JOHN 4:23-24

Q: I am curious about John 4:24 and the notion of worshiping God in spirit and 'in truth'... I have always assumed that the reference to 'in truth' was a reference to an accurate worship of God for who he is, not what we would like for him to be. What is the proper interpretation of this phrase?

 

Let's start with a few translation issues. The first question is whether “spirit” should be capitalized. 

Almost all translations use the lower case; however, The Living Bible, TEV, and Raymond Brown 

(The Gospel According to John I-XII) feel that it refers to the Holy Spirit.  The next point, brought up 

by Brown, is that the phrase “in spirit and truth” may in fact be a hendiadys (“one by way of two”). 

This is a figure of speech occurring often in the Old Testament in which one of the nouns is meant to 

modify the other one. Brown opts for the meaning “Spirit of truth” while I personally go for “spiritual

truth.” 

Your reading of the passage is correct, as can be seen from the immediate context of the saying.  Jesus 

tells the woman in verse 22 that she is worshiping what she doesn't know. And then in verse 26, he 

proclaims that he is indeed the prophesied Coming One.  “Worship devoid of understanding God's 

in history operates within a vacuum. To make this point clear, the evangelist employed his theme of 

knowledge. Jesus said that Samaritan worship lacked knowledge, the critical relational aspect of genuine

worship...” (Gerald Borchart, John 1-11)  Two added wrinkles that clarify the meaning of “truth” are 

pointed out in the commentaries I consulted. 

The New Testament goes beyond viewing truth in the Greek sense of being the opposite of falsehood. “It

has imported some features from the Old Testament as well. There the words for truth also refer to 

faithfulness, reliability, trustworthiness, etc.” (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John)  Borchart 

agrees: “[True] worshipers participate in the divinely revealed reality of truthfulness or steadfastness / 

dependability, a category that epitomizes the way God reveals the divine reality to human beings.” 

The second aspect of truth that needs stressing is its close association with God's revelation through the 

person of Jesus Christ:  
	“True worshipers are those who realize that Jesus is the Truth of God (John 3:21; 14:6)...To worship

in truth is to worship God through Jesus.” (Bible Knowledge Commentary) 

 	 “Paul in Ephesians 4:21 says 'as truth is in Jesus.'  He is saying that the very truth of God, truth 

itself resides in Him...Jesus is not describing truth as an ethical virtue or a philosophical concept...there

is a close link between truth and the gospel of God's grace.” (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to

John)
	“In spirit and truth: that is, in virtue of new birth, and in the light of the revelation of truth in 

Christ.”  (International Bible Commentary)