Soulless Worship

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:24

There's a question of how best to interpret this verse. When Jesus says that we must "worship in spirit" is He referring to the Holy Spirit or to our spirit? If He's referring to the Holy Spirit, then He's saying that in order for your worship to be acceptable to God you must approach the Father through the Holy Spirit. 

Many believe that is what Jesus means, but it seems like an odd interpretation to me. While I do believe that we gain access to the Father only by salvation which is a result of the finished work of Christ and is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit; I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about in this passage. Jesus is talking to the woman at the well both before He died and before the Spirit was sent, so I’m not sure how she could even hope to worship rightly if that was Jesus’ point.

No. To me the second interpreation option make more sense. If Jesus is referring to our spirit, then He is saying that true worship isn’t merely an act of the body. It isn’t going through the motions or performing a ritual. In order for your worship to be acceptable to God, it must engage not only your mind and your body but your soul as well. Worship that is pleasing to God is an activity of the soul.

Looking back at the verse, you'll notice that Jesus grounds this principle in the fact that “God is spirit." His point is that it isn’t where you worship but the manner in which you worship that matters to Him. To worship God, you need to engage the part of you that is most like Him. He is a spirit, so you must worship Him with your spirit. 

If we aren’t careful, we will fail to do this. You can go to church every week and go through all the right motions but do so without engaging your spirit in any way. If you aren’t careful, you can leave the very heart and soul out of your worship and offer up to Him a kind of soulless worship that is only an empty shell of right thoughts and right action. Jesus tells us that is not pleasing to Him.

Don’t make that mistake. When you worship God, worship Him from your spirit. Don’t just think right thoughts and do right actions, worship Him from your heart. In other words, put actual worship into your acts of worship. Offer to Him the worship that comes from deep inside, from your very spirit. That’s the kind of worship He desires.