John 4:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He is speaking here of the Church, for true worship of God, worthy of God, belongs to her.

"The Father seeks such worshipers for Himself." If He sought such from of old, then He allowed the Jewish manner of worship not because He Himself desired it.

He allowed it by condescension, and so that He might lead the Jews also to the truth.

Who, then, are the true worshipers? They are those who do not limit service to God by any place, but worship Him in spirit.

As Paul also says: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, for your reasonable service" (Rom 12:1).

Since God is Spirit, that is, bodiless, He must be worshiped bodilessly, that is, with the soul. This is signified by the phrase "in spirit." For the soul is spirit and a bodiless essence.

Yet many seem to worship Him with the soul, but do not have a true conception of Him, such as heretics. Therefore He added, "and in truth."

For one must worship God with the mind, but one must also have a true conception of Him.

Someone may perhaps say that by these two words, "in spirit and truth," He hints at the two parts of our philosophy: practice and contemplation.

By the word "in spirit" He hints at practice. For, according to the divine Apostle, all who are led by the Spirit of God put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom 8:13-14).

Again: "The flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh" (Gal 5:17).

Thus the word "in spirit" hints at practice, while the word "in truth" hints at contemplation.

Paul also understands it so in 1 Cor 5:8, when he says, "with the unleavened bread of purity," that is, purity of life, or the same thing, practice, "and truth," that is, contemplation.

For contemplation is concerned with the truth of dogmatic teaching.

Again, since the Samaritans limited God by place and said that He must be worshiped in this place, while among the Jews everything was done in figures and shadows, He uses the word "in spirit" against the Samaritan distinction.

The meaning is this: you Samaritans perform for God a certain local service. But the true worshipers will perform a service that is not local, for they will serve "in spirit," that is, with mind and soul.

They will not worship under figure and shadow, as the Jews do, but "in truth," since the Jewish customs and rites will be abolished.

Since the Jewish Law, understood literally, was figure and shadow, the word "in spirit" may also be used to distinguish it from the letter.

For the Law now acts in us not as the letter but as the spirit, "for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6).

To distinguish it from figure and shadow, the word "in truth" is used.

The time is coming, He says, and now is: the time of My appearing in the flesh.

Then the true worshipers will worship not in one place, as the Samaritans do, but in every place "in spirit." They will perform worship that is not merely bodily.

As Paul says, God is the One Whom I serve "in my spirit" (Rom 1:9).

They will perform service that is not figurative, shadowy, and pointing to the future, as the Jews do, but true service that has no shadows at all.

For God seeks such worshipers for Himself: as Spirit, spiritual worshipers; as Truth, true worshipers.

Thus, through unity of power in God, the Spirit also is worshiped when God is worshiped in the Spirit.

Since it is said that God is worshiped in truth, and since belonging to Him is often expressed in the same way concerning the Word, it must be understood that the Son also is worshiped.

In like manner the Spirit is worshiped, for God is worshiped in the Spirit. Therefore the Father is worshiped together with the Son and the Spirit, for the Trinity is worshiped.

These true worshipers will serve the Father not in the body, but in spirit, that is, not with bodily sacrifices, but with spiritual ones.

They will serve not in shadow and prefigurations, but in truth. They will not limit worship to a place, as the Jews and Samaritans did, but will bless the Lord in every place of His dominion.

Jesus Christ mentioned only the Father because of the woman's weakness, since it was not fitting to present the whole teaching to her.

"For the Father seeks such to worship Him," that is, not shadowy worshipers, but true ones, offering Him not bodily but spiritual sacrifices.

By saying "seeks," Jesus Christ shows that the legal service is not pleasing to the Father. He once established it and endured it until this time only by condescension, because of the coarseness and weakness of the Hebrews.

One of those from here came to a hermit keeping stillness in the desert and said to him, "I marvel, Father, how you endure being separated from the holy Church, far from Communion and the holy assemblies."

The man of God answered, "All assemblies, liturgies, feasts, Communions, and sacrifices are performed, O man, so that a person may be cleansed of his sins and God may dwell in him.

This accords with Christ's words: "We, I and the Father, will come and make Our abode with him" (Jn 14:23), and "I will dwell in them and walk among them" (2 Cor 6:16).

Therefore, once a man becomes a living, God-fashioned temple of God, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell and walk in him, his God-bearing soul withdraws from every desire to be present in created churches.

It withdraws from the desire to take part in visible sacrifices, material assemblies, and human feasts. It no longer wishes to worship God "either on this mountain or in Jerusalem" (Jn 4:21).

Such a man has the Father within himself. Within, he has the Son, the High Priest. Within, he has the Spirit, the true Fire. Within, he has the true sacrifice, "a broken spirit" (Ps 50:19).

Within, he has the altar, a pure conscience. Within, he has the propitiatory sacrifice, spiritual tears. Within, he has the Jerusalem above, a rejoicing soul.

Finally, as one who is spiritual, he offers sacrifices with spiritual eyes. For "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:24).

As the apostle Paul teaches, "the things that are seen are temporary," whether sacrifices or offerings, while "the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Cor 4:18).

This unseen reality is what takes place in the heart "in spirit and truth." Before the coming of Christ, eye had not seen it, ear had not heard it, and it had not entered man's heart.

Yet God prepared and revealed it to us through His Spirit dwelling in us (1 Cor 2:9).

The man counted worthy to acquire these good things is deified by God's indwelling in him. He worships God within himself, or even worships himself within himself and honors himself.

He sees his flesh become the tabernacle of God (Rev 21:3), and sees it as the dwelling, altar, and sanctuary of God.

Such an ascetic honors neither heaven, nor the angels, nor the visible sacrifice, nor anything else in the world above the temple of his own body. In it he sees the fullness of the Trinity dwelling within him."

You have now heard of the mysteries granted to us by Christ through His coming to us.

In this case the term "communions," κοινωνίαι, should be understood as Eucharistic Communions.

We follow the citation given by Anastasius. Compare a reflection of Macarius, who says of the Lord: "For this reason He endured great sufferings, gave His Body over to death, and redeemed us from the slavery of darkness.

He did this so that, entering each soul, He might make an abode for Himself in it (Jn 14:23), and rest in it after the great labors He endured for its sake.

Such was the desire of His good will: while we are still in this age, He would dwell and abide in us, according to His promise (2 Cor 6:16)."

In Anastasius, however, the triadological aspect of this indwelling is emphasized, while in Macarius the Christological aspect is emphasized.

Compare Gregory Palamas: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:24). That is, they must think of the Bodiless One in a bodiless manner.

Only then will those who worship truly behold Him in His spirit and truth. Since God is spirit, He is bodiless. What is bodiless is not in any place and is not bounded by spatial limits.

Therefore whoever says that God must be worshiped in some definite place among all the places of heaven and earth speaks against the truth and worships falsely.

Since God is bodiless, He is nowhere. Yet since He is God, He is everywhere.

If there is a mountain, place, or creature where God is not, then He would be limited in some respect. Therefore God is everywhere, for He is boundless.

In what manner is He everywhere? Is it because He is contained not by part of the world, but by the whole world? By no means, for this would again mean that He is a body.

Therefore, containing and encompassing all things, God is everywhere in Himself and above all. The true worshipers worship Him in His spirit and truth."

According to Theophan's explanation, the words "eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and it has not entered the heart" express the extraordinary greatness of the good things given us in Christ Jesus.

They express a greatness surpassing every expectation, incomprehensible and immeasurable. They also express the very manner of their bestowal, that is, the divine economy of salvation.

God is incarnate, takes "the form of a servant," and is found "as a man." He humbles "Himself unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:7-8).

He does this in order to justify those who had transgressed against Him, adopt them as sons, spiritualize them, deify them, and show them not only radiant but light-bearing.

Still more, He does this to recapitulate all things in Himself, whether earthly or heavenly.

This was incomprehensible before it was accomplished and manifested in deed. Even after its manifestation and accomplishment, it remains immeasurable and uncontainable for all except those counted worthy of these good things and brought into communion with them.

Yet even they taste and see, but cannot comprehend it.

At first glance, the hermit's answer quoted in this question by Anastasius is quite troubling, since it appears to have an anti-ecclesial and anti-liturgical character.

In general, as scholars note, the life of the ancient monks was unthinkable outside a liturgical context and outside the Eucharist.

Yet there were exceptions to this general rule, chiefly among hermits and recluses. One such exception was Paul of Thebes, in whose Life, written by Jerome, every liturgical and Eucharistic context is absent.

In a later Egyptian synaxarion preserved in Arabic, it is told that an angel gave Communion to Paul.

This account probably reaches back into the depth of oral Tradition. It is also reflected in the Life of Onuphrius the Great.

There Paphnutius asks how he receives Communion on Saturday and Sunday. The elder answers, "An angel of the Lord comes to me, bringing with him the most pure Mysteries of Christ, and gives me Communion.

The angel does not come with divine Communion to me alone. He also comes to other desert ascetics who live for God's sake in the desert and do not see a human face.

When he gives them Communion, he fills their hearts with ineffable gladness."

One may also cite the account of the virgin Taora. When the other sisters gathered in church on the Lord's feasts for Communion, she sat constantly in her cell at her work, clothed in rags.

In all these cases we are dealing with examples of the highest holiness accessible to man.

Anastasius also speaks of this same highest holiness. He thus emphasizes that the chief aim of every Christian is deification.

Divine worship, and especially the Eucharist, is the principal means of attaining this aim. Yet it is not itself that aim.

The whole Christian life, in all its various aspects, prayers, fasts, and labors of good works, should ideally be an unceasing Liturgy. Its central point is the Eucharist.

They worship in truth, that is, not by prefigurations and the offering of animals, but by works. This means the true fulfillment of the divine commandments and the celebration and partaking of the true Mysteries.

Perhaps, too, "in spirit" signifies the consecration of our mind to God, while "in truth" signifies bodily service through active virtue.

Man consists of soul and body. His worship also is twofold, when thought ascends to God and the body assists in advancing in the commandments.

Why does God seek such worship and such worshipers? For verse 24 says: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

The Truth is our Lord Jesus Christ, as He testified concerning Himself: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6).

The Truth is the Word of God: "Your word is truth" (Jn 17:17).

This Word was eternally in God, was spoken by God and to God. This Word is God. This Word is the Creator of everything that exists, visible and invisible (Jn 1:1, 3; Col 1:16).

This "Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14).

"No one has ever seen God. The Word of God, the Only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (Jn 1:18).

The Son of God, the Word of God, declared God before men and fully revealed God to men. The Son of God revealed to men the truth inaccessible to them.

He testified to the truth and sealed it beyond dispute by the most abundant bestowal of divine grace.

"Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (Jn 1:16-17).

This means that Jesus Christ did not merely provide some more or less detailed and clear concept of grace and truth. Rather, grace itself and truth itself were essentially bestowed on men and planted in men.

We have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4).

Truth has its own proper Spirit. This Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth (Jn 15:26; 16:13). He is the Spirit Who proceeds from the Father (Jn 15:26).

He is the Holy Spirit of God (Jn 14:26). He is the Spirit of the Son (Gal 4:6), as inseparably present with the Son, and as constituting with the Father and the Son one undivided and unconfused divine Being.

The reception of Truth is at the same time the reception of the Holy Spirit. For this reason the all-holy Truth declares of Himself that He will send the Holy Spirit from the Father to His disciples.

It is natural for the Holy Spirit of Truth to be present where the holy Truth acts, and to seal Her actions.

Likewise, where the Holy Spirit acts, there is the most abundant manifestation of Truth, as the Lord said to His disciples: "When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth" (Jn 16:13).

Depicting the wondrous relation of the divine Word to the divine Spirit, the Lord said of the Spirit: "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is Mine" (Jn 16:14-15).

The Spirit declares and manifests to men the Son Who is of one nature with Him. This Spirit is drawn to men by faith in the Son, Who is of one nature with the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit spiritually builds the true Christian and transforms him into a dwelling of God (Eph 2:22). In the inner man He forms and indwells Christ (Eph 3:16-17).

He adopts men as sons of God, making them like Christ and establishing in them the properties of Christ (Jn 14:6).

Men adopted by God turn to Him in their prayers as to a Father. The Holy Spirit, openly and perceptibly, bears witness to the spirit of the man renewed by Him (Rom 8:16).

He bears witness concerning this man's union with God and his adoption by God.

"Because you are sons," says the apostle, "God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal 4:6).

Such worshipers are acknowledged as the true worshipers of God. Such worshipers, who worship God in Spirit and Truth, God seeks and receives.

Outside true Christianity there is neither knowledge of God nor worship of God. "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn 14:6), said the Lord.

For the one who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no God. "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father" (1 Jn 2:23).

"He who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (Jn 3:36).

It is impossible to approach God or enter into any communion with God except through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one mediator and intercessor, the one means of communion between God and men.

There is no true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ except through the mediation of the Holy Spirit.

"No one can say," said the apostle, "that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3).

"If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom 8:9).

Outside Christianity there is no virtue worthy of heaven. "The good," said Mark the Ascetic, "can neither be believed nor done except in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit."

Natural human good works are unworthy of God. They proceed from our fallen nature, in which good is mixed with evil, and in which good is most often barely noticeable amid the multitude of evil.

Fallen nature is capable only of evil, as God Himself testified: "The thought of man is diligently inclined toward evil from his youth" (Gen 8:21).

"If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children" (Lk 11:13; Mt 7:11).

Such is the value, before the Gospel and before God, of natural human goodness and of the actions that flow from it.

In vain does fallen nature glorify its loud and great good works. Such self-praise is evidence of terrible blindness.

Such self-praise is the involuntary exposure of the quality of these loud human works, which are aroused and fed by vainglory.

The stench of pride, emitted by these whitewashed tombs, is abominable to God. The incense of humility is pleasing to Him.

For this reason the Lord commanded fallen and blinded humanity to renounce nature. Humanity does not recognize its grievous fall. On the contrary, it sees in it some splendid triumph and seeks to develop that triumph.

For salvation, renunciation of sin is necessary. Yet sin has so assimilated itself to us that it has become nature, the very soul within us.

For the renunciation of sin, renunciation of fallen nature has become essentially necessary. This is the renunciation of the soul (Mt 10:39).

It is not only renunciation of manifest evil deeds. It is also renunciation of the highly esteemed and celebrated good works of the old man.

It is essentially necessary to replace one's way of thought with the mind of Christ. It is necessary to replace activity according to the pull of the senses and carnal wisdom with careful fulfillment of Christ's commandments.

"If you abide in My word," said the Lord, "you are truly My disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn 8:31-32).

These are remarkable and profound words. Their direct consequence is that sin holds man in slavery solely through incorrect and false concepts.

It is equally clear that the destructive incorrectness of these concepts consists precisely in recognizing as good what in essence is not good, and in failing to recognize as evil what in essence is death-dealing evil.

"He who is of God hears the words of God" (Jn 8:47), said the Lord.

Brethren, let us humble ourselves before the Lord our God. Unlike the hardened Jews who rejected both the Lord and His teaching, let us show obedience to the Lord by submitting to His all-holy and saving teaching.

Let us lay aside the way of thought supplied to us by our fallen nature and by the world hostile to God.

Let us make our own the way of thought offered to us by the Lord in His holy Gospel. Let us follow Truth, and we shall inherit Truth.

Truth frees the human mind from the invisible bonds of delusion with which sin has shackled it.

This is not all. The all-powerful Truth, having given spiritual freedom to the mind, renews and enlivens it with life from above, through the Word of God.

Truth leads the mind onto the path of Christ's commandments, and "removes the way of unrighteousness" from it (Ps 118:29).

The soul enlivened by Truth sings together with the inspired prophet: "I ran the way of Your commandments when You enlarged my heart.

Set before me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall seek it continually. Give me understanding, and I shall search out Your law and keep it with all my heart" (Ps 118:32-34).

Such a soul necessarily becomes a partaker of the Holy Spirit. He cannot fail to be present where divine Truth is present and reigns.

In His mysterious counsel with the all-holy Truth, the Spirit speaks of Himself thus: "I am a companion of all who fear You and keep Your commandments" (Ps 118:63).

As long as man remains in his fallen nature, he is immersed in the darkness of deepest ignorance. He does not know how he should pray, and he does not know what he should pray for (Rom 8:26).

He is incapable of serving God.

Faith in Christ alone gives knowledge of Truth. Faith expressed by the fulfillment of Christ's commandments draws into the believer's heart the grace of the Holy Spirit.

As the God-inspired prophet said, "I drew in the Spirit, for I longed for Your commandments" (Ps 118:131).

Only a true Christian, a Christian by faith and works, can be a true worshiper of God. He worships and serves God as Father, in Spirit and Truth. Amen.

"In spirit and truth": spirit, the higher principle of life in man, is set against flesh, the lower principle of life (John 6:63; Gal 3:3 and parallels). Truth is opposed to falsehood and shadow.

Worship of God in spirit, or spiritual worship of God, is an action performed not in the realm of flesh and sensuality.

It is not performed in sensory actions, rites, and ceremonies limited by time and place, as the whole Jewish cult is in its outward aspect.

Rather, it is performed in the realm of man's higher spiritual nature: thought, feeling, contemplation, rapture, and mysterious communion with the Godhead, where nothing outward is needed.

In this sense the Apostle speaks of praying in spirit (Eph 6:18) and serving God in spirit (Rom 1:9).

That the human spirit in this disposition is animated by the Spirit of God is self-evident (Rom 8:14-16, 26).

This service in spirit is reasonable or noetic service (Rom 12:1).

The so-called noetic prayer, which has no need of any outward actions, is the highest expression of worshiping God in spirit.

Worshiping God in truth is honoring God in agreement and correspondence with the essence and properties of God. Otherwise it falls into the sphere of conscious or unconscious falsehood.

Since God was revealed in the Old Testament only in images and symbols, and the whole old Law was a shadow in contrast to New Testament truth (Heb 10:1), service to God in truth is opposed to the Old Testament shadowy service.

It is opposed to figurative, symbolic, and ritual service; cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact.

Therefore the full concept of serving God in truth is the concept of service opposed both to the shadowiness of the Jewish cult and to the errors of the Samaritan and pagan cults.

The idea of Christian public worship is clearly not abolished by this, insofar as it is the expression of worshiping God in spirit and truth.

This spiritual worship must have its outward forms, as the embodiment of the spirit. Yet the essence does not lie in the forms.

Those who worship God in spirit and truth are therefore called here true worshipers. Their worship is true and pleasing to God.

Their soul is not in outward formalism, but in reasonable worship.

"The Father seeks such for Himself": such worshipers are pleasing to Him, and such He desires to see.

He chose and established the ancient Old Testament form of worship only in order to lead through it to the new form, and by this path to indicate the more perfect form of worship, evangelical and New Testament worship.

The original and the reality, longed for by the prophets, have remained.

Therefore the unauthorized reformers of Christianity appealed in vain to the Savior's words in defense of their arbitrary service, performed by thoughts and feelings alone and excluding Christian ritual.

Christianity requires us to serve God with the whole composition of the human organism. The living soul has need of the body as much as it governs it.

The service of the reformers is the service of pitiable dreamers, justified neither by sound reasoning nor by the experience of the ages.

Worship in spirit means spiritual worship according to its predominant property, as the opposite Jewish worship was chiefly material and ritual service.

True worship means, on the one hand, worship corresponding to the will of God. On the other hand, it expresses the sincere dispositions of the soul.

It is opposed to Samaritan worship, which by the Savior's judgment was arbitrary and therefore unstable and insincere.

The Father seeks such worshipers for Himself. "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

This is why service through sacrifices, limited to a known locality, must cease.

On the one hand, the will of the heavenly Father requires not the old worship, but the new. On the other, the spiritual nature of the Godhead requires spiritual worship.