal and external; with both the bodies and souls of men; and both private and public; in the closet, in the family, and in the church of God; as prayer, praise, attendance on the word and ordinances:

must worship him in spirit and in truth; in the true and spiritual manner before described, which is suitable to his nature, and agreeably to his will.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

God is a Spirit ( ). More precisely, “God is Spirit” as “God is Light” (1Jo 1:5), “God is Love” (1Jo 4:8). In neither case can we read Spirit is God, Light is God, Love is God. The non-corporeality of God is clearly stated and the personality of God also. All this is put in three words for the first time.

Must (). Here is the real necessity (), not the one used by the woman about the right place of worship (verse 20).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

God is a Spirit [ ] . Or, as Rev., in margins, God is spirit. Spirit is the emphatic word; Spirit is God. The phrase describes the nature, not the personality of God. Compare the expressions, God is light; God is love (1Jo 1:5; 1Jo 4:8).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “God is a Spirit:- (pneuma ho theos) “God (is, exists as) Spirit,” in essence of or in His essential existing nature of being. The trinitarian or Elohim, one true God is Spirit, eternal, Heb 9:14, in contrast with lifeless forms of idol gods, Psa 115:1-11; 1Co 3:17.

2) “And they that worship him,” (kai toun proskunountas) “And the ones who worship him,” in an acceptable, real, or genuine manner, as described Jas 1:27; Ro 121; Joh 1:18; 1Co 14:25.

3) “Must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (en pneumati kai aletheia dei proskunein) “Must practice worshipping Him in spirit and in truth,” Col 1:8; Act 2:4; Php_3:3; as set forth in the Word through the church, which He purchased with His own blood, Act 20:28; Eph 3:21; 1Co 16:1-2; Heb 10:24-25; Act 18:12-13; Rev 14:3; Rev 22:9.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

24. God is a Spirit. This is a confirmation drawn from the very nature of God. Since men are flesh, we ought not to wonder, if they take delight in those things which correspond to their own disposition. Hence it arises, that they contrive many things in the worship of God which are full of display, but have no solidity. But they ought first of all to consider that they have to do with God, who can no more agree with the flesh than fire with water. This single consideration, when the inquiry relates to the worship of God, ought to be sufficient for restraining the wantonness of our mind, that God is so far from being like us, that those things which please us most are the objects of his loathing and abhorrence. And if hypocrites are so blinded by their own pride, that they are not afraid to subject God to their opinion, or rather to their unlawful desires, let us know that this modesty does not hold the lowest place in the true worship of God, to regard with suspicion whatever is gratifying according to the flesh. Besides, as we cannot ascend to the height of God, let us remember that we ought to seek from His word the rule by which we are governed. This passage is frequently quoted by the Fathers against the Arians, to prove the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, but it is improper to strain it for such a purpose; for Christ simply declares here that his Father is of a spiritual nature, and, therefore, is not moved by frivolous matters, as men, through the lightness and unsteadiness of their character, are wont to be.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(24) God is a Spirit.Better, God is spirit. His will has been expressed in the seeking. But His very nature and essence is spirit, and it follows from this that all true worship must be spiritual. The appeal is here made to a doctrine of special prominence in the Samaritan theology. They had altered a number of passages in the Pentateuch, which seemed to them to speak of God in language properly applicable to man, and to ascribe to Him human form and feelings. But to believe in the spiritual essence of God contained its own answer both as to place and mode of worship.

The second Him (they that worship Him) should be omitted, as the italics show.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

24. God is a Spirit Herein God and incorporeal man agree that both are mind, personality, or spirit. And being of the same nature, they are able to blend and commune, spirit with spirit, the inferior in worship of the Superior.

In spirit and in truth No bodily kneelings are sufficient; no ritual, no praying by machinery; nothing suffices unless our soul by strong grasp apprehends God; unless our inmost spirit commune with the divine Spirit.

Father seeketh such As the spirit of the devout worshipper thirsteth after God, so God’s Spirit thirsteth after, and seeks through all the earth for, the true devout spirit.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Joh 4:24. God is a Spirit, &c. As a further answer to the woman’s question, our great Teacher delivered a doctrine which may justly be called his own, as it exhibits an idea of the Supreme Being, and of the worship due to him, far more sublime than the best things which the philosophers have said on that subject. God is a Spirit, &c. “God is the supreme mind or intelligence, who by one act sees the thoughts of all other intelligences, and therefore may be worshipped in every place. And the worship of God must partake of his nature: his nature is spiritual; his worship should be so likewise. Faith and love, therefore, constitute the true spiritual worship which we owe to the Supreme Being, and which cannot but be acceptable to him, wherever offered.”

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 1618
THE WORSHIP WHICH GOD REQUIRES

Joh 4:24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

BRETHREN, you are all upon the brink of eternity. You are all sinners. As sinners, you stand in need of mercy at the hands of God: and God is willing to bestow mercy upon every one of you, without exception. But he must be inquired of, in order that he may do this for you: and he must be inquired of, not in a cold and formal manner, but in sincerity of heart; for He is a Spirit; and all who worship him, must, as my text informs you, worship him in spirit and in truth.
Let this declaration sink down into your ears; and let it operate strongly on your minds, whilst we contemplate it;

I.

As an answer to a particular inquiry

Our Lord was conversing with a woman of Samaria, and had shewn to her that he was perfectly acquainted with all the evils she had committed in her former life, and with those in the indulgence of which she was still living. She, not wishing to hear any thing further upon a subject so painful to her mind, sought to turn the conversation into another channel; and for that purpose inquired what his sentiments were on a point that was at issue between the Jews and the Samaritans, namely, whether God was to be worshipped at Jerusalem, or at Mount Gerizim in Samaria? Our Lord, in reply to her question, tells her, that the time was now come, when the Father was no longer to be worshipped in any one place more than another; but that in every place under heaven, those, and those only, should have access to him, who worshipped him in spirit and in truth.
This directly met the inquiry which had been made
[Till that time bodily exercise had certainly prevailed in the services of Gods people, whose access to him was chiefly in the use of prescribed forms, which were shadowy and typical, and were confined to one city, and to one particular building in that city. The directions which God had given in relation to this matter, even before his people came into possession of the promised land, were very specific: Unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall thou come; and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, &c. &c and there ye shall eat before the Lord your God [Note: Deu 12:5-7.]. At the time when the temple of Solomon was consecrated, the people were instructed, that, if they should go out to battle, or be carried captives to a foreign land, they must turn towards that place, when they made their supplications to the Lord for help or mercy: and an intimation was given, that, even if they should return to God with all their heart and all their soul, it would not suffice, unless they also directed their prayers towards that place [Note: 1Ki 8:44; 1Ki 8:48.]. From hence, as well as from the examples of their holiest prophets [Note: Psa 28:2. Dan 6:10.], they were led to suppose, that no prayer would be accepted, but such as should be offered in that precise manner. There was indeed under that very dispensation ample evidence that that conclusion was erroneous: for God had said, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word [Note: Isa 66:1-2.]. Still, however, this matter was not generally understood, till our blessed Lord proclaimed, that Jehovah was a Spirit, and therefore not confined to any place, but pervading all space, and accessible to all who desired to draw nigh unto him. He no longer now was to be approached with mere bodily service, or in carnal ordinances, but in spirit, as opposed to the one, and in truth, as opposed to the other: and they who so approached to him should never be permitted to seek his face in vain.]

In this view it is of importance to us also
[We are apt to lay an undue stress on externals; and to imagine, that a peculiar measure of acceptance is to be found at the table of the Lord, more than at any other time or place. (Let me not be here misunderstood, as though I would undervalue the ordinance of the Lords Supper: for it is our bounden duty to commemorate our Lords death in that ordinance; and from a spiritual and believing participation of the bread and wine, we may undoubtedly expect the richest benefits.) But from a mere formal attendance on that ordinance we receive no more good, than from a similar attendance on the common services of the Church. It is to the heart alone that God looks: if that be not right towards him, no service whatever can be acceptable in his sight: but, if that be under the influence of penitence and faith, its offerings, under whatever circumstances they be presented, shall surely come up with acceptance before him.]

That this truth may be more fully brought before you, I shall consider the text,

II.

As an instruction suited to all times and circumstances

The thing which God expects, is, that there be a correspondence between the feelings of our heart, and the offerings of our lips
[If, for instance, we confess our sins before him, it is not sufficient that our words be humble; our spirit must be humble too, and a holy penitential sorrow must fill our hearts. If we present our petitions before him, it is not sufficient that we ask for such things as are good and desirable, but we must feel an ardent desire after them in our souls, and plead for them with an importunity suited to the importance of them. So also, if we return thanks to God, we must not rest in unmeaning compliments, but adore and magnify our God from our inmost souls. If there he not this correspondence between our feelings and our words, what truth is there in us? Our services are no better than a solemn mockery, that must offend, rather than please, the Majesty of heaven.]

Such sincerity the very nature of God requires
[He is a Spirit, that pervades all space. He is equally present with all his creatures; nor is there a thought in the heart of any person in the universe, that is not naked and open before him. Were he able to behold our actions only, he might be pleased with our services, though unaccompanied with any devout affection: but when he searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins, and weigheth with infallible accuracy our very spirits, how can he listen to our heartless addresses with any satisfaction? Verily such prayers must be, as he declares they are, an utter abomination unto him. When some under the Jewish dispensation brought to him the blind, and the lame, and the sick, for sacrifice, he appealed to them, Whether it was not evil? Go, says he, offer these now unto your Governor; will he be pleased with you, or accept your persons [Note: Mal 1:8.]? What then must he say to those who think to impose upon him by prayers which proceed from the lips only, whilst the heart is far from him [Note: Mat 15:7-9.]? Assuredly he will say, Bring no more such vain oblations, ye hypocrites, for in vain do ye worship me: your most solemn services are an iniquity which I utterly abhor, and I am weary to bear them [Note: Isa 1:11-14.].]

Unite with me then, whilst I make your prayers a subject of strict inquiry

[It is to be feared that many of you, who would yet wish to be thought good Christians, live without even the form of prayer. Look back only to this very morning; look back to the past week; look back throughout your whole lives; and see, whether you have ever spent one single hour in secret prayer to God? Ah! does not conscience condemn the greater part of you? Have not many of you, as far as prayer is concerned, lived rather like brute beasts, than as rational and immortal beings? Or, supposing you have kept up a form of prayer, has it not been a mere form? You who teach your children to repeat some form of prayer in your presence, know very well that theirs is not prayer: and what is yours better than theirs? Your heavenly Father, in whose presence you read or repeat your forms, knows how to estimate them, whilst they are offered without any suitable emotions. The way for you to judge of them is this: set before your eyes a person perishing in the sea, and supplicating deliverance from his perils; and then compare your feelings with his. His feelings you can easily conceive: and if yours have no correspondence with them, no such sense of danger, no such desire of help, no such thankfulness for the efforts used in your behalf, you have yet to learn the nature of prayer, and yet to begin that work, without which you must perish in your sins ]

But let me not conclude without adding a few words of encouragement

[It is not improbable that some may be ready to write bitter things against themselves, because they find sot fluency in prayer. But it is not by our fluency in utterance that God judges of our prayers, but by the humility of our minds, and the fervour of our desires. A sigh, or groan, proceeding from a broken and contrite heart, is of more value in his sight, than the richest effusions of eloquence that ever proceeded from the lips of man. Never was there a more acceptable prayer offered by mortal man than that of the Publican, God be merciful to me a sinner! Take courage then, ye who are dejected because ye find not such utterance as ye could wish. God knoweth the mind of the Spirit: and it is in sighs and groans chiefly that his Spirit maketh intercession in us. Only let there be a sincerity of heart before him, and. your very breathings shall be heard, and descend in blessings on your souls; for he seeketh such to worship him, and will fulfil the desire of them that so approach him. If only you look to him, you shall be lightened; and if you hope in him, you shall assuredly be made partakers of his kingdom and glory.].

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Ver. 24. God is a Spirit ] Omnes nominis Iehovae literae sunt spirituales ut denotetur Deum esse spiritum. (Alsted.) Though, to speak properly, God is not a spirit. For, first, spirit signifies breath, which indeed is a body, but because it is the finest body, the most subtle and most invisible, therefore immaterial substances, which we are not able to conceive, are represented unto us under this name. Secondly, God is above all notion, all name. Afri dicunt Deum ignotum Anon, i.e. Heus tu, quis es? One being asked what God is, answered, Si scirem, Deus essem, a That which Augustine saith concerning time (the measure of all our motions) may much more be said concerning God, in whose hands are all our times and motions; Si nemo ex me quaerat, scio: si quaerenti explicare velim, nescio. When I am not asked, methinks I know somewhat of him; but let me go about to say what he is, and I find I know nothing at all. Confess. xi. 14.

In spirit and truth ] As opposed to formality and hypocrisy.

a Plut. lib. de Isid. et Osiride.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

24. ] was the great Truth of Judaism, whereby the Jews were distinguished from the idolatrous people around them. And the Samaritans held even more strongly than the Jews the pure monotheistic view. Traces of this, remarks Lcke (from Gesenius), i. 599 note, are found in the alterations made by them in their Pentateuch, long before the time of this history. This may perhaps be partly the reason why our Lord, as Bengel remarks, “Discipulis non tradidit sublimiora,” than to this Samaritan woman.

God being pure spirit (perhaps better not ‘ a Spirit,’ since it is His Essence , not His Personality, which is here spoken of), cannot dwell in particular spots or temples (see Act 7:48 ; Act 17:24-25 ); cannot require, nor be pleased with, earthly material offerings nor ceremonies, as such: on the other hand, is only to be approached in that part of our being, which is spirit , and even there, inasmuch as He is pure and holy, with no by-ends nor hypocritical regards, but in truth and earnestness. But here comes in the deeper sense alluded to above. How is the spirit of man to be brought into communion with God? “In templo vis orare; in te ora . Sed prius esto templum Dei.” Aug [65] (Stier, iv. 137, edn. 2.) And how is this to be? Man cannot make himself the temple of God . So that here comes in the gift of God , with which the discourse began, the gift of the Holy Spirit , which Christ should give to them that believe on Him: thus we have ‘ praying ,’ Jud 1:20 . So beautifully does the expression here bring with it the new birth by the Spirit, and for us, the readers of the Gospel, does the discourse of ch. 3 reflect light on this. And so wonderfully do these words form the conclusion to the great subject of these first chapters: ‘GOD IS BECOME ONE FLESH WITH US, THAT WE MIGHT BECOME ONE SPIRIT WITH HIM.’

[65] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 4:24 . The reason of all this is found in the determining statement , God is Spirit. Cf. God is Light; God is Love. The predication involves much; that God is personal, and much else. But primarily it here indicates that God is not corporeal, and therefore needs no temple. Rarely is the fundamental fact of God’s spirituality carried to all its conclusions. Cf. Jas 1:27 ; Rom 12:1 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

God. See App-98., with Art. Contrast Joh 1:1.

a Spirit = spirit: i.e. not flesh, or material substance. Not “a” Spirit.

must. Note this absolute condition. Compare Joh 4:4; Joh 3:7, Joh 3:14, Joh 3:30; Joh 9:4; Joh 10:16; Joh 12:34; Joh 20:9, &c.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

24.] was the great Truth of Judaism, whereby the Jews were distinguished from the idolatrous people around them. And the Samaritans held even more strongly than the Jews the pure monotheistic view. Traces of this, remarks Lcke (from Gesenius), i. 599 note, are found in the alterations made by them in their Pentateuch, long before the time of this history. This may perhaps be partly the reason why our Lord, as Bengel remarks, Discipulis non tradidit sublimiora, than to this Samaritan woman.

God being pure spirit (perhaps better not a Spirit, since it is His Essence, not His Personality, which is here spoken of), cannot dwell in particular spots or temples (see Act 7:48; Act 17:24-25); cannot require, nor be pleased with, earthly material offerings nor ceremonies, as such: on the other hand, is only to be approached in that part of our being, which is spirit,-and even there, inasmuch as He is pure and holy, with no by-ends nor hypocritical regards, but in truth and earnestness. But here comes in the deeper sense alluded to above. How is the spirit of man to be brought into communion with God? In templo vis orare; in te ora. Sed prius esto templum Dei. Aug[65] (Stier, iv. 137, edn. 2.) And how is this to be? Man cannot make himself the temple of God. So that here comes in the gift of God, with which the discourse began,-the gift of the Holy Spirit, which Christ should give to them that believe on Him: thus we have praying , Jud 1:20. So beautifully does the expression here bring with it the new birth by the Spirit,-and for us, the readers of the Gospel, does the discourse of ch. 3 reflect light on this. And so wonderfully do these words form the conclusion to the great subject of these first chapters: GOD IS BECOME ONE FLESH WITH US, THAT WE MIGHT BECOME ONE SPIRIT WITH HIM.

[65] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 4:24. , a Spirit) When God is called a Spirit, we must not merely think of a Being separate from body and place, but also one having spiritual qualities, truth, wisdom, holiness, power, etc. To this nature of God ought to correspond our worship: and to the living God living gifts ought to be offered: Heb 9:14, How much more shall the blood of Christ, etc., purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Rom 12:1, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. He holds a profound and striking conversation with an ordinary woman, whom He had scarcely seen. He did not commit to His disciples more lofty truths.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 4:24

Joh 4:24

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.-He is not flesh and blood as men are. He is a Spirit and unseen by mortal eyes. The natural and seen are temporal and must pass away. The Spirit is unseen and eternal. God is Spirit and the spirit of man must worship God not simply an outward fleshly conformity to his law that seems to have satisfied the demands of the law of Moses. Although under the law of Moses a higher life of faith was possible and was accomplished by many. They who worship God must worship with the spirit or the soul and in truth. A spiritual being like God can be pleased with worship only when it comes from the heart and all worship to him must be guided by truth.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

God

Cf. (See Scofield “Joh 1:18”)

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

True Worship

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.Joh 4:24.

1. The conversation between Christ and the woman of Samaria began on common topics. By and by it became more deep and interesting. He to whom all things here were types could not converse without a Divine meaning in all He said. A draught of water connected itself with the mystery of life.

As soon as she discovered His spiritual character she put the question of her day about the place where men ought to worship. Christ took the opportunity of defining spiritual worship. He spoke of a new worship essentially different from the old. He made religion spiritual, He pointed out the difference between religion and theology, and He revealed the foundation on which true worship must rest. A new time was coming for a new worship: The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth.

2. It was to a very lowly soul that Jesus thus revealed Himself. She was a poor and unenlightened peasant, a woman, a Samaritan. It had been, too, a frail and erring life, that must have fallen into many mistakes, known many contumelies, endured slights and disheartenments untold. Thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this hast thou said truly. How chequered and spotted an experience is there disclosed, one full of tragedies and unstanched wounds! But just to such an one Jesus Christ elects to make the revelation that the true tie between God and man lies deeper than externals, that it is an interior life which transcends all accidental differences of birth and nationality, of station and sex, even of creed and worship; that alike to Jew and to Samaritan, man and woman, saint or sinner, worshipper on Mount Zion or worshipper on Mount Gerizim, it is a gift, a gift of God, a personal relation established between the individual soul and the Divine life-giving source of all. It is a secret between ourselves and God. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Christ tells us here all that we need to know about the worship that is acceptable to God. He tells us

I.The Foundation of true Worship.

II.The Nature of true Worship.

I

Its Foundation

The first essential of true worship is a true appreciation of Gods character. The foundation on which the new worship rests is a revelation made by Christ respecting the character of God.

1. God is spirit. We should greatly mistake the meaning of this if we took it as a theological definition of the Being of God. It is not theological, but practical. It is chiefly negative. It says what God is not. He is not matter. He has not a form. A spirit hath not flesh and bones.

(1) What is meant by spirit? There are false notions which regard it as attenuated gas, a wreath of air or vapour. This is only subtle materialism. Consider the universe, with the sun and stars, the harmony of the planetsall this force, order, harmony is from God. The spring season, with bursting vegetationits life is God. Our own minds, their thought and feelingthat is spirit. God, therefore, is the Mind of the universe. This, then, was the great truth, that God is Mind, not separated by conditions of space and time from His creatures.

(2) It is difficult for us to conceive of an absolutely spiritual being, without body, parts, or form; of One who is eternal as regards time, without beginning and without end; and infinite as regards space, everywhere present, filling all things, or rather containing all within Himself. It is this idea, baffling to our imagination, of the infinite Being of God that is the foundation of spiritual worship. It is because Gods Being is infinite that He is present alike to all, and takes cognizance of all persons and their concerns, the least as well as those which seem to us the greatest.

(3) The ordinary objector reasons thus: All the persons I know are visible, subject to the scrutiny of eye and ear and touch. I can well understand expressions of love, thanksgivings, cries for help, addressed to a being thus accessible to ordinary sense. But these people call when there is no one visible to hear and answer; they address themselves to vacancy, and throw out their vain cries to the thin air. It is true they profess to be addressing a Spirit; but that means something which is not seen, heard, touched, handled,an influence wholly beyond the scope of my senses. What evidence is there that such an impalpable Being hears and sees, knows, and wills, and acts? How can I be sure that it exists at all?

(4) Yet the facts of the universe are not altered by our incredulity, our unwillingness or incapacity to perceive them. The realm of Spirit is a reality, spiritual laws govern everything, though we ignore both. To vulgar scepticism it might suffice to reply that its argument confuses Personality with the sensible signs of its presence. Wedded to materialist ideas it mistakes the visible, the audible, the tangible, for that which manifests its own reality and activity through these, but is not itself identical with one or all of them. It confounds the outward form with the inward essence; the symbol with the thing signified; the shell with the substance. It grossly identifies the body with the man himself. It argues as if the eye were identical with seeing, or the ear with hearing. It confounds the organ and instrument with that which acts through it. If it is true, as St. John has written, that No man hath seen God at any time, it is also true that no man hath at any time seen a person. Strictly speaking, persons are not visible, tangible, subject to the scrutiny of sense. For a person is surely not the group of related impressions present at a given moment to my sensorium; a man is not a certain outline or coloured surface stamped upon my retina, combined perhaps with certain vibrations of my auditory nerve and certain impulses conveyed through my nerves of touch. When we speak of a man or a person, we mean not these, but rather the unseen, unheard, unfelt reality which is the cause of them all, and which reveals its own existence to our perception through such mediating effects. Understand the terms of this statement, and it is impossible for us to deny its truth.

(5) In our conceptions of God let us have no images of the fancy, no material realization. Stop every attempt to give any kind of embodiment to the Father. Leave it all indeterminate; put anything else away as a trespass and a presumption. The willingness to do this, the power to do this, is part of the discipline of the present life; it is the faith of our worship. All that we can safely have before us is quality, attributes. God is wisdom, God is power, God is greatness, God is holiness, God is love. Enshrined in those, as in a deep sanctuary, is the Infinite, the Unsearchable,that is God. But we can see the enshrining only, the rest is hidden. It is there, and we speak to it, and we hear it, and we deal with it, and we feel it; but it is far above all sense, it is a name, it is a mystery, it is a Spirit, it is God.

God is a Spirit. This relates to the nature of God; and as a spirit is the most excellent of beings that we have any notions of, God is represented under this character to heighten our thoughts of Him. We indeed know but little of the nature of spirits; the most of our acquaintance with them lies in the consciousness we have of our own souls, which all allow to be the noblest part of the man. And the most natural, obvious thought that arises in our minds about a spirit is that it is an incorporeal and invisible being, with life and action, understanding and will.1 [Note: Guyse.]

Observe yon concave blue,

That seems to close around our human view,

And ends by sun and star

Our keenest survey of those heavens afar.

And yet we know full well,

False is the specious tale our senses tell;

That is no azure sky,

Or solid vault, that meets our lifted eye.

What curtains round our gaze,

The background of the sun or starry maze,

Is but blue-tinted light

That veils from us the arial infinite.

And so, when we define

Great heavens immensity by verbal sign,

We act as though our bent

Were here again to feign a firmament.

Words in array we place,

And deem therewith we see God face to face.

Poor fools, and blind; not seeing

Our words but mask and hide His unsearched Being.1 [Note: John Owen.]

2. The great truth that God is a Spirit, purely held, would be the best corrective of false doctrines in religion, the richest spring of peace, the most constant inspiration of duty. Examine a narrow creed, and it will not be difficult to point out where it forgets that God is a Spirit. A heart not at rest is a heart that does not know the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. A dishonoured conscience, a violated sentiment, a rebellious will, are only other names for a broken fellowship with the Father of our spirits. A soul cleansed from unspiritual thoughts of God, and in daily communion with Him, however far it might be from the fulness of objective Truth, would have in it no springs of error, of trouble, or of sin.

(1) The first error that arises from an unspiritual conception of God is a tendency to localize God. The womans question was, in fact, Where? Christs reply was, Nowhere in particulareverywhere. This question lies at the root of all superstition. It is observable among the heathen, who confine the agency of a god to a certain district; among the uneducated poor of our own country, in their notions of a cemetery; and among the more refined, in the clinging mysterious idea which they attach to a church, an altar, and the elements of the sacrament. Let us define what we mean by sanctity of place. It is a thing merely subjective, not objective; it is relative to us. It belongs to that law of association by which a train of ideas returns more easily by suggestion in some one place than in another. Worship in a festive room or over a shop, would suggest notions uncongenial with devotion. Hence the use of setting apart or consecrating places for worship. There is no other sanctity of place. We hear an objection to this. It is said to be dangerous to say this: it will unsettle peoples minds; a little of this illusion is wholesome, especially for the poor. Christ did not so reason. Consider how unsettling this was to the woman. The little religion she had clung to Gerizim. The shock of being told that it was not holy might have unsettled all her religion. Did Christ hesitate one moment? He was concerned only with truth. And we are concerned only with truth. Some people are afraid of truth. As if Gods truth could be dangerous! The straight road is ever the nearest. People must bear, and shall, what an earnest mind dares to say. Is God there or not? If not, at our peril we say He is.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson.]

(2) A second error is the idea that forms are immutable. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, therefore so must we. How much of the mischief of the separation of sects, with all the bitterness and mistrust that have come with it, has arisen from the fact that the form of worship has been mistaken for the worship itself.

It was about one oclock in the morning. I was the only white man then on the island, and all the natives had been fast asleep for hours! Yet I literally pitched my hat into the air, and danced like a schoolboy round and round that printing-press; till I began to think, Am I losing my reason? Would it not be liker a missionary to be upon my knees, adoring God for this first portion of His blessed Word ever printed in this new language? Friend, bear with me, and believe me, that was as true worship as ever was Davids dancing before the Ark of his God!2 [Note: John G. Paton, i. 202.]

(3) A third error is to mistake the object of worship. There is a feeling of devoutness inherent in the human mind. We hear the solemn tones of a child when repeating his prayer or hymn. Before what is greater, wiser, better than himself man bows instinctively. But the question is, what will he worship? The heathen bent before Power. To him the Universe was alive with Deity; he saw God in the whirlwind, in the lightning, and the thunder. But the forces of Nature are not God. The philosopher bows before Wisdom. Science tells him of electricity, gravitation, force. He looks down on warm devoutness; for he sees only contrivance and mind in Nature. He admires all calmly, without enthusiasm. He calls it Rational Religion. This also is ignorance. The spiritual man bows before Goodness, The true worshippers worship the Father, We know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews, that is, God is intelligible in Christ as Love, Goodness, Purity.

God is a Spirit in nature; but He is a Father in character. This was part of Christs revelation of God to the woman of Samaria. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father. Jesus was the herald of the Golden Age, and of the common worship of the universal Father. On that very day the Golden Age was dawning, for He, rising above the limits of a national religion, was seeking one outside its fold. True, as He declared to this woman, salvation was of the Jews. Unto the Jews God had revealed Himself by prophet and priest, and by means of ritual. Unto them had been granted special revelation; yet, notwithstanding all their privileges, the Jewish people had not yet learned the full glory of the Divine character. To them, God was Jehovah, the High and Mighty One inhabiting eternity; He was infinite, all-powerful, the God of Israel; but the coming of Jesus unveiled Deity, and revealed Him as the one Father of all humanity. Before His coming, men had dreaded Deity; but He, leading the children of men into the presence of the Infinite, said, When ye pray, say, Our Father. Thus He revealed the character of God to be that of infinite love.1 [Note: G. E. Walters, The Deserted Christ, 78.]

(4) A fourth error is a mistake about the nature of reverence. This Samaritan woman had what is often called reverenceveneration for antiquity, zeal for her Church, lingering recollections of the old mountain, respect for a prophet. But what was her life? He with whom she then lived was not her husband. In other words, reverence, veneration, awe, are feelings which belong to the imagination and are neither good nor bad: they may go along with religion, but also they may not. A man may kneel to sublime things, yet never have bent his heart to goodness and purity. A man may be reverential and yet impure. Next examine a man who is called irreverent. Constitutionally so framed that he does not happen to thrill at painted windows, Gothic architecture, and solemn music, is he, therefore, without veneration? Take him out into Gods grand universe, or put before him Christs character: is there no adoration, no deep intense love? Tell him of a self-denying action: is there no moisture in his eye? Tempt him to meanness: is there no indignant scorn? The man has bowed his soul before Justice, Mercy, Truth, and therefore stands erect before everything else that this world calls sublime.

The enjoyment of noble architecture and music is not worship, and may be mistaken for it. The hush which falls on us, walking the aisles of a church of eight hundred years; the thrill of nerves and heart as the glorious praise begins, whose echoes fail amid fretted vaults and clustered shafts; all that feeling, solemn as it is, has no necessary connection with worshipping God in spirit and in truth. And we may delude ourselves with the belief that we are offering spiritual worship when it is all a mere matter of natural emotion, which the most godless man could share.1 [Note: A. K. H. Boyd, Sunday Afternoons in a University City, 87.]

(5) A fifth error is the failure to distinguish between interest in theology and interest in religion. Here was a woman living in sin, and yet deeply interested in a religious controversy. She found, doubtless, a kind of safeguard to rest on in the perception of this keen interest. Her religion was almost nothing, her theology most orthodox. Theological controversy sharpens our disputative faculties and wakens our speculative ones. Religion is love to God and man. We do not always distinguish between theology and religion. We make skill in controversy a test of spirituality. It is but a poor test. The way the woman questioned Christ is a specimen of a common feeling. The moment Christ appeared she examined His views. She did not ask whether the Man before her was pure and spotless, or whether His life was spent in doing good; but was He sound upon the vital question of the Temple?

An elderly minister was asked to take the catechizing of the congregation in a parish in the pastoral uplands of the South of Scotland. He was warned against the danger of putting questions to a certain shepherd, who had made himself master of more divinity than some of his clerical contemporaries could boast, and who enjoyed nothing better than, out of the question put to him, to engage in an argument with the minister on some of the deepest problems of theology. The day of the ordeal at last came, the old doctor ascended the pulpit, and after the preliminary service put on his spectacles and unfolded the roll of the congregation. To the utter amazement of everybody, he began with the theological shepherd, John Scott. Up started the man, a tall, gaunt, sunburnt figure, with his maud over his shoulder, his broad blue bonnet on the board in front of him, and such a look of grim determination on his face as showed how sure he felt of the issue of the logical encounter to which he believed he had been challenged from the pulpit. The minister, who had clearly made up his mind as to the line of examination to be followed with this pugnacious theologian, looked at him calmly for a few moments, and then in a gentle voice asked, Who made you, John? The shepherd, prepared for questions on some of the most difficult points of our faith, was taken aback by being asked what every child in the parish could answer. He replied in a loud and astonished tone, Wha made me? It was the Lord God that made you, John, quietly interposed the minister. Who redeemed you, John? Anger now mingled with indignation as the man shouted, Wha redeemed me? The old divine, still in the same mild way, reminded him It was the Lord Jesus that redeemed you, John, and then asked further, Who sanctified you, John? Scott, now thoroughly aroused, roared out, Wha sanctified ME? The clergyman paused, looked at him calmly, and said, It was the Holy Ghost that sanctified you, John Scott, if, indeed, ye be sanctified. Sit ye doon, my man, and learn your questions better the next time you come to the catechizing. The shepherd was never able to hold his head up in the parish thereafter.1 [Note: Sir Archibald Geikie, Scottish Reminiscences, 72.]

3. Now see how great this truth is. That God is a Spirit comes nearer to the business and the bosoms of men, to our real interests, to our belief in progress, to our feeling of Gods Fatherhood, to our sense of mans brotherhood, than any other truth. Is there a Church laying down dogmatic terms of salvation? This rebukes it: God is a Spirit, and the spirits that desire Him He makes His own. Is there a merely conventional worship, a merely authoritative religion, a merely ceremonial, ecclesiastical way of approaching God? This disowns it: only those who are in personal communion with Him know Him at all, and they may know Him to their full content. Is there an upright man, a devout heart, misunderstood or forsaken by the world? This sustains him: God is a Spirit, and brings all things to light. Is there a conscience that would hide itself from the light? This disables it: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Is there a troubled mind, a spirit that cannot find peace? What will quiet it? Nothing but some sense of the Infinite as very near to us; it may be from a glance at the unfathomable depths of Nature, with awe and shame at the contrast between our fretful selfishness and the silent realities of God in which we feel we have a part. To gaze upon the face of Nature is sometimes to be brought under the power of a calm and cleansing spirit then present to us; and what is religion but a quickening of the soul under the sense that a Spirit of Purity and Love is acting and looking upon us? And if ever the solemnity and beauty which mans workmanship can produce does in its highest examples, in a cathedral, or in the Angel of the Resurrection from the great sculptors hand, contribute something to religious emotion, how much more may the sense of the Infinite come upon us from the spiritual aspects of the Temple not made with hands; still more if with understanding hearts we could gaze into the majestic face of Christ; still more if, led by Christ up to the Throne, into the real Presence, we could bring ourselves to look intently, with a full trust, into the fatherly face of God!1 [Note: J. H. Thom, A Spiritual Faith, 12.]

He who worships the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, must, in all the qualities of his soul, in all the relations of his life, be a better man than the atheist, than the man who denies the existence of God. The man who worships a stone is a better man than he who worships nothing. The man who falls down before carven wood, or worships the beasts of the field, is a grander nature than he who never bows his head in prayer, and never lifts up his heart in aspiration and religious desire. The tendency of worship is to elevate our nature. He who worships sincerely, however ignorantly, is the better for his worship; he is enlarged in his nature, his outlook upon things is widened, he is led away from self-trust, and is taught to depend upon a power, not lower, but higher, and in his estimation better, than his own.2 [Note: J. Parker.]

II

Its Nature

To worship is mans highest glory. He was created for fellowship with God: of that fellowship worship is the sublimest expression. All the exercises of the religious lifemeditation and prayer, love and faith, surrender and obedience, all culminate in worship. Recognizing what God is in His holiness, His glory, and His love, realizing what we are as sinful creatures, and as the Fathers redeemed children, in worship we gather up our whole being and present ourselves to our God to offer Him the adoration and the glory which are His due. The truest and fullest and nearest approach to God is worship. Every sentiment and every service of the religious life is included in it: to worship is mans highest destiny, because in it God is all.

1. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. It is not a question of place. Neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem is the place. It is no question of cathedral, or church, or chapel, or hall. Wherever a heart yearns for God and pours itself forth, there is Gods House, there is Gods blessing. Every sick-room can be a House of God; every hospital ward a House of God; every lonely heart away in the deepest solitude in seeking Him can find His House. It is not a question of time. If this true idea of worship be once grasped, that it is not an outward form, not outward ceremony, not at set times, but ever, always, the going out of hearts towards and after Him, it will mean that our worship will find expression in our home life, in our factory life, in our shop life, in our dock life, in our so-called secular life, and everywhere, always, all things, sacred and secular, will be blended in one lifelong act of worship, our heart going out to God in spirit and in truth.

The Lord is in His Holy Place

In all things near and far!

Shekinah of the snowflake, He,

And Glory of the star,

And Secret of the April land

That stirs the field to flowers,

Whose little tabernacles rise

To hold Him through the hours.

He hides Himself within the love

Of those whom we love best;

The smiles and tones that make our homes

Are shrines by Him possessed;

He tents within the lonely heart

And shepherds every thought;

We find Him not by seeking far,

We lose Him not, unsought.

Our art may build its Holy Place,

Our feet on Sinai stand,

But Holiest of Holies knows

No tread, no touch of hand;

The listening soul makes Sinai still

Wherever we may be,

And in the vow, Thy will be done!

Lies all Gethsemane.1 [Note: William C. Gannett.]

2. We cannot read these words and not feel that the very genius and essence of the Christian religion is an exceeding simplicity. Had Christ reckoned externals of great importance, He certainly would have said so here. Those externals may be convenient, and they are helpful; and therefore the Church may justly, and with great propriety and benefit, ordain them. But if Christs words are to be taken in their plainest signification, God does not now require or command them. They are not a part of the new legislation; rather, they are decidedly and studiously omitted. For in this matter, it is clear that a contrast is drawn between the Samaritan and the Jewish ritualwhich were both of them highly addressed to the sensesand that which Christ was introducing. He declares such things to be passed away. And nothing is laid down as the will of God respecting public worship, but this onlyit must be spiritual and true.

In our approaches to God, the frame of mind is everything. Like worships like. God is mystery, worship is faith; God is wisdom, worship is thought; God is love, worship is affection; God is truth, worship is sincerity; God is holiness, worship is purity; God is omnipresence, worship is everywhere; God is eternity, worship is always. Words are good, because words react on the mind, and clear and fix it; but words are not worship. Forms are good, because forms are stays and helps to our infirmities; but forms are not worship. Holy places, holy things, holy persons are good, because in such a defiled world as this, what is sacred must be isolated; but no places, no things, no persons are worship. Sacraments are good, because the sacraments are the very incorporations and the essences of our salvation; but sacraments are not worship. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.1 [Note: James Vaughan.]

I sit within my room, and joy to find

That Thou who always lovst art with me here,

That I am never left by Thee behind,

But by Thyself Thou keepst me ever near;

The fire burns brighter when with Thee I look,

And seems a kinder servant sent to me;

With gladder heart I read Thy holy book,

Because Thou art the eyes by which I see;

This aged chair, that table, watch, and door

Around in ready service ever wait;

Nor can I ask of Thee a menial more

To fill the measure of my large estate,

For Thou Thyself, with all a Fathers care,

Whereer I turn, art ever with me there.2 [Note: Jones Very.]

i. Worship in Spirit

1. God is Spirit, and what He reveals to man must be made through the medium of Spirit. If He were possessed of a material form, the way of recognition would be through the senses, but Spirit can only be spiritually discerned. God cannot be seen in the Bible, He cannot be seen in Nature, except through the exercise of the spiritual vision. Our worship, therefore, must consist in the effort of the human spirit to identify itself with the Divine, not in a mystic, self-destroying unity, but in the direction of its aspirations and its will. We seek to bring our souls into a state of conformity with Gods all-perfect will.

The true worship is not the prostration of the body in kneeling, nor even the prostration of the soul in distant adoration, but the yielding of our living powers willingly and gladly to the Divine influence within us. There is an expression of the great Stoic emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who perhaps came nearer than any other non-Christian of the West to the Christian life and spirit: I reverence the God who is within. That God has been fully made known to us in Jesus Christ, and we can give a grander significance to this expression. Our God is within us. Let us allow our thoughts to be enlightened and our energies quickened by the spirit of holinessthe unseen, constraining power of righteousnessand we are practising the true worship.1 [Note: Dean Fremantle, The Gospel of the Secular Life, 209.]

2. Before the Incarnation, man dared approach God only through priest and altar, and in an earthly temple. Jesus came to erect one altarHis Cross,and to offer one sacrificeHimself. He was born that He might die; and over all His pathway there fell the shadow of the Cross. The Cross was interwoven into all His life. Galilee would have made Him King; the whole region of the North went after Him. He said, I go to Jerusalem. He deliberately journeyed thither, everything in His journey pointing to His doom. The broken bread in the supper represented His broken body; the red wine His spilt blood. They nailed Him to His Cross, and there He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. It is finished, He cried; Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Then the veil of the Temple was rent asunder. The Holy of Holies was open to mortal gaze. There was no longer any need for earthly priest or altar. The world had become a temple, the human heart the shrine of the Holy Ghost.

Christ came to bring mans spirit into immediate contact with Gods Spirit; to sweep away everything intermediate. In lonely union, face to face, mans spirit and Gods Spirit must come together. It is a grand thought! Let us aspire to this, to greatness, goodness! So will our spirits mingle with the Spirit of the Everlasting.2 [Note: F. W. Robertson.]

3. The law of acceptable Christian worship is briefly this: it must be the worship of the heart, that is, of the will. Not of the voice merely; not of the hands merely; not of the bended knees merely; not of the decorously and comprehensively expressed prayer merely; not of the sweet incense merely; not of the lamb slain and burnt on the altar merely; not of the gorgeously-arrayed High Priest, nor yet of the simply-robed Scotch minister merely; not of feelings touched by old memories of our own departed days, and of those who used to worship with us long ago, but who will worship with us on earth no more; not of any or all of these things merelybut of the will.

If our worship is of the heart, it follows that to be real we must have a real religious experience. Experience is the very soul or religion. Properly speaking, we do not begin to be religious until God and the soul have somehow come face to face. It is true that as children we are taught religious truth, but we have not experienced it, we are taught it; and there is a sense in which, if we receive that truth as little children, humbly, trustfully, teachably, we are truly religious and belong to the Kingdom of God. To very few is God more real than He is to the little child. But when that has been said, it needs to be repeated that there can be no real religion without a real religious experience. Religion is not in word alone; it is not in the hearing of the Word, it is not in the explanation of certain truths, but it is profoundly and most practically in spirit, in experience. God is not real to us until we have made our own discovery of Him in our life.

This Pearl of Eternity is the Church or Temple of God within thee, the consecrated Place of Divine Worship, where alone thou canst worship God in Spirit and in Truth. In Spirit, because thy spirit is that alone in thee which can unite and cleave unto God, and receive the workings of His Divine Spirit upon thee. In Truth, because this Adoration in the Spirit is that Truth and Reality of which all outward Forms and Rites, though instituted by God, are only the Figure for a Time, but this Worship is Eternal. Accustom thyself to the Holy Service of this inward Temple. In the midst of it is the Fountain of Living Water, of which thou mayest drink and live for ever. There the Mysteries of thy Redemption are celebrated, or rather opened in Life and Power. There the Supper of the Lamb is kept; the Bread that came down from Heaven, that giveth life unto the world, is thy true nourishment: all is done, and known in real Experience, in a living sensibility of the Work of God on the Soul. There the Birth, the Life, the Sufferings, the Death, the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, are not merely remembered, but inwardly found and enjoyed as the real states of thy soul, which has followed Christ in the Regeneration.1 [Note: William Law.]

ii. Worship in Truth

Our worship must be in truth; truth as regards God Himself, and truth as regards our own state.

1. We need to have a true conception of God, as far as we know Him, as He is revealed to us through Christ. The Samaritans had not a true knowledge; the Jews knew more, they knew Him through the Prophets, though their knowledge was incomplete. They knew that Messiah should come. To worship the true God and not idols, that was the elementary teaching, the preliminary idea. But to us it is given beyond this to conceive aright of the living and unseen God. The Father is revealed to us in and through the Sonon whom human eyes have dwelt. And prayer becomes a different thing when it is a childs cry to a Fathers heart, a child clinging to Him in His paternal character; and it is through this sense of filial relationship that we approach that inner embrace of the Fathers heart. The Son sympathizes with us in our hardness and pain. He has tasted all our trial, only without the sin, and our prayer through Him reaches the Fathers Heart through the sympathetic agency of the Son, the Spirit helping our infirmities and giving force to our prayer.

Recent researches into the origins of the Old Testament have proved that the factor in the extraordinary development of moral and religious truth, which is so discernible in the history of Israel and in their gradual ascent to the loftiest heights of spiritual knowledge, from the low levels of life which they had once occupied with their Semitic neighbours, was the impression upon the people as a whole through the wonderful deeds of their history and the experience of their greatest minds, of the character of God.1 [Note: George Adam Smith, The Life of Henry Drummond, 244.]

Our worship must conform to our best intellectual conceptions about God and His will. Our Lord Himself once drew a powerful contrast between the influence of a higher and a lower estimate of Gods character on the actions of men. He told His disciples that the time would come when Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, said He, because they have not known the Father. That is, although they believed in God, they yet ignored the special revelation made by Jesus Christ of the Fatherhood of God. Ignorance of this revelation has been the origin of some of the most terrible crimes against humanity that have ever disgraced the world. Hundreds of men and women have been roasted to death by order of Inquisitors, who, veiling their cruelty under the term auto-da-f, witnessed that they did it in the name of what they believed to be God. On the throne of the universe they saw nothing but an angry and despotic Tyrant, who so hated heterodoxy, that He had prepared for all heretics a pandemonium of everlasting fire, and hence, quite honestly, they sought to deter men by torture from such an awful fate.1 [Note: G. F. Terry, The Old Theology in the New Age, 52.]

2. We must also have truth in ourselves. Holy character is a kind of worship. All true life is worship: Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Before a material God a material knee would have to bow. Before a spiritual God, nothing but the prostration of the spirit can be acceptable.

He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

Love is a kind of prayerthe truest lifting up of the soul. God is a real God. The worshipper is to be a real character. The Christian must be a true mantransparent, who can bear to be looked through and through. There must be no pretence; no gilded tinseltrue gold all through.

Let us take care that all our relations to God, and all our communications with Him, are honest relations, in truth. If our body is on its knees, let us be sure that our heart is also on its knees. If we close our eyes, let us see that we close our fancies. If we say words, let us beware that they are the exact representatives of our thoughts. If we ask anything, let it be the thing we want. If we promise, let us be sure that we mean it. If we confess with our lips, let us stop, if our mind is not confessing with its inward convictions. If we praise, let us hush our soul, if it is not in tune. Let worship be worship,a beggar knocking at the door; a sinner prostrate for mercy; a servant looking to his Masters eye; a child speaking to his Father; a pardoned man resting; a saved man thanking; a saint rejoicing.2 [Note: James Vaughan.]

Thy house hath gracious freedom, like the air

Of open fields; its silence hath a speech

Of royal welcome to the friends who reach

Its threshold, and its upper chambers bear,

Above their doors, such spells that, entering there,

And laying off the dusty garments, each

Soul whispers to herself: Twere like a breach

Of reverence in a temple could I dare

Here speak untruth, here wrong my inmost thought.

Here I grow strong and pure; here I may yield,

Without shamefacedness, the little brought

From out my poorer life, and stand revealed,

And glad, and trusting, in the sweet and rare

And tender presence which hath filled this air.1 [Note: Helen H. Jackson.]

True Worship

Literature

Ball (C. J.), Testimonies to Christ, 332.

Balmforth (R.), The New Testament in the Light of Higher Criticism, 211.

Boyd (A. K. H.), Sunday Afternoons at the Parish Church of a University City, 73.

Brooke (S. A.), Sermons, ii. 339 ff.

Carter (T. T.), The Spirit of Watchfulness, 225.

Dale (R. W.), Discourses on Special Occasions, 81.

Drummond (R. J.), Faiths Certainties, 341.

Drysdale (A. H.), Christ Invisible our Gain, 303.

Duryea (J. T.), in The American Pulpit of the Day, i. 70.

Eyton (R.), The True Life, 466.

Fremantle (W. H.), The Gospel of the Secular Life, 197.

Frst (A.), Christ the Way, 253.

Hall (A. C. A.), The Christian Doctrine of Prayer, 1.

Hoare (E.), Great Principles of Divine Truth, 270.

Jones (T.), The Divine Order, 68.

McCombie (W.), Sermons and Lectures, 146.

Macleod (A.), A Mans Gift, 81.

Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, i. 280.

Murray (A.), The Spirit of Christ, 33.

Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, iii. 41.

Rashdall (H.), Doctrine and Development, 1.

Rendall (G. H.), Charterhouse Sermons, 174.

Robertson (F. W.), The Human Race, 101, 115.

Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xii. (1866) No. 695.

Terry (G. F.), The Old Theology in the New Age, 43.

Thom (J. H.), A Spiritual Faith, 1.

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit, 1868), No. 602.

Christian World Pulpit, x. 129 (Stanley); xxxiii. 124 (Wilson); xxxviii. 101 (Hocking); liii. 249 (Savage); lxx. 321 (Marshall); lxxii. 150 (Perry); lxxviii. 186 (Swithinbank); lxxix. 99 (Thomson).

Church Pulpit Year Book, ii. (1905) 126; iv. (1907) 124.

Homiletic Review, liv. 311 (Walters).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

a Spirit: 2Co 3:17, 1Ti 1:17

must: 1Sa 16:7, Psa 50:13-15, Psa 50:23, Psa 51:17, Psa 66:18, Isa 57:15, Mat 15:8, Mat 15:9, 2Co 1:12

Reciprocal: Exo 20:24 – altar Deu 4:16 – the likeness Jos 24:14 – serve 1Sa 7:3 – prepare 1Ch 28:9 – serve him Psa 50:16 – What Psa 51:6 – Behold Psa 93:5 – holiness Psa 103:1 – all that Psa 145:18 – call upon Pro 15:8 – sacrifice Isa 48:1 – not in truth Eze 20:3 – As I Mal 3:3 – an Rom 1:9 – with 1Co 14:15 – I will pray with the spirit Eph 5:19 – making Phi 3:3 – worship 1Ti 2:8 – pray

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

WORSHIP

God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Joh 4:24

It is impossible to imagine a subject that more intimately affects the daily life of every one of us. I think we shall best get hold of it if we first study on general principles the sacred office of the Holy Spirit in all true worship.

I. Let us begin, then, with the office of the Holy Spirit in all Scriptural worship.In order to see this clearly, we must bear in mind three most important truths.

(a) True worship is the worship of the living God, of Him of Whom our Lord declares, God is a Spirit.

(b) A second great principle is that true worship is the act of the inner man.

(c) A third essential to spiritual worship is that it must be through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

II. Now let us turn to the application of these general principles to public and private worship.In one respect there is a great difference between the two, viz. in this, that in our private devotions we can have much greater liberty than we can in our public worship. But in public worship we must have a form. Whether that form is carefully prepared beforehand, or constructed at the time by any one individual, it is equally a form, and without some such form it is perfectly impossible that a thousand persons should unite in worship.

(a) The use of form, arrangement, or order, is not necessarily opposed to the movement of the Spirit.

(b) But we may go a step further, and we shall find that order or arrangement may not only not hinder but may greatly help the soul in the reception of the work of the Holy Spirit.

(c) But though it is clear that external arrangements may greatly assist our spiritual worship, it is of the utmost importance that we should never for one moment forget that they are utterly powerless in producing it, and that the Holy Ghost is the author of all acceptable worship in public and in private.

Rev. Canon Edward Hoare.

Illustration

We all seek to have our worship, both public and private, full of faith, full of love, full of deep humiliation, full of praise, and full of thanksgiving; and in order to have this, let us earnestly resolve never to be satisfied with any mere animal impression, but seek rather to be full of the Holy Ghost and power. Let us take good care that everything shall be in beautiful order: the church clean and in good repair; the music good, though not too elaborate; the singing spirited; and the prayers intelligently prayed. But when we have done all, let us remember that the fire must come from God; let our prayer be, Breathe, oh! breathe upon us that we may live; and let us look for such a manifestation of the Holy Spirits mighty power, that man, and all that man can do, may disappear and be forgotten in the all-absorbing presence of the invisible God.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

SPIRITUAL RELIGION

Our religion is a true religion, a deep religion, a high religion, a wide religion, in proportion as it grasps more and more firmly the spiritual aspect of religionas it recognises more fully that the highest revelation, the revelation which gives light and force to natural religion, and to historical religion, is spiritual religion.

Let me illustrate the value of this truth by taking a few obvious instances.

I. Let any one who may be perplexed by thinking of the Divine Nature, observe how many difficulties are cleared away by dwelling on this aspect of it.As when we ask, What is a man? The answer is, not his body, but his spirit; not his outward form, but his inward affections; so when we ask, What is God? Whilst there is much that we cannot answer, yet, when we think of Him as a Spirit, we are taught to believe that it is in His Spirit that we can best understand Himthat is, in those attributes of goodness, love, and wisdom which are most the same attributes in man.

II. The same truth places in their proper light all the words or phrases which either in the Bible or elsewhere have been used to describe the nature of God.Forms of expression which describe Him by physical or metaphysical analogies, if taken literally, lead us away from the spiritualthat is, the essentialnature of God. God is Spirit, God is Light, God is Love. Let us hold fast to those three definitions, which all express to us the spiritual and the moral nature of God, and which, therefore, express to us the very essence of the Christian faith.

III. This same aspect of the Divine nature tells us by what means it is that He wills that the world should be brought towards Him.Not by compulsion, not by fire and sword, not by external decrees of authority, not by reproaches or curses, but by the ready assent of the spirit of man seeking and finding its communion with the Spirit of God. The blasphemy which shall not be forgiven is not that against the Son of Man (that is, mistakes a man makes concerning the outward form in which the Divine truth is manifested), but that against the Holy Ghost (that is, hatred of goodness, because it is goodness).

IV. It is through the inward spirit of all things, not through their outward form, that God is to be approached.God can be worshipped anywherein Jerusalem as well as in Gerizim, in Gerizim as well as in Jerusalemif He be worshipped in spirit and in truth. The plainest worship becomes unspiritual if we have lost the meaning of it. The most elaborate worship is spiritual if it helps us to do our duty, to be more loving to men, and more devoted to God.

V. This value of the spiritual aspect of religion is yet more visible in proportion as we apply it to the whole history of the human race, or of the human being.There has never failed altogether a succession of those good men who have seen the spirit beneath the letter, the meaning beneath the form, the sense beneath the nonsense, the moral beyond the material; and these have been the true backbone of Christendom. What would the early Church have been without such men as Clement of Alexandria, and Chrysostom of Constantinople? How much power would the mediaeval Church have been without Thomas Kempis; the Church of the Reformation without Erasmus; the Church of England without Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, and Butler; or the Church of Scotland without the apostolic name of Leighton? It is the perception of this universal and far-reaching element which forms the connecting thread of those articles at the close of the Creed common to all Western Churches (the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting), which, as if by a natural instinct, have gradually fastened themselves to the single article of the primitive Church, which says, I believe in the Holy Spirit.

Dean Stanley.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

4

God is a Spirit. This does not mean that He is not a personal God, but his personalities are spiritual, hence He expects the worship offered to him to be spiritual. Such worship would not depend upon literal mountains or walled cities as proper situations in which to perform it satisfactorily to the Lord.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 4:24. God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Such worship as is described in the last verse is the only real worship that can be conceived. This verse does not say what men must do, in the sense of what men ought to do. It is the nature of worship in itself that is described. No other worship than that which is offered in spirit and truth can possibly be actual worship of God (the same idea is here expressed as in the last clause of Joh 4:23), because God is spirit. We must not render these words God is a spirit, for it is not personality that is spoken of, but abstract being, the nature of the Divine essence. Since the spiritual presence of God is everywhere, Gerizim and Jerusalem lose all claim to be the special places for His worship. Not the outward action of the worshipper, not the forms he uses or the gifts he brings, but his spirit alone can be brought to meet the spiritual presence of God. Where this is done, God Himself meets the spirit which He has sought and prepared, and to which He has made known the truth lying at the foundation of all worship, the truth which reveals Himself. In this wonderful passage are concentrated many of the most essential truths of New Testament teaching. The historical development of Gods plan, the preparation for Christianity made by Judaism, the idea of progress from the outward to the inward, from the sensuous to the spiritual (comp. 1Co 15:46), the independence of forms which marks the essence of religion, and yet its freedom to clothe itself in form so long as the spirit is not lost,these are the lessons taught here; and however special the form in which they are presented, they are in perfect accord with the whole course of New Testament doctrine.The main principles of these verses would be understood by the woman to whom our Lord was speaking. But a day in which such principles should be realised must surely be that for which Samaria as well as Judea was waiting,the latter days of Messiahs advent?

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

God is a Spirit; that is, he hath no body, nor bodily parts; he is not a bare spiritual substance: but a pure and perfect Spirit: and therefore his worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth; where spirit is opposed to the legal ceremonies, and truth to the Jewish rites, not to hypocritical services: for the old patriarchs did worship God in spirit and in truth. As truth is taken for sincerity, they served him with a sincere conscience, and with a single heart. But our Saviour’s business is to shew, that a worship without legal rites and Jewish ceremonies, is proper to the times of the gospel.

In these words, observe, 1. The nature of God declared; God is a Spirit.

2. The duty of man inferred; therefore they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.

From the whole, note, 1. That God is a pure spiritual being. When bodily parts, hands, and eyes, &c. are ascribed to him, it is only in condescension to our weakness, and to signify those acts in God, which such members do perform in us.

Note, 2. That the worship due from the creature to God is spiritual worship, and ought to be spiritually performed; that is, we must worship him from spiritual principles, sincere love, and filial reverence; for spiritual ends, that we may please him, and promote his glory; and after a spiritual manner, with the whole heart, soul, and mind, and with a fervency of spirit. We must have awful apprehensions of him, suitable to the nature of his being; but above all we must endeavour to resemble him: then is God best worshipped by us, when we are most like to him.

The Jewsish ceremonial worship was abolished, to promote the spirituality of divine worshp; yet must not this be so understood, as if God rejected bodily worship, because he requires spiritual under the gospel: for Jesus Christ, the most spiritual worshipper, worshipped God with his body. Besides, God has created the body as well as the soul; and he will glorify the body as well as the soul: therefore it is our duty to worship and glorify God with our bodies, and with our spirits, which are his.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Joh 4:24. God is a Spirit. &c. As a further answer to the womans question, our Lord delivered a doctrine which may justly be called his own, as it exhibits an idea of God, and of the worship which is due to him, far more sublime than the best things said by the philosophers on that subject. Christ came to declare God to us, and this he has declared concerning him, that he is a Spirit, and he declared it to this poor Samaritan woman, for the meanest are concerned to know God; and with this design, to rectify her mistakes concerning religious worship, to which nothing could contribute more than the right knowledge of God. 1st, God is a Spirit, for he is an infinite and eternal mind; an intelligent being, yea, the supreme Intelligence, who by one act sees the thoughts of all other intelligences whatever, and so may be worshipped in every place; he is incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, and incorruptible: for it is easier to say what he is not than what he is. If God were not a Spirit, he could not be perfect, nor infinite, nor eternal, nor independent, nor the Father of spirits. Now, 2d, on this spirituality of the divine nature is founded the necessity of the spirituality of divine worship; for the worship of God must partake of his nature: as his nature is spiritual, his worship, to be acceptable, must be so likewise. If we do not worship God, who is a Spirit, in spirit, we neither give him the glory due to his name, and so do not perform a real and proper act of worship, nor can we hope to attain his favour, and acceptance with him, and so we miss the end of worship. The exercise of faith and love, therefore, and of other graces, must constitute the true spiritual worship which we owe to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and which cannot but be acceptable to him, wherever it is offered, in whatever place, and by whatever person.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

4:24 God [is] a {h} Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.

(h) By the word “spirit” he means the nature of the Godhead, and not the third person in the Trinity.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The AV has Jesus saying, "God is a spirit." One could infer that He is one spirit among many. The NASB and NIV have, "God is spirit." The Greek text has no indefinite article ("a"), but it is legitimate to supply one, as is often true in similar anarthrous (without the article) constructions. However the absence of the article often deliberately stresses the character to the noun (cf. 1Jn 1:5; 1Jn 4:8). That seems to have been Jesus’ intention here.

The sense of the passage is that God is spirit as opposed to flesh. He is invisible, divine, and essentially unknowable. Nevertheless He has chosen to reveal Himself (Joh 1:1-18). Since He is a spiritual rather than a corporeal being, those who worship Him must do so in a spiritual rather than a material way. A spiritual birth (Joh 3:5) is prerequisite for spiritual worship.

The essential reason worship of God must be spiritual is that God is a spiritual being, not a physical idol. Worship of a spiritual God requires spiritual worship, not just going through certain acts of worship at special places of worship. Furthermore, people cannot worship God in any manner that may seem attractive to them. They must worship Him as He by the Spirit has revealed we should.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)