Worshipping the Lord in “SPIRIT AND TRUTH”
Last month when I worshipped the Lord in a church, I heard many people worshipping the Lord by saying, ‘Lord, we worship You in spirit and truth’. Hundreds of times I have used these same words to worship the Lord. But last month I began to wonder what is meant by worshipping the Lord in spirit and truth. In the service, I took a decision to find out the meaning of the phrase ‘spirit and truth’. Some people think that worshipping the Lord in the spirit is worshipping God in the Holy Spirit. Some others consider worshipping the Lord in the spirit as praying to the Lord in other tongues because they believe that praying in the spirit is praying in an unknown tongue.
To understand the meaning of the term, let us study the passage where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:23,24. He told the Samaritan woman, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The deep study of this passage and the meaning of the Greek words used in this verse for ‘spirit’ and ‘truth’ would throw light on the meaning of worshipping the Lord in spirit and in truth.
Worshipping the Lord in spirit: This verse clearly states the nature of God. It says that God
is Spirit, which means that God is invisible and does not have a physical or material nature like man. So anyone who worships God must worship Him with an understanding that he is worshipping a God, who is Spirit. In the phrase, ‘in spirit and truth’, the word ‘spirit’ does not refer to the Holy Spirit but it refers to the human spirit. So this verse does not call people to worship God in the Holy Spirit as some people teach. But, it says that when one worships God, his worship must be internal (in the spirit), since he is worshipping God who is Spirit. Outward religious rituals and practices must be avoided in worship since God is Spirit.
Worshipping God in truth: Jesus said that our worship must be in truth. The Greek word for truth used in this passage is ‘aletheia’. It means true, and is derived from the word ‘alethes’ which literally means ‘to take notice.’ So Jesus says two things in this verse.
First, Jesus says here that God is looking for His children to literally ‘take notice of the truth’ which is revealed in the Scriptures and worship Him as per the teachings of the Scriptures. So our worship should be grounded in truth. The more we know God and His truth, the deeper will be our worship. Our worship must never be based on anything except the truth of God.
Those who worship solely for experience, or to be noticed, or to gain recognition, or for tradition sake are not worshipping God in the truth. Secondly, Jesus Christ says in this verse that we should recognise who He is and what He has done to us in our worship time and thank Him for his greatness and for the spiritual blessings that we have received from Him. Bro. Lawrence in his book, The Practice of the Presence of God wrote, “To worship God in truth is to recognize … that God is what He is, that is to say, infinitely perfect, infinitely to be adored, infinitely removed from evil and thus with every attribute divine. Our God is our Creator, Sustainer and our Saviour. We would have lived a hopeless life without Him. He is worthy of our praise, thanksgiving and adoration. Hence let us worship God from the bottom of our hearts with reverence ‘in spirit and truth.’ May the Lord help each one of us to worship Him considering Him as Spirit and worship Him as per the truth revealed in the Scriptures.
(Dr. C. Barnabas, taken from True Discipleship, October 1999)