“Yet the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

In the John 4 narrative, after recognizing Jesus as a prophet, the Samaritan woman asked him which was the proper place of worship: The mount in Samaria or the one in Jerusalem. Christ explained to her that God had designated Jerusalem as the correct location. However, Jesus used this conversation to introduce a more acceptable way of worship and to indicate the old way was undergoing a change. The Jew, under the law, had been taught that the way of worship was through various washings, ceremonies, and sacrifices. Being under the covenant which Moses mediated, these proceedings were necessary to keep the nation of Israel in a relationship with God.

However, these ceremonies and the mechanical obedience to the law is not what God desired for the psalmist wrote, “Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would give them, nor do you desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A broken and chastened heart, God, you will not despise.” (Psalms 51:16-17) 

Jesus expressed an important fact about God. He said, “God is a spirit,” explaining that God is not contained between four walls of a temple or any other building. Nor is He restricted to a specific location such as a city or mountain top. Those who truly desire to worship God must transform their thinking from worldly and fleshly to spiritual. This can only be done when we turn our thoughts and actions toward learning and obeying the word of God. 

The spirit of love and obedience is the worship God seeks. This worship is not restricted to a time or place, but it must be an ever dwelling and vibrant spirit in our daily lives. Having this spirit will bring us to love God with our whole being and to love others as ourselves. Mark 12:32-33 (ESV), 32 “And the scribe said to him (Jesus), ‘…to love him (God) with all the heart (spirit) and with all the understanding (truth) and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.’”