# Worshipping in Spirit and Truth



## blhowes (Jul 4, 2008)

Joh 4:23,24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

I've been thinking about these verses this last week or so. I was just wondering: 

1. Whenever I've heard a message about this passage, I get the idea that in the OT they didn't worship God in spirit and in truth, but now in the NT times we do. Do you agree with that? When OT people worshipped God according to what he prescribed, weren't they worshipping in spirit and truth?

2. If we focus just on what Jesus taught, what does Jesus teach about how we should be worshipping now, in spirit and in truth?


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## raekwon (Jul 4, 2008)

1) It seems to me that Jesus wasn't referring to (true) OT believers, but rather those -- such as the Pharisees -- who honored God with their lips while their hearts were far from him (Is 29). It's those people who are worshipping in neither spirit nor truth.

2) Lemme think about that.


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## Contra_Mundum (Jul 4, 2008)

ALL true worship (ever, always, past and present) is "in Spirit and in truth." This is most certainly affirmed in v.24. Jesus has already been somewhat berating toward Nicodemus (ch.3) for his inexcusable OT ignorance of the spiritual priority.

Jesus meaning, v.23, has to do with the further removal of the typologically heavy, geographically localized, and ceremonial OT forms, resulting in a new emphasis on the Spirit in the age dawning and centered on his Person. No other worship than this intensely Spiritual exercise would henceforth be acceptable.

Which brings us to worship "in truth." What is truth? "Thy Word is truth" (Jn 17:17). Worship was and continues to be acceptable only according to what is revealed. Hence, we have here a very clear re-affirmation of the applicability of the RPW in our age, no less than in previous ages. If not according to revelation, it is illicit.


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## Leslie (Jul 5, 2008)

How is this for spirit and truth?

Stateside, I was an ER doc. A Christian young woman with multiple sclerosis was one of our “frequent flyers”, needing multiple interventions such as changing a catheter or dealing with a bedsore or pneumonia. She had an unremitting, steady, downhill course for years; her prognosis was grim. Her church and family loved her, cared for her, and prayed for her, apparently without result. 

After years, one Sunday afternoon, for no apparent reason, she was healed—suddenly, completely, and without warning. She asked her family to take her to Sunday evening church, a generic evangelical church (CMA). They consented. She walked in, down the middle isle, carrying her urine bag, since she couldn’t figure out how to take out the catheter. The result? A standing ovation for God as the congregation spontaneously burst into singing the doxology.

This was worship in spirit—not pro-forma such as Malachai decries. It was also worship in truth—genuine praise rather than dutiful flattery.


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