God is spirit

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (Jn. 4:24 ESV)

Jesus made the statement above to explain to a Samaritan woman what God is like. The woman had attempted to get into a religious argument with the Master on the right place to worship since the Jews insisted it had to be in Jerusalem. Jesus, therefore, explained to her why a geographical location is not essential to worship God. He said to her “God is spirit.” What does this mean?

The meaning becomes immediately apparent if you consider the context of this statement as I have briefly stated above. Note that it does not say “God is a spirit” as the KJV translators mistakenly put it, which confers the idea of the personality of God as a spirit being amongst many others. That is not the idea here. Also, it was not referring to the Holy Spirit. God is spirit and has a Spirit, but that is not the point here either.

The word “spirit” here describes the nature of God, as opposed to us humans who are “flesh.” Physical location in space is a characteristic of the flesh, not of the nature of spirit. A man, who is flesh, can be confined to one place but God is everywhere present though He cannot be perceived by the bodily senses. Geographical location does not limit the worship of God, as He is spirit and not flesh.

MEDITATE

What other characteristic of spirit can you think of as opposed to the flesh? ( John 3:8-9)

APPLY THE WORD

Be conscious of the fact that God is spirit and He interacts with you in your spirit. He wants you to worship Him in that realm. The spirit is where your victory in life comes from. Be trained in the things of the spirit as you mature in your Christian life.

PRAY

Ask the LORD to open your understanding by His Word to see into this “strange” world of the spirit to know Him better and also live in victory at all times.

REFERENCES

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.