God Is Spirit "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:24. (The following brief discussion is meant to challenge the reader into a deeper study of the subject. There are far more avenues than I have introduced here.) Here I realize that I tread on sacred ground. I am discussing what the Lord Jesus said about God when he spoke to the woman at the well in John chapter four (4:24). Specifically, I wish to explore here the meaning of the word "spirit," and what we should think of, as opposed to what we do think of, when we hear "spirit." I here discuss spirit under two categories of attributes: Living Existence and Living Glory. The first category not joined with the second category is alive quantitatively but not alive qualitatively. A spirit can be alive in the first category and still be a bad spirit, as with Satan. God is not just in both categories, He includes, supersedes and transcends both categories. Living Existence Attributes Spirit is dynamic, moving, happening, and present. Spirit is powerful and causing. Spirit is alive, aware, and speaking. Spirit is relational, socially structured, and communal. Living Glory Attributes Spirit is sacrificial--all wise and all powerful Spirit is creative and redemptive. Spirit is loving, faithful and providing. Spirit is reigning to effect harmonious realization of individual purpose. Spirit is transformational, sanctifying, and glorifying. Spirit is just, righteous, and true. Spirit is theraputic to worship.
In the maturing "worship in spirit," all of the Living Existence Attributes are growing and progressing toward perfection as Living Glory Attributes. This is because the Spirit of God includes all and more of the Living Existence Attributes in perfect union with the Living Glory Attributes, transcending space and time, and yet has created us in space and time to glorify him.. God wishes for us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. "To worship" means to confess or make apparent the worth of.... So in order to worship God I have to proclaim His worth by loving as He loves, seeking to be the dynamic means of all that God has created me to be to reflect Him: wisdom, redemption, grace, mercy, justice, patience, faith, and hope, to name some of His Living Glory Attributes. When the Lord said "spirit," he was not saying God is "a see-through thing without dimensions," as opposed to an idol; he was saying that God is dynamic, living, and possessing the reality that we only know, as we observe him in his creation, remember the acts of God in Israel, in Jesus his Son, and experience him in the presence of his indwelling Holy Spirit who has given us his life, his Living Glory Attributes.
We do not worship, because we are not loving, not sacrificial, not just, not sanctifying, not giving, not righteous, not redemptive, not patient, not generous, not merciful, and not faithful. We may raise our hands, we may close our eyes, we may speak in tongues, we may sing the music, all seeking to find the reward of the blessing that comes only from worshiping in the spirit of God or worshiping God in the Spirit. And it may come, but only as the graceful wreath to the broken, weary runner whose feet have stumbled toward finding the prize of the cross. But we ought not expect the prize to be any more than the plastic toy in the Cracker Jacks box, when we have chosen to be spectators instead of sons. |