God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
God is Spirit, yet a personal being and not merely an impersonal power or force working through nature. Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such worshipers. Such worship is not confined to any place, mountain, temple or outward form and ceremony, but may be offered wherever worshipers are. It must come from the inner life with the whole heart, in sincerity, holiness and obedience to His commandments, expressing love to God in love and service to others. To render it aright people must be born of the divine Spirit, which renews the heart and produces willing obedience, while all idolatry, self-worship and mere outward form without heart repentance is false worship.
Encounter at Jacob's Well
Jesus spoke these words at Jacob's well at noontide after a long morning journey, when faint from hunger and thirst and having no rope or jar to draw from the deep well He waited for someone to come and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink. Though as Maker of the ocean and controller of the waters of the deep and opener of the springs of the earth He rested weary, He depended on a stranger's kindness even for water.
He spoke them after laying open her past life of five husbands and a present unlawful union, which awakened conviction of sin, when she tried to turn the talk to the dispute whether Gerizim or Jerusalem is where men ought to worship. He answered that the hour was coming and now present when worship would be neither in that mountain nor in Jerusalem, that Samaritans worshiped what they did not know while Jews knew what they worshiped because salvation is of the Jews, and that the Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth because He is Spirit and such worship is required.
The conversation began His mission work as positive authoritative teaching, spoken with voice and words in perfect harmony with its subject, and stands among His invitations of mercy and goodness that remove doubt whether the Lord will hear prayer and give mercy, favor, grace and salvation. Though weary and with only one listener He used the opportunity to present the truths of His spiritual kingdom, giving her precious lessons about the water of life which becomes a spring leading to everlasting life. Seeing in her a receptive spirit and open mind, He opened His richest instruction to her and spoke freely and personally to her rather than waiting for a crowd.
By asking rather than offering a favor He broke the bitter enmity between Jews and Samaritans, who avoided all social dealing and kindness, seeking with divine love the key to her outcast heart so that trust would awaken trust. He set aside Jewish custom and prejudice and crossed religious and social barriers, treating the despised Samaritans with kindness, courtesy, human sympathy and divine grace, accepting their hospitality, mingling with them, sleeping under their roofs, eating with them at their tables and partaking of food prepared and served by their hands, and teaching in their streets, to draw them to salvation. His sympathy and social kindliness recognized the dignity of humanity, and His words fell upon their thirsty souls with blessed life-giving power, awakening new impulses, making men long to become worthy of His confidence, and opening to these outcasts of society the possibility of a new life.
The encounter shows that worship acceptable to God is not confined by nationality or access to a sacred place, for Jesus reveals the Father and teaches those whose hearts are open to truth, including the despised and excluded. His ministry to the Samaritans at Sychar showed that access to God and salvation was not limited by ethnic boundaries, so that the gospel is for all peoples including those regarded as outsiders.
The woman came and listened and believed His word and accepted Him without miracles at all, glad for the light, and went and published it to her neighbors, and her testimony led many Samaritans to hear Jesus and believe. By contrast He came to the Jews with all the power of His majesty and grace manifested in mighty healings and in the mighty outpouring of His Spirit and they would not recognize it, because prejudices reigned in their hearts so even the most mighty miracles had no effect on them and did them no good.
Her case shows He could place His truth in a sinner's heart as the new wine of His kingdom, for she could receive the precious lessons He came to give to those who would receive them, unlike the scribes and Pharisees who were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold it, even as with Matthew the publican and the fishermen He called He made her a bottle into which He could pour the new wine. Those who have not heard the truth may be more receptive than those who have already received evidence of God's work, as the Samaritans coming to hear Him illustrates. It makes every difference in what kind of spirit men come to the investigation of the Scriptures, with a teachable spirit ready to learn, with hearts emptied of prejudice, not seeking to bring the Scriptures to their ideas but to bring their ideas to the Scriptures, so they shall know of the doctrine and understand it and with discernment can understand where God is working without needing wonderful miracles to testify of it.
The living-water fountain was within Him, and that living water must also be within His followers, springing up to refresh those they influence, so that His truths could be preached effectively even to one person. True religion comes from God and leads people to God, and practical faith makes believers like the woman, with living water springing up in them to refresh others, for those who receive the water of life become givers and missionaries.
As the world's Redeemer proffering the water of life He fulfills the Eden promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried. He knows the necessities of every soul, including oppression and languor, and He hungers and thirsts for recognition, sympathy, love, thanksgiving and fruit in good works in return for His great love and His purchase of them with His own blood, which He watches and waits for and which cannot be safely withheld, as shown when the woman withheld the water He asked. He supplies spiritual refreshment in answer to asking and watchful prayer, as the bread of life to be eaten every day and the water of life to the parched and fainting soul that all may partake, a living spring in contrast to earth's emptied cisterns and dry pools, never exhausted however much is drawn and given to others, the inexhaustible well-spring of truth and fountain of living water ever since the fall of Adam.
The talk was followed by His word to lift up the eyes because the fields are white already for harvest, which applies where labor for souls gathers crowds of eager attentive people, as in Brisbane and Newcastle.
God Is Personal Spirit
God is spirit, yet not merely an impersonal, all-pervading principle, energy, power, or actuating force working through nature and sustaining all things; He is a personal being. That He is personal is supported by humanity's creation in His image. He has revealed Himself personally in His Son Jesus, who came to earth as a personal Saviour, ascended to heaven, and intercedes there for humanity.
His works in nature express His character, love, power and glory, but nature is not God, and honor belongs to the Creator, not to what He has made. As spirit, His working agencies are spirit, understanding, will, consciousness and activity, which He waits to impart to everyone who cooperates with Him.
Worship Beyond Place and Form
True worship is not decided or confined by place, mountain, temple, or locality, for the hour was coming and now is present when worship would be neither in the Samaritan mountain nor in Jerusalem. The Samaritans worshiped what they did not know while the Jews knew what they worshiped because salvation is of the Jews, yet true worshipers can worship the Father wherever they are, throughout the world and beyond Jerusalem. This was made plain when conviction of sin was awakened by laying open a past life of five husbands and a present unlawful union, and when the talk was turned to the religious dispute whether Gerizim or Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Because God is Spirit such worship is required, and the Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth, so the truth about God is to be carried to every nation, region, and place people can be reached rather than kept in one locality.
God's presence is not confined to a grand religious building or to temples made with human hands. He acknowledges any place of worship however humble when people worship in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness, and to them it becomes as the gate of heaven when He meets and blesses those seeking truth, peace, and righteousness. The company of such worshipers may be few in number yet they are very precious in His sight even while still rough, taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world into His workshop to be hewed and shaped, with the ax, hammer, and chisel of trial used by a skillful hand not to destroy but to work out perfection in every soul, until as precious stones polished after the similitude of a palace they find a place in the heavenly temple.
Worship is lifted above matters of form and ceremony, questions of controversy, holy mountains and sacred temples, outward display, hypocritical pretense, and human-made creeds. Religion is not to be confined to external forms and ceremonies, and strict adherence to ceremony and outward forms cannot save because God's kingdom is spiritual in nature. True worship is inward and truthful, rooted in the heart, purifying the life and moving people to do good works, and consists in worshiping Christ without hypocritical pretense. This worship had been displaced by the glorification of people and an endless round of human-made ceremonies.
The ritual service was passing away with Christ upon the earth and possessed no virtue to make worship true. True worshipers come directly to Christ Himself, who presents a spiritual priesthood and places the sinful human agent at the footstool of mercy, instead of approaching Him through forms and ceremonies with hypocritical pretense. Serving God in truth brings freedom of spirit, while traditions that hide the sacred truths worship is meant to teach, and faithless superstitious rites and a faithless round of ceremonies through human tradition, cannot give peace, rest, or satisfaction. Freedom from temples made by human hands so that believers throughout the world may worship in Spirit and in truth became possible when Christ's death brought to an end what was abolished through Him.
Heart of True Worship
Because God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, for such worship is required and the Father seeks such worshipers. This true worship is spiritual and truthful rather than a matter of forms, ceremonies, hypocritical pretense, holy mountains or sacred temples, and it is the true circumcision consisting in worshiping Christ as revealed through Christ the Messiah. The Father waits to receive such worshipers and will make them His sons and daughters, and this worship belongs with spiritual-mindedness, deeper experience with God and conformity to Christ. The truth of it is to be carried to every nation and region rather than kept in one locality.
Worship must come from the spirit and inner life, be inward and truthful, sincere and true, requiring the whole heart and undivided affections. It calls for sincere upright hearts, fervent prayer, holiness, zeal, earnestness and fervor, and a holy character. It is offered in the beauty of holiness and gives God back glory instead of keeping silent lips and dumb tongues, with pure incense of praise and thanksgiving, talking of God in sanctified holy strains without mingling the common earthly and sensual with the sacred, and showing heaven's fragrance in words, deportment and actions. It sees God in all His created works and grasps and receives the privilege and grace and salvation and truth and righteousness He longs to bestow in rich fullness.
Worship in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness requires putting away evil and iniquity, for gathering is of no avail while evil is cherished, and cherished sin is incompatible with holy worship and hinders prayer. Worship that is only solemn form, outward ceremony or signs of devotion is insincere when the heart follows idols and sins are confessed without repentance and forsaking, while human customs and false theories can obscure God, take the place of trust and turn religion into hard-spirited zeal rather than humble devotion. Those who serve God must be prayerful, diligent students of Scripture, and hungry and thirsty for righteousness so they can strengthen and enlighten others. Worship requires a life shaped by self-denial and the cross rather than worldly ambition and absorption in business that dull spiritual discernment and draw the heart away, so mere profession is not enough, and it belongs with holiness as part of following the Lord and growing in grace toward the full stature of life in Christ.
Far greater knowledge is needed of how to offer such worship and of the rich treasures, reproof and encouragement contained in the Word, and only by practicing its lessons can men and women reflect the strength and beauty of Christian character and receive strength for daily duty. Such worship is expressed by resembling God in character and obeying His commandments and all His requirements, openly declaring allegiance to Christ. It makes duty the guiding principle of life, and it is part of following the Lord and growing toward the full stature of life in Christ, including the desire to obey all God's commandments and be sanctified through obedience to the truth. Those who so worship in obedience to the conditions laid down for Israel at Sinai, which remain His covenant for the Israel of God for all time, cooperate with His purpose and come to Jesus as He gathers His people. They receive the blessings promised to Israel, are acknowledged as members of His royal family, and are honored above all nations.
True worship is not merely outward observance but comes from love for God leading to love for others, marked by gratitude, humility, patience, self-sacrifice, mercy and forgiveness, leading to useful service and sanctifying the whole life. Worshipers of Jesus are devoted to Him rather than to worldly pleasures, centered on the crucified Jesus. It is shown by careful words and by having His praise on the lips in the house of God and honoring Him outside, rebuking carelessness of speech and silence in worship, and calling for being pruned to bring forth more fruit in soul-winning and godly life. It requires coming into right relation with God, staying close to the Saviour and having His power and grace individually, with no true worship while neglecting duty or coming unprepared to meet God. Being prepared means humbling the heart and putting away everything between the soul and Him.
Worship in spirit and truth means using God-given powers to do good and share received light, while amusements and competition that draw away from watchfulness and prayer can divert devotion toward an idol. It belongs with separation from idols and every unclean thing and with a life transformed into Christ's likeness, abiding in Him and walking in light and holiness, not merely outward profession or service. God requires the devotion of heart, mind, soul and strength, with the noblest powers used to do Him homage, thoughts conformed to His will and affections sanctified to His service, and the life in harmony with worship offered in faith and hope. This true worship stands against idolatry, against worship of self mingled with worship of God, and against attention taken up with objects that conceal God and deny Him in the life. The door to light and intelligent knowledge of truth is open to every sincere worker.
Spirit Creates True Worshipers
The only religion that leads to God is the religion that comes from God, and to serve Him rightly a person must be born of the divine Spirit. That new birth purifies the heart, renews the mind, gives a new heart and spirit, transforms the character, and imparts a new capacity for knowing and loving God with willing obedience to all His requirements. This inward transformation rather than mere profession or religious formality is true worship, and it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's working. Those lifted up in vanity are not prepared for such worship.
Worshipers must humble themselves and set self aside, placing the will on God's side under God's will and following Christ's direction. They must not bow to self nor make cherished personal ways an idol, especially when those ways obstruct God's plans, and they must let nothing cherished stand in the way. By the Spirit every sincere prayer is indited, and such prayer is acceptable to God. Wherever a soul reaches out after God, there the Spirit's working is manifest and God will reveal Himself to that soul, for the Father is seeking such worshipers, waits to receive them, and will make them His sons and daughters.
This lesson is learned through explanation of the Word of God, by much prayer, by laying hold of Omnipotence, and by the working of the Holy Spirit upon human hearts, which must not be disregarded. Worship must be by living genuine faith and not by imagination, joined to repentance, humility, and faith in Jesus Christ. The sinner comes trusting Christ, whose worthiness and righteousness supply what the sinner lacks, turning the heart from self-exaltation toward Christ to a holy life reflecting His character, for Christ frees from Satan's bondage and leads to holiness to serve in righteousness and true holiness and in the beauty of holiness.
Jesus came to reveal the Father's character and paternal love so people could know Him and worship truly, freeing truth from error and superstition, and those who proclaim the truth are likewise to clear away traditions and errors so the gospel can be seen. True worshipers come directly to Christ Himself, who presents a spiritual priesthood and places the sinful agent at the footstool of mercy, instead of approaching through forms and ceremonies with hypocritical pretense, and this worship of Christ in spirit and in truth is the true circumcision. God is glorified by such worship joined with holiness, in which those who obey His law through love and trust reveal His love, compassion, patience, and holiness.
It belongs with spiritual-mindedness, deeper experience, conformity to Christ, thorough conversion, communion with Christ, separation from the world's corrupting influences, and conformity in thought, word, and deed, with the whole person devoted to serving and glorifying God. Such service belongs to the people for whom God has love, joy, peace, and triumph in store, and those who serve in spirit and in truth are promised joy, peace, love, and glorious triumph. Everyone bearing Christ's name is required to be a spiritual worshiper as part of helping bring divine light to the world, made possible through God's provision in the humiliation and death of His Son, and in proclaiming truth His glory is ever to be kept in view by appearing before Him cleansed and purified so He can teach what it is to be laborers together with God as His husbandry and His building.
God and all heaven work to bring the lost back to His service, and Christ's purpose is to bring those who serve in spirit and in truth to His heavenly temple. Worshipers must have hearts brought into harmony with God's plans and be living stones and living souls, fitted by truth and by God for His heavenly temple, reflecting Christ's image, freed from defects of character and undefiled by sin, growing in spiritual character and learning Christ's life-giving lessons rather than copying human ideals or letting human customs and authority control them.
False Worship Exposed
True worship stands in contrast to reverence for images, for even when images are treated only as reminders of the living God they can lead to honoring lifeless objects. Making an image of God is forbidden, and all false worship is spiritual adultery. Images dishonor God and belittle Him in the mind by associating Him with common things. Idolatry is hated because of its corrupting influence, which debases the mind and leads to sensuality and every kind of sin.
The command is to worship and serve the Lord God and Him only. He is a jealous God who will not be trifled with, and He has spoken concerning the manner in which He should be worshiped. As searcher of the heart He distinguishes between true heart-service and idolatry. Worship accepted by Him must be by living, genuine faith and not by imagination.
Every god chosen before the Lord is rejected, including selfish pride lifted up and served as a god, money made a god, and sensuality and base passion not kept under control of the higher powers of the mind. Anything made the subject of undue thought and admiration absorbing the mind is likewise rejected. Spiritual idols, false human theories, systems of maxims and customs, preconceived opinions, and self standing between the soul and God are refused, for they darken spiritual understanding, rob God of honor, and produce religious zeal that is exacting and hard-spirited and separate from others. Worship in truth and humility means not bowing to self or treating cherished personal ways as an idol, especially when they obstruct God's plans.
Worship that is only solemn form, outward ceremony, outward attitudes and signs of devotion, solemnity and formality is insincere when the heart follows idols. Confessing sins without repenting and forsaking them is insincere. Human customs and false theories can obscure God and take the place of trust in Him, turning religion into hard-spirited zeal rather than humble devotion. Gathering for prayer and religious instruction does not by itself make true worshipers, and outward appearances can conceal lack of genuine worship. Being counted among worshipers is not enough unless the heart is brought into harmony with God's plans, for worship is living service of the heart and not merely a round of forms and ceremonies.
Those who serve according to the light they have are regarded with pitying tenderness even when they lack access to His Word and do not yet know the truth, and light will be brought to them and truth revealed in Jesus. True worship gives God back glory instead of keeping silent lips and dumb tongues. It offers pure incense of praise and thanksgiving, talks of God in sanctified holy strains without mingling the common earthly and sensual with the sacred, and shows heaven's fragrance in words, deportment and actions. It sees God in all His created works and grasps and receives the privilege and grace and salvation and truth and righteousness He longs to bestow in rich fullness.
Such worship stands against idolatry, against worship of self mingled with worship of God, and against attention taken up with objects that conceal God from view and deny Him in the life. Amusements and competition that draw people away from watchfulness and prayer can divert devotion toward an idol instead of God. Those who worship in sincerity and truth are accepted by Him, and those who worship inwardly and truthfully are to be met with love, not excluded by bigotry that blocks investigation and growth. Because He is holy, true worship requires His people to be holy, pure and undefiled. In the time when judgments fall on all who transgress His law, those who walk humbly with Him will triumph with holy gladness.
Sincere and true worship means putting away all self-worship and receiving in the heart the love for God and for one another that filled Christ's heart. When His people are so united in divine love, the Father constantly manifests His power through them, and the world recognizes His miracle-working power and acknowledges Him as the Strength and Helper of His commandment-keeping people.
Heaven Joins Earthly Worship
Worship offered on earth in spirit and truth is joined to the worship of heaven. The assemblies of believers on earth are joined with the church in heaven. Heavenly beings attend those assemblies and take interest in their worship. They listen with pleasure to testimonies that exalt God, with prayers, praise and thanksgiving, and join their praise to that of the earthly church in the heavenly anthem. Such worship is offered in the beauty of holiness.
A meeting does not require a minister to preach, for the assembled believers serve God by offering spiritual worship. Each believer can worship by witnessing to the truth and speaking with others about God's love. God acknowledges any place of worship, however humble, when people worship in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness, and to them it becomes as the gate of heaven. The company of such worshipers may be few in number, yet they are very precious in His sight even while still rough, taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world into His workshop to be hewed and shaped, with the ax, hammer and chisel of trial used by a skillful hand not to destroy but to work out perfection in every soul, until as precious stones polished after the similitude of a palace they find a place in the heavenly temple. Though He does not dwell in temples made with hands, He honors the assemblies of His people with His presence and meets with them through His Spirit when they come together to seek Him, acknowledge their sins, and pray for one another.
When God's people assemble, their coming together is of no avail unless they empty their hearts of every evil thing and put away evil. Prayer, praise, gratitude, and recalling His works in assembly are acts of worship, and angels join in them. Such worship drives back Satan's power and pushes aside murmuring and complaints. Worship in spirit and truth is not made unacceptable by humble surroundings, for God may give His Spirit and presence when these are the best His people can provide.
But when people use their means to make their own homes attractive while leaving His worship in a poorer, less convenient place for selfish reasons, they make God secondary and cannot expect His blessing. A house of worship is a place where God's people can gather to offer this worship in holiness, and its dedication is treated as a precious privilege and its services as blessed by God. Singing is part of such worship: it is to come from the spirit and be joined with understanding. Such worship is joined with the beauty of holiness, so those who come before God are to be cleansed and purified, and it includes humility with putting one's will on God's side, rejecting making self an idol and letting nothing cherished stand in the way of His plans.
Mission and Daily Obedience
God is Spirit, so worship is not restricted to or confined by any particular place, mountain, temple, or locality, but must be offered in spirit and in truth wherever worshipers are. True worshipers can therefore worship the Father beyond Jerusalem and throughout the world, because His presence and the working of His Spirit are not limited to one center. For that reason the truth about God is not to be kept in one locality but is to be carried wherever people can be reached, to every place, nation, and region, and to the regions beyond, so that light shines forth. Those who seek to learn and follow truth need not go to one place to worship or receive instruction, for the Father seeks such worshipers everywhere, and the converted soul learns this lesson through explanation of the Word, much prayer, laying hold of Omnipotence, and the Holy Spirit's work upon the heart.
Serving God requires such worship in spirit and in truth, with truth freed from error, superstition, tradition, and human obstruction so that His true character can be seen. Worshiping in this sincere way, guided by truth, makes duty the guiding principle of life. This stands opposite formal and insincere worship of outward attitudes, signs of devotion, solemnity and formality, and confessing sins without repenting and forsaking them, and opposite spiritual idols, false human theories, systems of maxims and customs, preconceived opinions, and self standing between the soul and God, darkening understanding, robbing God of honor, and producing exacting, hard-spirited zeal separate from others. Seventh-day Adventists are to have a record entirely different from that false worship, with enlarged views that let light shine without trying to shine, giving the whole heart in worship in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness. The one who desires to worship in this way desires from the spirit and joined with truth to obey all of God's commandments and to be sanctified through obedience to the truth.
God is Spirit, yet a personal being and not merely an impersonal power or force working through nature. Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such worshipers. Such worship is not confined to any place, mountain, temple or outward form and ceremony, but may be offered wherever worshipers are. It must come from the inner life with the whole heart, in sincerity, holiness and obedience to His commandments, expressing love to God in love and service to others. To render it aright people must be born of the divine Spirit, which renews the heart and produces willing obedience, while all idolatry, self-worship and mere outward form without heart repentance is false worship.
Encounter at Jacob's Well
Jesus spoke these words at Jacob's well at noontide after a long morning journey, when faint from hunger and thirst and having no rope or jar to draw from the deep well He waited for someone to come and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink. Though as Maker of the ocean and controller of the waters of the deep and opener of the springs of the earth He rested weary, He depended on a stranger's kindness even for water.
He spoke them after laying open her past life of five husbands and a present unlawful union, which awakened conviction of sin, when she tried to turn the talk to the dispute whether Gerizim or Jerusalem is where men ought to worship. He answered that the hour was coming and now present when worship would be neither in that mountain nor in Jerusalem, that Samaritans worshiped what they did not know while Jews knew what they worshiped because salvation is of the Jews, and that the Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth because He is Spirit and such worship is required.
The conversation began His mission work as positive authoritative teaching, spoken with voice and words in perfect harmony with its subject, and stands among His invitations of mercy and goodness that remove doubt whether the Lord will hear prayer and give mercy, favor, grace and salvation. Though weary and with only one listener He used the opportunity to present the truths of His spiritual kingdom, giving her precious lessons about the water of life which becomes a spring leading to everlasting life. Seeing in her a receptive spirit and open mind, He opened His richest instruction to her and spoke freely and personally to her rather than waiting for a crowd.
By asking rather than offering a favor He broke the bitter enmity between Jews and Samaritans, who avoided all social dealing and kindness, seeking with divine love the key to her outcast heart so that trust would awaken trust. He set aside Jewish custom and prejudice and crossed religious and social barriers, treating the despised Samaritans with kindness, courtesy, human sympathy and divine grace, accepting their hospitality, mingling with them, sleeping under their roofs, eating with them at their tables and partaking of food prepared and served by their hands, and teaching in their streets, to draw them to salvation. His sympathy and social kindliness recognized the dignity of humanity, and His words fell upon their thirsty souls with blessed life-giving power, awakening new impulses, making men long to become worthy of His confidence, and opening to these outcasts of society the possibility of a new life.
The encounter shows that worship acceptable to God is not confined by nationality or access to a sacred place, for Jesus reveals the Father and teaches those whose hearts are open to truth, including the despised and excluded. His ministry to the Samaritans at Sychar showed that access to God and salvation was not limited by ethnic boundaries, so that the gospel is for all peoples including those regarded as outsiders.
The woman came and listened and believed His word and accepted Him without miracles at all, glad for the light, and went and published it to her neighbors, and her testimony led many Samaritans to hear Jesus and believe. By contrast He came to the Jews with all the power of His majesty and grace manifested in mighty healings and in the mighty outpouring of His Spirit and they would not recognize it, because prejudices reigned in their hearts so even the most mighty miracles had no effect on them and did them no good.
Her case shows He could place His truth in a sinner's heart as the new wine of His kingdom, for she could receive the precious lessons He came to give to those who would receive them, unlike the scribes and Pharisees who were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold it, even as with Matthew the publican and the fishermen He called He made her a bottle into which He could pour the new wine. Those who have not heard the truth may be more receptive than those who have already received evidence of God's work, as the Samaritans coming to hear Him illustrates. It makes every difference in what kind of spirit men come to the investigation of the Scriptures, with a teachable spirit ready to learn, with hearts emptied of prejudice, not seeking to bring the Scriptures to their ideas but to bring their ideas to the Scriptures, so they shall know of the doctrine and understand it and with discernment can understand where God is working without needing wonderful miracles to testify of it.
The living-water fountain was within Him, and that living water must also be within His followers, springing up to refresh those they influence, so that His truths could be preached effectively even to one person. True religion comes from God and leads people to God, and practical faith makes believers like the woman, with living water springing up in them to refresh others, for those who receive the water of life become givers and missionaries.
As the world's Redeemer proffering the water of life He fulfills the Eden promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried. He knows the necessities of every soul, including oppression and languor, and He hungers and thirsts for recognition, sympathy, love, thanksgiving and fruit in good works in return for His great love and His purchase of them with His own blood, which He watches and waits for and which cannot be safely withheld, as shown when the woman withheld the water He asked. He supplies spiritual refreshment in answer to asking and watchful prayer, as the bread of life to be eaten every day and the water of life to the parched and fainting soul that all may partake, a living spring in contrast to earth's emptied cisterns and dry pools, never exhausted however much is drawn and given to others, the inexhaustible well-spring of truth and fountain of living water ever since the fall of Adam.
The talk was followed by His word to lift up the eyes because the fields are white already for harvest, which applies where labor for souls gathers crowds of eager attentive people, as in Brisbane and Newcastle.
God Is Personal Spirit
God is spirit, yet not merely an impersonal, all-pervading principle, energy, power, or actuating force working through nature and sustaining all things; He is a personal being. That He is personal is supported by humanity's creation in His image. He has revealed Himself personally in His Son Jesus, who came to earth as a personal Saviour, ascended to heaven, and intercedes there for humanity.
His works in nature express His character, love, power and glory, but nature is not God, and honor belongs to the Creator, not to what He has made. As spirit, His working agencies are spirit, understanding, will, consciousness and activity, which He waits to impart to everyone who cooperates with Him.
Worship Beyond Place and Form
True worship is not decided or confined by place, mountain, temple, or locality, for the hour was coming and now is present when worship would be neither in the Samaritan mountain nor in Jerusalem. The Samaritans worshiped what they did not know while the Jews knew what they worshiped because salvation is of the Jews, yet true worshipers can worship the Father wherever they are, throughout the world and beyond Jerusalem. This was made plain when conviction of sin was awakened by laying open a past life of five husbands and a present unlawful union, and when the talk was turned to the religious dispute whether Gerizim or Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Because God is Spirit such worship is required, and the Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth, so the truth about God is to be carried to every nation, region, and place people can be reached rather than kept in one locality.
God's presence is not confined to a grand religious building or to temples made with human hands. He acknowledges any place of worship however humble when people worship in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness, and to them it becomes as the gate of heaven when He meets and blesses those seeking truth, peace, and righteousness. The company of such worshipers may be few in number yet they are very precious in His sight even while still rough, taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world into His workshop to be hewed and shaped, with the ax, hammer, and chisel of trial used by a skillful hand not to destroy but to work out perfection in every soul, until as precious stones polished after the similitude of a palace they find a place in the heavenly temple.
Worship is lifted above matters of form and ceremony, questions of controversy, holy mountains and sacred temples, outward display, hypocritical pretense, and human-made creeds. Religion is not to be confined to external forms and ceremonies, and strict adherence to ceremony and outward forms cannot save because God's kingdom is spiritual in nature. True worship is inward and truthful, rooted in the heart, purifying the life and moving people to do good works, and consists in worshiping Christ without hypocritical pretense. This worship had been displaced by the glorification of people and an endless round of human-made ceremonies.
The ritual service was passing away with Christ upon the earth and possessed no virtue to make worship true. True worshipers come directly to Christ Himself, who presents a spiritual priesthood and places the sinful human agent at the footstool of mercy, instead of approaching Him through forms and ceremonies with hypocritical pretense. Serving God in truth brings freedom of spirit, while traditions that hide the sacred truths worship is meant to teach, and faithless superstitious rites and a faithless round of ceremonies through human tradition, cannot give peace, rest, or satisfaction. Freedom from temples made by human hands so that believers throughout the world may worship in Spirit and in truth became possible when Christ's death brought to an end what was abolished through Him.
Heart of True Worship
Because God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, for such worship is required and the Father seeks such worshipers. This true worship is spiritual and truthful rather than a matter of forms, ceremonies, hypocritical pretense, holy mountains or sacred temples, and it is the true circumcision consisting in worshiping Christ as revealed through Christ the Messiah. The Father waits to receive such worshipers and will make them His sons and daughters, and this worship belongs with spiritual-mindedness, deeper experience with God and conformity to Christ. The truth of it is to be carried to every nation and region rather than kept in one locality.
Worship must come from the spirit and inner life, be inward and truthful, sincere and true, requiring the whole heart and undivided affections. It calls for sincere upright hearts, fervent prayer, holiness, zeal, earnestness and fervor, and a holy character. It is offered in the beauty of holiness and gives God back glory instead of keeping silent lips and dumb tongues, with pure incense of praise and thanksgiving, talking of God in sanctified holy strains without mingling the common earthly and sensual with the sacred, and showing heaven's fragrance in words, deportment and actions. It sees God in all His created works and grasps and receives the privilege and grace and salvation and truth and righteousness He longs to bestow in rich fullness.
Worship in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness requires putting away evil and iniquity, for gathering is of no avail while evil is cherished, and cherished sin is incompatible with holy worship and hinders prayer. Worship that is only solemn form, outward ceremony or signs of devotion is insincere when the heart follows idols and sins are confessed without repentance and forsaking, while human customs and false theories can obscure God, take the place of trust and turn religion into hard-spirited zeal rather than humble devotion. Those who serve God must be prayerful, diligent students of Scripture, and hungry and thirsty for righteousness so they can strengthen and enlighten others. Worship requires a life shaped by self-denial and the cross rather than worldly ambition and absorption in business that dull spiritual discernment and draw the heart away, so mere profession is not enough, and it belongs with holiness as part of following the Lord and growing in grace toward the full stature of life in Christ.
Far greater knowledge is needed of how to offer such worship and of the rich treasures, reproof and encouragement contained in the Word, and only by practicing its lessons can men and women reflect the strength and beauty of Christian character and receive strength for daily duty. Such worship is expressed by resembling God in character and obeying His commandments and all His requirements, openly declaring allegiance to Christ. It makes duty the guiding principle of life, and it is part of following the Lord and growing toward the full stature of life in Christ, including the desire to obey all God's commandments and be sanctified through obedience to the truth. Those who so worship in obedience to the conditions laid down for Israel at Sinai, which remain His covenant for the Israel of God for all time, cooperate with His purpose and come to Jesus as He gathers His people. They receive the blessings promised to Israel, are acknowledged as members of His royal family, and are honored above all nations.
True worship is not merely outward observance but comes from love for God leading to love for others, marked by gratitude, humility, patience, self-sacrifice, mercy and forgiveness, leading to useful service and sanctifying the whole life. Worshipers of Jesus are devoted to Him rather than to worldly pleasures, centered on the crucified Jesus. It is shown by careful words and by having His praise on the lips in the house of God and honoring Him outside, rebuking carelessness of speech and silence in worship, and calling for being pruned to bring forth more fruit in soul-winning and godly life. It requires coming into right relation with God, staying close to the Saviour and having His power and grace individually, with no true worship while neglecting duty or coming unprepared to meet God. Being prepared means humbling the heart and putting away everything between the soul and Him.
Worship in spirit and truth means using God-given powers to do good and share received light, while amusements and competition that draw away from watchfulness and prayer can divert devotion toward an idol. It belongs with separation from idols and every unclean thing and with a life transformed into Christ's likeness, abiding in Him and walking in light and holiness, not merely outward profession or service. God requires the devotion of heart, mind, soul and strength, with the noblest powers used to do Him homage, thoughts conformed to His will and affections sanctified to His service, and the life in harmony with worship offered in faith and hope. This true worship stands against idolatry, against worship of self mingled with worship of God, and against attention taken up with objects that conceal God and deny Him in the life. The door to light and intelligent knowledge of truth is open to every sincere worker.
Spirit Creates True Worshipers
The only religion that leads to God is the religion that comes from God, and to serve Him rightly a person must be born of the divine Spirit. That new birth purifies the heart, renews the mind, gives a new heart and spirit, transforms the character, and imparts a new capacity for knowing and loving God with willing obedience to all His requirements. This inward transformation rather than mere profession or religious formality is true worship, and it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's working. Those lifted up in vanity are not prepared for such worship.
Worshipers must humble themselves and set self aside, placing the will on God's side under God's will and following Christ's direction. They must not bow to self nor make cherished personal ways an idol, especially when those ways obstruct God's plans, and they must let nothing cherished stand in the way. By the Spirit every sincere prayer is indited, and such prayer is acceptable to God. Wherever a soul reaches out after God, there the Spirit's working is manifest and God will reveal Himself to that soul, for the Father is seeking such worshipers, waits to receive them, and will make them His sons and daughters.
This lesson is learned through explanation of the Word of God, by much prayer, by laying hold of Omnipotence, and by the working of the Holy Spirit upon human hearts, which must not be disregarded. Worship must be by living genuine faith and not by imagination, joined to repentance, humility, and faith in Jesus Christ. The sinner comes trusting Christ, whose worthiness and righteousness supply what the sinner lacks, turning the heart from self-exaltation toward Christ to a holy life reflecting His character, for Christ frees from Satan's bondage and leads to holiness to serve in righteousness and true holiness and in the beauty of holiness.
Jesus came to reveal the Father's character and paternal love so people could know Him and worship truly, freeing truth from error and superstition, and those who proclaim the truth are likewise to clear away traditions and errors so the gospel can be seen. True worshipers come directly to Christ Himself, who presents a spiritual priesthood and places the sinful agent at the footstool of mercy, instead of approaching through forms and ceremonies with hypocritical pretense, and this worship of Christ in spirit and in truth is the true circumcision. God is glorified by such worship joined with holiness, in which those who obey His law through love and trust reveal His love, compassion, patience, and holiness.
It belongs with spiritual-mindedness, deeper experience, conformity to Christ, thorough conversion, communion with Christ, separation from the world's corrupting influences, and conformity in thought, word, and deed, with the whole person devoted to serving and glorifying God. Such service belongs to the people for whom God has love, joy, peace, and triumph in store, and those who serve in spirit and in truth are promised joy, peace, love, and glorious triumph. Everyone bearing Christ's name is required to be a spiritual worshiper as part of helping bring divine light to the world, made possible through God's provision in the humiliation and death of His Son, and in proclaiming truth His glory is ever to be kept in view by appearing before Him cleansed and purified so He can teach what it is to be laborers together with God as His husbandry and His building.
God and all heaven work to bring the lost back to His service, and Christ's purpose is to bring those who serve in spirit and in truth to His heavenly temple. Worshipers must have hearts brought into harmony with God's plans and be living stones and living souls, fitted by truth and by God for His heavenly temple, reflecting Christ's image, freed from defects of character and undefiled by sin, growing in spiritual character and learning Christ's life-giving lessons rather than copying human ideals or letting human customs and authority control them.
False Worship Exposed
True worship stands in contrast to reverence for images, for even when images are treated only as reminders of the living God they can lead to honoring lifeless objects. Making an image of God is forbidden, and all false worship is spiritual adultery. Images dishonor God and belittle Him in the mind by associating Him with common things. Idolatry is hated because of its corrupting influence, which debases the mind and leads to sensuality and every kind of sin.
The command is to worship and serve the Lord God and Him only. He is a jealous God who will not be trifled with, and He has spoken concerning the manner in which He should be worshiped. As searcher of the heart He distinguishes between true heart-service and idolatry. Worship accepted by Him must be by living, genuine faith and not by imagination.
Every god chosen before the Lord is rejected, including selfish pride lifted up and served as a god, money made a god, and sensuality and base passion not kept under control of the higher powers of the mind. Anything made the subject of undue thought and admiration absorbing the mind is likewise rejected. Spiritual idols, false human theories, systems of maxims and customs, preconceived opinions, and self standing between the soul and God are refused, for they darken spiritual understanding, rob God of honor, and produce religious zeal that is exacting and hard-spirited and separate from others. Worship in truth and humility means not bowing to self or treating cherished personal ways as an idol, especially when they obstruct God's plans.
Worship that is only solemn form, outward ceremony, outward attitudes and signs of devotion, solemnity and formality is insincere when the heart follows idols. Confessing sins without repenting and forsaking them is insincere. Human customs and false theories can obscure God and take the place of trust in Him, turning religion into hard-spirited zeal rather than humble devotion. Gathering for prayer and religious instruction does not by itself make true worshipers, and outward appearances can conceal lack of genuine worship. Being counted among worshipers is not enough unless the heart is brought into harmony with God's plans, for worship is living service of the heart and not merely a round of forms and ceremonies.
Those who serve according to the light they have are regarded with pitying tenderness even when they lack access to His Word and do not yet know the truth, and light will be brought to them and truth revealed in Jesus. True worship gives God back glory instead of keeping silent lips and dumb tongues. It offers pure incense of praise and thanksgiving, talks of God in sanctified holy strains without mingling the common earthly and sensual with the sacred, and shows heaven's fragrance in words, deportment and actions. It sees God in all His created works and grasps and receives the privilege and grace and salvation and truth and righteousness He longs to bestow in rich fullness.
Such worship stands against idolatry, against worship of self mingled with worship of God, and against attention taken up with objects that conceal God from view and deny Him in the life. Amusements and competition that draw people away from watchfulness and prayer can divert devotion toward an idol instead of God. Those who worship in sincerity and truth are accepted by Him, and those who worship inwardly and truthfully are to be met with love, not excluded by bigotry that blocks investigation and growth. Because He is holy, true worship requires His people to be holy, pure and undefiled. In the time when judgments fall on all who transgress His law, those who walk humbly with Him will triumph with holy gladness.
Sincere and true worship means putting away all self-worship and receiving in the heart the love for God and for one another that filled Christ's heart. When His people are so united in divine love, the Father constantly manifests His power through them, and the world recognizes His miracle-working power and acknowledges Him as the Strength and Helper of His commandment-keeping people.
Heaven Joins Earthly Worship
Worship offered on earth in spirit and truth is joined to the worship of heaven. The assemblies of believers on earth are joined with the church in heaven. Heavenly beings attend those assemblies and take interest in their worship. They listen with pleasure to testimonies that exalt God, with prayers, praise and thanksgiving, and join their praise to that of the earthly church in the heavenly anthem. Such worship is offered in the beauty of holiness.
A meeting does not require a minister to preach, for the assembled believers serve God by offering spiritual worship. Each believer can worship by witnessing to the truth and speaking with others about God's love. God acknowledges any place of worship, however humble, when people worship in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness, and to them it becomes as the gate of heaven. The company of such worshipers may be few in number, yet they are very precious in His sight even while still rough, taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world into His workshop to be hewed and shaped, with the ax, hammer and chisel of trial used by a skillful hand not to destroy but to work out perfection in every soul, until as precious stones polished after the similitude of a palace they find a place in the heavenly temple. Though He does not dwell in temples made with hands, He honors the assemblies of His people with His presence and meets with them through His Spirit when they come together to seek Him, acknowledge their sins, and pray for one another.
When God's people assemble, their coming together is of no avail unless they empty their hearts of every evil thing and put away evil. Prayer, praise, gratitude, and recalling His works in assembly are acts of worship, and angels join in them. Such worship drives back Satan's power and pushes aside murmuring and complaints. Worship in spirit and truth is not made unacceptable by humble surroundings, for God may give His Spirit and presence when these are the best His people can provide.
But when people use their means to make their own homes attractive while leaving His worship in a poorer, less convenient place for selfish reasons, they make God secondary and cannot expect His blessing. A house of worship is a place where God's people can gather to offer this worship in holiness, and its dedication is treated as a precious privilege and its services as blessed by God. Singing is part of such worship: it is to come from the spirit and be joined with understanding. Such worship is joined with the beauty of holiness, so those who come before God are to be cleansed and purified, and it includes humility with putting one's will on God's side, rejecting making self an idol and letting nothing cherished stand in the way of His plans.
Mission and Daily Obedience
God is Spirit, so worship is not restricted to or confined by any particular place, mountain, temple, or locality, but must be offered in spirit and in truth wherever worshipers are. True worshipers can therefore worship the Father beyond Jerusalem and throughout the world, because His presence and the working of His Spirit are not limited to one center. For that reason the truth about God is not to be kept in one locality but is to be carried wherever people can be reached, to every place, nation, and region, and to the regions beyond, so that light shines forth. Those who seek to learn and follow truth need not go to one place to worship or receive instruction, for the Father seeks such worshipers everywhere, and the converted soul learns this lesson through explanation of the Word, much prayer, laying hold of Omnipotence, and the Holy Spirit's work upon the heart.
Serving God requires such worship in spirit and in truth, with truth freed from error, superstition, tradition, and human obstruction so that His true character can be seen. Worshiping in this sincere way, guided by truth, makes duty the guiding principle of life. This stands opposite formal and insincere worship of outward attitudes, signs of devotion, solemnity and formality, and confessing sins without repenting and forsaking them, and opposite spiritual idols, false human theories, systems of maxims and customs, preconceived opinions, and self standing between the soul and God, darkening understanding, robbing God of honor, and producing exacting, hard-spirited zeal separate from others. Seventh-day Adventists are to have a record entirely different from that false worship, with enlarged views that let light shine without trying to shine, giving the whole heart in worship in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness. The one who desires to worship in this way desires from the spirit and joined with truth to obey all of God's commandments and to be sanctified through obedience to the truth.