WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

The world is more than what it appears to be.

In Isaiah 6:1–8, the prophet Isaiah says,

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Isaiah’s experience teaches us at least a little about worship because the vision of God empowered his faith, or in other words, his ability to live as if seeing Him who is unseen, the invisible God. 

The prophecy teaches us these four truths about worship (Coffman): 

WORSHIP IS:

1. Awareness of the presence of God

2. Consciousness of sin and unworthiness on the part of the worshipper

3. A sense of cleansing and forgiveness

4. A response of the soul desiring to do God’s will

James Coffman said,

In the New Testament, it is evident that the worship of God involved the doing of certain things: (1) meditating upon God’s word in sermon or Scripture reading, (2) singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, (3) praying to God through Christ, (4) observance of the Lord’s supper, and (5) the giving of money, goods, and services for the propagation of the faith and the relief of human needs. Very well, then, does the person who DOES these things worship God? Not necessarily, because an apostle spoke of certain persons who ate the Lord’s supper in a manner unworthy of it, not discerning the Lord’s “body. Moreover, the singing and praying were commanded to be done ’with the spirit and with the understanding also.’ From this: it is clear that the things done in the New Testament worship were the authorized channels through which the true worship flowed, and that worship has the same relationship to the channels that electricity has to the power line that carries it. This, of course, does not disparage the authorized channels, nor suggest that Man may select channels of his own. ... True worship is the soul’s adoration of the Creator functioning obediently to the divine will.

In John 4:19–26, we find the Lord in His conversation with the Samaritan woman by the well in Sychar:

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (ESV)

True worshippers worship God “in spirit and truth,” but what does this mean? Well, spirit may mean three or four things. (1) It may refer to the Spirit, that is, God the Holy Spirit. If this is the case, it practically means, worship in and through the Holy Spirit Who dwells in you (and by means of Whom we have access to God to begin with). The only way we can obey this is to believe and obey what the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Bible (2 Peter 1:20–21). So, if this is right, worship in spirit means as the Spirit calls, guides, and directs you to do in Scripture. (2) Spirit may also mean in our spirits, that is, the immaterial part of us made in God’s image. Practically, this means we should worship emphasizing the inward, rational, emotional, and thoughtful over the outward, physical, and ritualistic expressions of worship. It, of course, doesn’t at all mean don’t do the rituals, it means do them from the heart, with intent and understanding. By extension, these interpretations, if correct, imply two more: (3) It may be that spirit refers to the “spirit” or “frame of mind” in which we offer our worship, that is, with a good attitude, not a bad attitude. (4) It also may be that everything to do with interacting with invisible reality is in view, which corresponds with Jesus’ rejection of any exclusive divinely appointed place for worship in John 4:21. In other words, worship is transcendent, not geographical. Since the Lord wasn’t more specific, I believe spirit refers to all the above. 

So, what does “in truth” mean? Following the same line of reasoning as above, I think we determine it means more than one thing. (1) It must mean truly, as in actually worshipping. Pretending to worship when your heart isn’t in it because a loved one expects you to certainly isn’t worshipping “in truth.” (2) It must mean according to the truth as Scripture defines it. In John 14:6, the Lord self-identified as the Truth. Christ is everything true, embodied, living, victorious, and eternal. If it’s true, it’s Jesus, of Jesus, from Jesus to Jesus. If it’s right, it’s Jesus. You get the point. Jesus says in John 17:17 that “God’s word is truth.” This means true worship is as Jesus directs and according to His example, both of which mean according to Scripture. 

We can summarize and say, true worshippers must worship genuinely, and spiritually (the only thing you can profitably give God is what He commands you to give! –Acts 17:24–25), and according to the truth as revealed in Scripture (John 17:17; Mark 7:7; 1 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 22:18).

The world is far more than it appears to be, but the Bible teaches us how to worship as if we could see the unseen realm, or rather, as if we were in it because we are.

---JLP

James Burton Coffman, Commentary on the Gospel of John (Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University Press).

Image by InTellIGentFan via Pixabay.

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