worship the Father in spirit and truth

My Sunday Scripture 2011.3.27

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The Text John 4:5-42
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5 On the way he came to the Samaritan town called Sychar near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink.'

8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?' -- Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans.

10 Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.

11 'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered, 'and the well is deep: how do you get this living water?

12 Are you a greater man than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?'

13 Jesus replied: Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again;

14 but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life.

15 'Sir,' said the woman, 'give me some of that water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.'

16 'Go and call your husband,' said Jesus to her, 'and come back here.'

17 The woman answered, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right to say, "I have no husband";

18 for although you have had five, the one you now have is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.'

19 'I see you are a prophet, sir,' said the woman.

20 'Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, though you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.'

21 Jesus said: Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews.

23 But the hour is coming -- indeed is already here -- when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks.

24 God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.

25 The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah -- that is, Christ -- is coming; and when he comes he will explain everything.'

26 Jesus said, 'That is who I am, I who speak to you.'


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My Reading Notes:
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Jesus had talked about "Truth" in different places. One is here, and the other is about baptism. John said that when the Messiah comes, the Mesiah will baptise us with "The holy spirit and fire"

And these are highly symbolic terms:

We shall worship God in "spirit" and "truth"
and We shall be baptised with "spirit" and "fire"

What is "Fire"? and What is "Truth"?

I can only say, I have but a very vague feeling in it. And I believe this is the most important point.

How are we to worship God?
Shall we do as the Scripts and Pharisee?
Shall we knelt in the churches without knowing what we are and where we are going?
Or, Shall we seek an answer? Shall we seek the truth? With the help of the spirit?

I believe we shall seek the truth. That is the proper way to worship God.