“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

Worship is a word that has different shades of meaning and is somewhat nuanced. Young people worship rock stars—we understand what that means. They have posters in their bedroom, go to all their concerts, have their songs at the top of their playlists, and wear their t-shirts. When a fellow is madly in love with a girl, we get it when someone says he worships the ground she walks on.

In Christian living, worship is something we direct toward God. Singing “worship songs” may be a vehicle for expressing worship, but that is not synonymous with it. For when Jacob blessed his grandsons (the sons of Joseph), Scripture says, “By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff” (Heb. 11:21). Whatever worship is, it can be done while using a crutch!

Worship does not require warm, spiritual feelings of God’s presence. Nor is it always a somber moment of quiet reflection. All these things may occur, but they may be the results or attendants to worship, not its essence. Why is this an issue to raise? Too often, we find ourselves chasing after a feeling, as the Jews chased after signs and the Greeks chased after wisdom (1 Cor. 1:22-23).

When Jesus met a Gentile woman focused on the external proximity of worship, He confronted her with a new way of worshipping that was not based on a particular physical location. His claim broke all the customs of that day and so also of today. Jesus said it is the character of worship that is important; however we worship, Jesus said: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

We must be careful not to assume what spirit or truth is, but we can be assured that it is Christ-directed, not self-directed. It is an activity of the heart, soul, and body directed toward Christ, not ourselves. We are the givers of worship; He is the receiver. He judges whether our worship is acceptable and on what basis. He doesn’t look at whether we are enjoying worship but whether we are enjoying Him. There is an enormous and profound difference.

An analogy may help here. I may love the feeling of being in love, or I may love the person who is the object of my love. The essence of genuine love is not that I enjoy being loved but loving the other person. When I say that I have found love, do I mean I found someone who makes me feel loved, or have I found someone I can actively love and sacrifice for? There is an enormous difference.

Likewise, worship is not the experience I feel when worshipping God, but the movement of my heart and soul toward God, with my attention, adoration, and praise going upward to Him. If we feel something, that is fine, but that is not the goal. In worship, we put God on the throne; we examine Him and reflect back to Him what we have discovered of His character. In this, we cannot help but praise Him and express with our whole being how worthy He is. That is worship in spirit and truth.

Nowhere better do we see the worthiness of God than in the expression of His character in the magnifying glass of Jesus’ death on the cross. The pinnacle of who God is, He displayed in Jesus. The apostle John foretold about this when he wrote, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). The Greek word “exegesato,” translated as “explained” is where we get our word exegesis from. Jesus interprets God for us, revealing who God is through His teachings and even more so in His dying, where He acted out the multifaceted character of God. The writer of Hebrews tells us:

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high …. (Heb. 1:3)

It’s all there, in truth and in spirit. So to worship God, we worship Jesus, for in Him all the fullness of Deity dwelled (Col. 1:19, 2:9). Every attribute of God is seen on the cross, like a prism that shines the light while separating out the individual hues. As we contemplate Christ, we are contemplating God in His finest! As we do this, we can’t help but worship Him!

Lord, I renew my commitment to worship you in spirit and in truth.