Author's Preface
1. Accepting Or Uniting
   
2. Who Is A Christian?
   
3. "Why Don't You Leave The Church of Christ?"
   
4. The Iniquity Of The Fathers
   
5. Our Judicial System
   
6. "You Are My People Now"
   
7. Serving "Otherwise Than As Prescribed"
   
8. Does Baptize Really Mean To Immerse
   
9. Our Relationship Through Baptism
   
10. Those Gospel Meetings
    
11. A Prelude To Worship
    
12. Worshipping In Spirit And Truth
    
13. The Forbidden Prayer
    
14. "I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray"
    
15. Communion Prayers
    
16. Communion With Bread, Wine, And Money
    
17. Thursday Is The Lord's Day Too!
    
18. Not Forsaking The Assembly
    
19. Acts 20:7 One More Time
    
20. Our Father Who Art Where?
    
21. Does Nature Reveal God's Love
    
22. Copyrighted: All Rights Reserved
    
23. Don't Pour Water On Them
    
24. The Remaining Restriction For Women
    
25. Some Questions About Revelation
    
26. Must One Fully Repent Before Baptism?
    
27. Nicodemus In Context
    
28. Our Respected Myths Of Religion
    
29. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

Jesus informed the Samaritan woman that God wants mankind to worship him "in spirit and truth." What does that mean?

In our search for a clear understanding of what Jesus said, let us consider the setting again. The context is John 4. In Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well, the old question surfaced as to which worship was authentic, that of the Jews or Samaritans.

Who were these Samaritans? After Jeroboam divided the kingdom, Samaria became the capital of the Kingdom of Israel which consisted of ten tribes of Israel. Through succeeding generations, the people became increasingly idolatrous and corrupt. In 722 B.C. God allowed Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, to capture them and take the people away into captivity. He repopulated the land with Assyrians. Because these new inhabitants were ravaged by wild beasts, they assumed that they had offended the god of the land. So a captive priest was sent to teach "how they should fear the Lord." Thus, along with their own gods, they also feared God and were instructed from the Pentateuch.

Generations later, as Judah returned from captivity and began to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans wanted to help. Their help was refused. That further inflamed longfelt animosities. A man named Manasseh, of priestly lineage in Judah, married a Samaritan and was expelled by Nehemiah about 432 B.C. He went to Samaria and became high priest of a temple built on Mt. Gerizim and there the Samaritans offered sacrifices of the Law. In their nationalistic zeal they claimed that both their temple and their copy of the Law were greater than those at Jerusalem. On the other hand, Jewish animosity was so entrenched that a traveler went around Samaria on his journey from Judea to Galilee.

Presumably authorized by the Law, two mutually exclusive religions centered on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem and Mt. Gerizim in Samaria, only a few miles apart. Sounds modern, doesn't it? In their attempts to keep the rituals of Moses, the Jews and Samaritans differed. The Samaritan woman was eager to learn which side was right. So, as soon as she became convinced that Jesus was a prophet, she put that question to him. Although Jesus assured her that salvation was of the Jews, he did not let their dispute be the issue.

As related by John, "The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men 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 now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth'" (John 4:1924).

Jesus gave that sinful woman a startling revelation. The time had come, he told her, when worship would be centered in neither of those localities, but true worshipers would worship in spirit and truth. But what does it mean to worship in spirit and truth?

The most common attempt to answer this question reveals our sad misdirection in legalism, patternism, and ritualism. It urges that we must worship according to truth; that is, we must be cautious to discern and keep the specific details and pattern of each of the ritualistic "five acts of worship" in weekly assemblies. And we must go through these forms with meditation, mood, and feeling (though not exhibited too exuberantly!) that supposedly lifts them above mere rituals. It becomes ritual and emotion by command and demand.

In each locality they were ritually sacrificing fleshly, earthly offerings that only pictured the truth. They offered the prescribed ritual sacrifices of the Law in order to gain God's expressed forgiveness, but these things could only depict in type and shadow what would be fulfilled in Christ. Although truth from the Books of Moses was involved in guiding their actions, they were not worshiping in truth. Whatever thing was offered, it only anticipated fulfillment in Christ who is the true passover lamb, sin offering, scapegoat, firstfruits, etc. depicted in their symbolic ceremonies.

In contrast to God sending a code of law, "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." He was "full of grace and truth." He is the Truth, the fulfillment of the rituals and shadows, the forms and types, through which both Jew and Samaritan sought to approach God. Happily, our approach to God in relationship and worship is in Him, the Truth, not through another law but a Person.

God, being spirit, is not localized in manmade temples, and his worship is spiritual communion rather than ritual, in the heart rather than from a literal altar. No longer would the Temple visit bring the disciple into the Presence, for he is a temple himself with the Spirit of God within him. The Temple priest is superseded by the priesthood of the believer. The truth has fulfilled all that foreshadowed it.

Now, Jesus was affirming, acceptable worship no longer depends upon regulated expressions at certain places or specified times. There are no holy altars, rituals, and sacraments but sanctified persons who are temples of his Spirit and whose hearts are holy altars offering continual sacrifice. Our worship/praise is thought, lived, spoken, and sung as a response to our consciousness of God's infinite qualities, his indwelling, and his love. We exchanged symbolic rituals for a wholelife spiritual relationship in which we seek to honor him in every thought and action. We worship him in truth and in spirit, that is, truly and spiritually, through the dedication of our inner selves to God in Christ.

Jesus was not pointing the Samaritan woman to assemblies and "five acts of worship," another system regulated by law like the one her question was about. He did not bring us into bondage to another set of demanded rituals, but he liberated our spirits to serve and praise in his presence at all times and in every place.

Our temple fires never go out.