How do we worship in spirit and truth?

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John 4:24

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”


How do we worship God in Spirit and truth? The answer to this question is often presented as a mystery. However, there is nothing mysterious about God nor what he requires us to do. We worship HIM in truth by keeping his commandments; walking in truth is as simple as that. We worship HIM in Spirit by allowing the commandments we keep to change our minds and heart and improve our behavior. The Messiah said in the book of Matthew 22:37-40 the two greatest commandments that Moses first announced in Exodus 20:1-17 were to love God with all our hearts, soul, and might, and then to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The second greatest commandments were said to be of equal value. 

 

In John. 14:15, he said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments. Verse 21 tells us the benefit, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Keeping the commandments is how we love God in truth. 

 

As we practice loving others, we demonstrate love, temperance, goodness, kindness, and other fruit of God's Spirit. Trust God and trust him during storms and challenges and when things appear wrong. These are opportunities for our faith, patience, and longsuffering fruits of the Spirit to grow. Let your countenance be uplifted through the storm. It is a choice the children of Israel did not make while in the wilderness. God tried to prove they were worthy of his blessings, and as laid out in Psalm 78, they failed miserably. 

 

Verse 36 says they flattered him with their lips. They promised to keep his commandments but did not. He delivered them from countless troubles, but they still refused to trust him. They witnessed his great power first-hand, yet they tempted him with their distrust, according to verses 56-58. Sadly, in verse 59, he said he abhorred Israel. Abhorred is a strong word. It means he rejected them. They were then unwanted and loathed. After all, he did for them, verse 32 says, they refused to believe his wondrous works no matter what he did for them. They made choices that we can learn from. He tried to teach them to grow in the Spirit, but they refused repeatedly. We do not need to do that. Instead of looking at our troubles as sources of anxiety and depression, allow them to be opportunities to grow in the Spirit of his truth and his love for you. He sees us worshipping his Spirit when we display his fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such, there is no law."


"Against such here is no law." Does that mean the law of God is no more, that we do not have to keep it?  No, how else can we worship in truth? These fruits are the ultimate evidence of one keeping God's commandments, and there is no law keeping us from growing in these fruits. These divine character traits exemplify God's divine nature, which will get us into his house and kingdom. These godly traits are an extension of worshipping God in truth. Keeping the commandments is how we walk in the Spirit of God. Behaving so people can see God's traits, the fruit of his Spirit in us, is how we worship him in Spirit. Because Israel failed to keep the first greatest commandment and never learned to grow in the second greatest by worshipping God in the Spirit of the law, we should exhibit that by how the fruits of God's Spirit produce in us. How do we walk in Spirit, which some call walking spiritually? We walk biblically, relying on what is true, living by the fruit of the spirit, and walking in his Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1. We walk with The Father and His Son, the Word of God. We walk in a way that we become better Ambassadors of Christ. "Now then we are ambassadors of Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20.  We are representatives of God by our daily walk in with His Word. 


Paul wrote to the Galatians because they missed the matters that were weightier in the law as most of the Israelites around them, the Pharisees, who were the teachers of the law, did not show that light in either their teaching or their behavior. Romans chapter 2 explains how some people exhibit these fruits naturally while others do not. If walking in the law and its Spirit of it is unnatural for some, we are to grow in it by practising the Spirit of the law intentionally. If it is natural, as explained in Romans, then we are to still grow in the Spirit. The goal is to be better today than we were yesterday, every day. How personal worshipping in Spirit and truth? 

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