GOD IS SPIRIT
To the woman of Samaria Jesus said God
is Spirit. (John 4:24) There is no record in the New Testament of any other
essential and final declaration concerning God the Father from the lips of Jesus. In the
declaration there are two values: the word God suggested Being, and in some
sense of the word—more wonderful than we can comprehend—personality; and the word Spirit suggested the nature of the
personality, Spirit being free from the
limitation of space and time.
Let the context illuminate the
declaration. Our Lord made the statement, not to a Jew, but to a Samaritan; not
to a man, but to a woman; not to a fair and beautiful woman, but to a sinning
woman; and He uttered the truth in order to teach that woman that ultimately,
when men knew and understood, when His own work was completed, worship would be
possible anywhere, no one place and no one method being necessary; no longer in
Jerusalem, nor in this mountain, but wherever the worshiper is, who worships
in spirit and in truth, there worship is possible; for God is Spirit. Therefore
whether it be in cathedral or chapel or conventicle; or away from all, on the
deep, on the mountain height, in the valley, in the desert, there He is; and
if the heart be true, there is the shrine, there is the place of worship. That
revelation about worship was the reason of the declaration. Thus in the midst
of that teaching came the one great word of Christ concerning God, mystic, and
utterly beyond our final analysis, "God
is Spirit."
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