John 4:23-24 23But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father seeks such people as those who worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus next explains how the gospel can be the answer for everyone everywhere. The reference to time in verse 23 gives a further clue. The hour that would be coming in the future would be his sacrificial death and resurrection that would be means by which God would give the gift of salvation. The hour that had come at that moment was Jesus’ life encounter with the Samaritan woman. Those who met Jesus in person did not need to wait for his death and resurrection, which had a timeless quality to them that stretched throughout time and existence. The woman had an opportunity at that moment to experience the new life that would come to all who would believe after Jesus’ ascension to heaven (see 20:29).
Another key thought in verse 23 is the reference to true worshipers. The description is inclusive of all who would believe in Jesus, both during his earthly ministry and after his exaltation. True worship will be defined from that time onwards as those who have put their faith in the Messiah. Every other form of worship will be deficient and based on human effort to find God and purpose in life. It will have some human element that lacks divine revelation and anointing.
This interpretation is verified by the rest of verse 23. The issue is to define what the phrase in spirit and truth means. In spirit could be a reference to the spiritual anointing that comes when the Holy Spirit is present in the worship. The Spirit comes most powerfully to those who trust in Jesus. All other forms of human worship have some component of human effort involved, from outright animosity and hatred to God, to indifference, to those who thing their worship is right but lack the power and presence of God’s Spirit. In truth connects worship to the person of Jesus, who is the Truth (14:6). True worship will be focused on the person, teaching, and good news of Jesus. Again, humanity distorts the truth of Jesus by blurring it with human understanding, imagination, and deception.
God’s will is for his human creation to find its purpose, values, and ethics in relation to his Son, Jesus, who came as the Word with the message of truth. Verse 24 gives an essential theological claim about God. God exists in the spiritual realm. Humanity gets glimpses of this realm because there is something about us called “spirit” that is also part of this realm. We may think that the spiritual realm is only in the mind. Some people think it is only imagination. But actually, the spiritual realm is more real than the physical, which is incorporated within the spiritual realm. God is present everywhere and in all time. At points in history, God has opened windows to the spiritual realm or intervened in the physical realm, particuarly through angelic beings.
We understand and experience God when we find the true access to this spiritual realm through the only Way, Worshiping God is not confined to a place or time, like Sunday morning at the chapel on the street corner. Worship that is focused on and resourced through Jesus can be done anywhere and at any time. The two concepts of spirit and truth should not be separated but must go together in order for this type of worship to be done. Later, John wrote in Revelation 21:22 that there will be no temple in the new Jerusalem “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” The concept of universal worship does not need to wait for the new Jerusalem but is available now to those who come to God in faith. Jesus was stretching the Samaritan woman’s narrow worldview. Like many others, she had put God in a box of her own making that she had inherited through various traditions.
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