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"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24
We have been looking at what Jesus said about worship in just one place in the New Testament, John Chapter 4, and one of the things he said is that worship must be ... in truth. In spirit and in truth.
The original word for truth (in Greek, alĖtheia) did not simply mean conforming to the facts, or, in other words, being accurate. It does include that meaning, but it is a much larger sphere. 'AlĖtheia' means what is real, as opposed to what is unreal. So, for worship to be acceptable, it must be real, that is, genuine - 'the real macoy'.It is no use praying for God's forgiveness if you are clinging to that grudge; no use singing glorious hymns if your heart is harbouring hatred; no point in saying 'Thy will be done' if you haven't the slightest intention of actually obeying God's commands.Unreality destroys worship, and reduces it to ridiculous hypocrisy.
For worship to be real there has to be genuine commitment to the real God, and not to some idol of our own making, like a Disney-type little god who doesn't mind anything providing we have done our miserable little best. 'Get real', people say, to those who are living in their own little dream world. So does Jesus.
Reality in worship means that the offering of your body, your mind and soul, to God includes your sex nature, your ambition, your pride, your money, all to be harnessed by his spirit. It means the commitment of what we are in our unreal fantasy-making, self-excusing, self-glorifying little lives to the true and great reality of God. ONLY GOD IS REAL so to worship at all, worship must be real - in truth in fact.
A Prayer:
Come Spirit of God:restore the lives which, without you are dead.Kindle the hearts which,without you are cold. Enlighten the minds which, without you are blind and fill your people, the church, which, without you is an empty
shrine.
Now read Isaiah Chapter 46 (which begins with the Babylonian gods being loaded on cattle-driven carts!)
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