Jesus and True Worship

Deuteronomy 8:11-14; 18-20; Isaiah 40:30, 31; Mark 12:28-34

GOLDEN TEXT: “God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”—John 4:24

“GOD is a Spirit”; that is, a Spirit being, invisible and incomprehensible to our very limited, finite minds. Limitations of the human mind in its efforts to understand the true nature of the Creator, plus lack of faith in that which cannot be seen with the natural eye, have led to all sorts of crude conceptions of deity. The vast majority of the human race; have solved the problem of their unbelief by erecting one or another kind of idol. Seemingly almost anything in the shape of an idol has sufficed to serve as a tangible object upon which the eyes could focus, or the hands touch.

From the position of demanding a wooden or metallic image to represent God, others have gone to the opposite extreme by claiming that there is no personal God at all; that God means “good,” and that every good principle or thought or object is just that much of God. Few, indeed, have been those able to accept the great truth set forth in the Bible that there is a personal God, a Supreme Being, who is the great First Cause of all creation and in whom we “live and move and have our being”; and that this Almighty God is a Spirit, dwelling on a plane of life high above the human, and far beyond the full comprehension of our finite minds.

In dealing with his typical people Israel, God gave them various tangible arrangements through which they served and worshiped him. This was particularly true with respect to the tabernacle and its services. But on various occasions, through Moses and the other prophets, God reminded the Israelites that the visible and material arrangements accompanying their worship were relatively unimportant as compared with their heart devotion to him. They were called upon, for example, to offer sacrifices of various kinds, but these were meaningless unless they were the reflection of their true heart worship. To King Saul the prophet said, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”—I Sam. 15:22

God had a wise purpose in connection with the tabernacle and the temple, and the many sacrifices offered in connection with the services therein performed. They were all types, pointing forward to better things to come. (Heb. 8:5; 10:1) At the close of the Jewish age the due time arrived for the antitype of these things to become manifested, hence the various material forms of worship were to pass away for those who could exercise faith in the grander, although intangible, realities of the new age.

No longer was there to be any question as to just where, or by what particular form of words or deeds, Jehovah was to be worshiped. Places and things had a measure of importance during the typical age, but it was to be no longer so. As our Golden Text indicates, the time had come in Jesus’ day when the worship of God was to be put entirely upon a basis of faith. Now the true God was to be worshiped, not by performing ceremonial rites, but, as Jesus said, “In spirit and in truth.”

Had the Jews as a people profited by the training which had been offered to them under the law covenant arrangements, they would have been prepared for this important step forward to a higher form of worship. But, under the faulty leadership of their rulers, they had missed the real point of the ceremonies which they performed. To their leaders Jesus said: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”—Matt. 23:23

To worship God in “spirit and in truth” means to worship him from the heart and with a measure of understanding concerning him and his will for us. When Paul visited Athens, he found, among the many idols of worship which they had erected, one ascribed “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” In their hearts was a feeling that despite all the various gods which they worshiped there might be one unknown to them. Their hearts went out to this god, and perhaps in a truer spirit of devotion than to the idols which represented gods they professed to know. But not until Paul made the true God known to them, and what his purpose was toward the human race, could any of these Athenians worship him in “truth,” and in the fullness of the “spirit.” True worship of God is based upon understanding—not necessarily a perfect understanding, but a, knowledge of the divine plan, and a reasonably clear mental grasp of the place God has for us in his plan. And it also includes proper service rendered to him.

Too often the worship of God is looked upon as something to fall back upon in times of adversity. It is true that we need God more at such times; but we also need him in prosperity. And, remembering that all we have comes from God, it is particularly pleasing to him when, in the true spirit of devotion, we inquire, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? … I will pay my vows unto the Lord.”—Psalm 116:12-14

QUESTIONS:

Why is it difficult for many to worship the true God?

What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth?

What should be our attitude toward God in times of prosperity as well as in times of adversity?

| Home Page | Table of Contents |