I came across this article by Sam Storms from 2020, which The Gospel Coalition reposted today.
In Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well, Jesus tells her that true worshipers must “worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). What does that mean? Storms’ answer is that, basically, this means true worshipers must worship from the heart with genuine love and gratitude (“in spirit”), and that this heart-response must be elicited by true revelation from God (“in truth”). In short, true worship is a subjective, heartfelt response to objective truth. He notes that “in spirit” may also be a reference to the Holy Spirit (so really, “in Spirit” with a capital S), but this boils down to essentially the same thing, as he says “It’s the Holy Spirit who stirs us to celebrate and rejoice and give thanks.” This is how I typically hear Jesus’ words explained.
I don’t think this is what Jesus is getting at.
For one thing, what Jesus is talking about with “Spirit and truth” is something new. He tells the woman that “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth” (v. 23). The need to for heartfelt devotion in worship in accord with God’s revelation is something that was always required of God’s people and wouldn’t represent a significant change (Deuteronomy 4:6; Isaiah 29:13). But worship “in Spirit and truth” is something brought about with the advent of Jesus.
Second, Storms sets “in spirit” in contrast with something like coldness or dead formalism, and “in truth” in contrast with falsehood or heresy. But there is no such contrast in the passage. Jesus makes his claim about true worshipers in response to the woman’s question about the proper location of worship—the Jerusalem temple, or Mt. Gerizim, the site of Samaritan devotion. Worship “in Spirit and truth” is actually being set against old covenant forms. It’s the same contrast that has already shown up in John’s gospel, for example:
“The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
And,
“Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up… But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:19-21).
This movement from old covenant shadows to the reality in Christ is present throughout the gospel. What Jesus is telling the Samaritan woman is that in he himself, the Messianic giver of the living water of the Spirit and the Truth to which the Law of Moses and the temple cult pointed, has come. It isn’t a statement about the worshiper’s subjective attitude, or about the theological accuracy of our song lyrics.
Worship in Spirit and truth is what is described in detail in Hebrews 8-10, where the ministry of Christ in the true tabernacle in heaven is set against the Levitical system and the earthly tabernacle, copies of the heavenly realities. Concerning all this, the author of Hebrews says “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19-22). Of course the subjective attitude of the worshiper is important—we are called to a confident and assured faith. But what has changed, the change to which Jesus points the Samaritan woman, is that in worship we now come by the Spirit to the heavenly Jerusalem and to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that secures redemption (Hebrews 12:18-24).
Actually, if there is a subjective element to worship “in the Spirit” (and Storms does acknowledge this) it has less to do with the worshiper’s personal attitude, and more to do with the Holy Spirit’s direct, even charismatic empowering. This was the worship experience of the early church (1 Corinthians 12-14; Galatians 3:5; Ephesians 5:18-20). And it’s worth pointing out that the Spirit’s empowering presence will not necessarily take the form of “charismatic” gifts like tongues or prophecy (but I see no reason to rule those out). The manifestation of love as the Spirit’s fruit is more important and enduring (1 Corinthians 13:1-13), and love is what testifies to the reality of the work of Christ in the church. Our endless failures in this regard, by the way, are always the church’s greatest “apologetics” challenge, because without a love and unity that is clear to the world, we sacrifice our best God-given means of credibility (John 17:20-23).
Worship “in Spirit and truth” therefore means 1) worship empowered by the Holy Spirit who has been poured out to the church; and 2) access to the heavenly Jerusalem, the true Mt. Zion, by way of the blood of the New Covenant and the redemptive realities (Truth) to which the Law of Moses only pointed.
*Image from Dana Murray under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.