Lesson 7: In Spirit and in Truth, part 2


Philippians 3:3 - For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

“God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” The first thought suggested here by the Master is that there must be harmony between God and His worshipers; such as God is, His worshiper must be. This is according to a principle which prevails throughout the universe: we look for correspondence between an object and the organ to which it reveals or yields itself. The eye has an inner fitness for the light, the ear for sound. The man who would truly worship God, who would find and know and possess and enjoy God, must be in harmony with Him, and must have a capacity for receiving Him. Because God is Spirit, we must worship in spirit. As God is, so His worshiper.



And what does this mean? The woman had asked our Lord whether Samaria or Jerusalem was the true place of worship. He answers that from now on worship is no longer to be limited to a certain place: “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.” As God is Spirit, not bound by space or time, but in His infinite perfection always and everywhere the same, so His worship would no longer be confined by place or form, but spiritual as God Himself is spiritual. A lesson of deep importance. How much our Christianity suffers from this, that it is confined to certain times and places. A man who seeks to pray earnestly in the church or in the closet, spends the greater part of the week or the day in a spirit entirely at variance with that in which he prayed. His worship was the work of a fixed place or hour, not of his whole being. God is a spirit: He is the Everlasting and Unchangeable One; what He is, He is always and in truth. Our worship must even so be in spirit and truth: His worship must be the spirit of our life; our life must be worship in spirit as God is Spirit.

“God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” The second thought that comes to us is that this worship in the spirit must come from God Himself. God is Spirit: He alone has Spirit to give. It was for this He sent His Son, to fit us for such spiritual worship, by giving us the Holy Spirit. It is of His own work that Jesus speaks when He says twice, “The hour comes,” and then adds, “and is now.” He came to baptize with the Holy Spirit; the Spirit could not stream forth till He was glorified (John 1:33, 7:37-38, 12:7). We continue in the next lesson.

Prayer: Blessed Lord, I come determined to stay at Your feet in worship so You may teach me how to remain here always, in concert with Your Spirit as a worshiper and as one united with You in Your kingdom’s work of prayer.