forgot to mention, the above verses ar "King James"
Actually the verse in John says "God is A spirit"... forgot to mention, the above verses ar "King James" ~ Mark Felton
The King James doesn't give a good rendering. For instance, here are a couple (out of many) of items you may want to read regarding the subject:
IS GOD A SPIRIT?
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:WbuXhZfWckIJ:www.nccg.org/141Art-GodSpirit.html+god+a+spirit+%3F&hl=en&lr=&strip=0
[snip]
"..But it says in John 4:24 that 'God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth!'", is the immediate response.
But is that what the text actually says?
God is Spiritual in Nature (John 4:24)
Almost without exception, every translation of John 4:24 leaves the clear impression that God is a spirit -- an immaterial, untouchable Being. But what is the warranty for such a translation? And is not this translation inspired by preconceived doctrine rather than by a proper rendering of the Greek?
The original Greek says pneuma ho theos which literally translated is: "God is spirit", or better still, "God is spiritual in nature", the noun being anarthrous (without the definite article "a").
We know that this is the correct translation because other New Testament passages use the same grammatical construction. 1 John 1:5 is correctly translated as, "God is light" in virtually every Bible version. Similarly, 1 John 4:8 is rendered, "God is love."
But if the translators had followed the faulty translation of John 4:2 which they incorrectly rendered as "God is a spirit", then they ought to have rendered 1 John 1:5 and 1 John 4:8 as: "God is a light", and "God is a species of love", respectively, which does violence to Greek grammar and is plainly nonsense.
The Context of John 4:24
John 4:24 must further be seen in context. Though used almost universally by Christians as a proof text that God is a formless, non-material Spirit Being, these words of Jesus were not given to define God's form or substance but to reveal His spiritual nature. These words were given in reply to a question by a Samartian woman who supposed that the true God could only be worshipped in a Temple of stone and wood. To correct her essentially materialist view of worship, Jesus declared that God the Father, being spiritual by nature, can only be worshipped "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23). Thus true worship does not require physical devices like temples, church buildings, wooden crosses, or any of the apparatus that was used by the Jews in their temple -- true worship is to make contact with God through the spirit in man, for God is Himself spiritual by nature.
There is a real diference between "a spirit" and "spiritual". A man may be spiritual whether he has a physical body or not, because the word defines his nature, not his form or substance. Thus Abraham, who is a spirit in Paradise (the spirit world), is spiritual; but when he was on earth in right relationship with God he was also spiritual. Thus to be spiritual is not to indicate whether the person possesses a physical body or not.
[snip]
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God’s Spirituality by John M. Frame
http://www.frame-poythress.org/frame_articles/spirituality.htm
[snip]
"..We will, of course, have much more to say later about the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity. But in this section I am interested in spirit or spirituality as an attribute of God, as in John 4:24, where Jesus says, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." Here Jesus is, I believe, not referring specifically to the Holy Spirit, but to spirituality as an attribute of the triune God. We shall see, however, that there is a close relation between the qualities of the Holy Spirit and the spirituality of the Triune God. .." [snip]