Worship in Spirit and in Truth

“The true worshipers will be worshiping the Father by means of Spirit and Truth.” This sentence “[h]as commonly been taken to mean that God, being Spirit, is present everywhere and can be worshiped anywhere; the important thing is not where men worship, but how they worship.… [However, it] means the precise opposite; it means that God is present in his own realm, to which man as such has no access. To worship God in spirit is not a possibility that is always and everywhere open to man.… But this is just the gospel of Christ, that this possibility has now been opened to men.… The meaning is that the location has been redefined, and God is now to be worshiped in the place where he is present, i.e., in Him who is the truth incarnate [Jesus Christ].” G. S. Hendry, The Holy Spirit in Christian Theology, 31, in Leon Morris, John, 272 n. 62

Bruner, F. D. (2012). The Gospel of John: A Commentary (p. 259). Grand Rapids, MI;Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans.

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About PaulVK

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1 Response to Worship in Spirit and in Truth

  1. In Jn. 14:6 Jesus is indeed the truth; no one comes to the Father except through him. And in Jn. 14-16 Jesus is preparing his disciples for his return to the Father; he tells them after he returns, his Father (and he himself) will give the disciples another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who will teach them and help them remember Jesus’ (words of) truth, and enable them to be his witnesses (to the truth) (Jn. 14:16-17,26; 15:26-27; 16:7-15).
    Thus the “new location” for worship is now the Spirit of truth. Wherever the Spirit is speaking the truth (about Jesus, the truth) in and through disciples is where true worship happens. Now disciples must worship in (the) Spirit and in truth.

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