Posted on 10/05/2025 2:08:44 AM PDT by metmom
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in 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 an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” John 4:19–23
Having been convicted of her sin and need for forgiveness, and having repented and agreed with Jesus’ indictment, the Samaritan woman wondered where she should go to meet God and seek His grace and salvation.
Jesus explains that under the new covenant, the place of worship is not the issue, but rather the nature of worship. “An hour is coming,” Jesus informed the woman, “and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. “Spirit” does not refer to the Holy Spirit but the human spirit. Worship must be internal, not external—it must be from the heart. “Truth” calls for this heart worship to be consistent with what Scripture teaches and to be centered on Christ.
True worshipers are those who “worship the Father in spirit and truth.” It is “such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” by sovereignly drawing them to Himself (6:44, 45). God has called you to worship Him. Make sure your worship is genuine.
Ask Yourself
What is so empty and uninspiring about worship that fails to engage the heart, worship that is mouthed and measured rather than done like you mean it?
Then why do we resort to it so often?
Why are we duped into believing that the object of our distraction is more worthy than the rightful recipient of our praise?
Studying God’s Word ping
I've got to disagree with that, I say the spirit refers to the Holy Spirit, I'm not much for arguing scripture in this case because I got a bad memory. But taking the Total Depravity (or as it's lesser know name Total Inability) you would have to come to the conclusion that unless the Holy Spirit enters a man heart and circumcises it he can not come to God. Now we can argue that God the Father, or Jesus is the one that turns the heart of Stone into a heart of flesh, and the Holy Spirit enters into the man later. I'm willing to accept that but my Gut feeling is it is one of the first steps in the Ordo Salutis (Order of Salvation). I tend to believe that when the women at the well went off to tell the towns folk that she had meet the Messiah she did that because at that point the Holy Spirit had already enter her and had change her life. I kind of also believe that God didn't give the Disciples/Apostles the Holy Spirit until the Day of Pentecost but I may be wrong about that. If so then it would only show that just because some one has the knowledge of Jesus Christ doesn't mean that they are saved, they had the ability to preach about Jesus Christ but didn't have the heart to really preach about him. It wasn't until your post that I thought about this, It just the way John MacArthur said it that caught me eye and got me thinking for a few seconds.
I'm really surprised John MacArthur taught this if my theological assumptions are correct. I stopped following John MacArthur many decades ago as I saw him inconsistent in a few things like this. If your one that follows him, I would encourage you to continue in following him, I've even thought many times over the years of going back to attempt to learn some more from him, but I decided that their was other men more worthy of following theologically.
Thanks for your observations.
I’m not exactly a follower of him but find his devotionals generally solid in spite of a few points of disagreement.
Course, there’s not a person I agree with completely on everything in this entire world to I take what I can get and leave the rest to God.
FWIW, I think the use of the word *spirit* could, as with much of Scripture, mean both the human spirit and the Holy Spirit.
God wants our worship from the heart, not through empty ritual and religious practice where we can go through the motions with our minds being a million miles away.
And yet, indeed true worship cannot happen without the move of the Holy Spirit in our lives. A dead person cannot worship.
Metmom -
I agree with you - it can be both, and no man can conclusively say it is one or the other. But the spirit is alive only in believers. And our spirit is one with the Holy Spirit. Not equal to Him, but one with Him.
Another note on this verse: 95+ % of Christians still erroneously believe worship is in a PLACE (and TIME). They go to a place to worship. Buildings are still called “house of worship” when there no longer is such a thing. * (PS: find a “worship service” in the NT. You cannot. It is a creation of man.)
Our Lord declared the end of worship is in a place in His earthly life in this passage.
True worship - in spirit and truth (NOT “in spirit and in truth” - it is one thing, not two) - is a continual part of the life of every true believer, all through the day. Any time, anywhere.
And when is the Lord present? In organized meetings called and set by others? No, “where ever two or three are gathered in my Name, there I am in the midst.”
I’ll also state that there is usually very little worship in what is called a “worship service”. It is mostly other stuff.
They are mis-named.
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