Aug 1996 - Q & A

When speaking to the Samaritan woman the lord said '...the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth' (John 4:23). What is the meaning and significance of the phrase 'in spirit and truth'?

When the Lord said to the woman of Samaria, 'The hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father' it might have seemed to her that the Speaker was announcing that worship of God was to cease. The Lord was, in fact, looking beyond the dispensation which was then drawing to a close and was indicating what would be characteristic of worship in the new dispensation soon to open up. In the past there had been the material house of God and its extensive ritual of service which gave a special emphasis to physical features and which, as a shadowy outline of good things to come, contained much that was typical and foreshadowing. In the new dispensation, shadow would give place to substance and that which was typical would give way to truth.

The word 'truth' in the New Testament does not necessarily describe truth as apposed to falsehood. Very frequently it refers to substance as opposed to shadow and outline. In the new dispensation the true worshippers would enjoy the operation of the Spirit of God on their spirits, enlightening them and enabling them in spirit to draw near to God. This drawing near would bring them into the holies and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man. 'Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us' (Heb. 9:24). When speaking to the woman Christ foretold the withdrawal of the shadowy, and the establishment of the true, the substantial, the perfect.

unknown | Aug 1996
Question And Answer