our finite capacity to understand.  The God Who is Spirit is beyond our

powers of experience.  We do not know the mode of being of One Who is not

conditioned by time and space, Who is invisible, inaudible and intangible

(John 1:18; 5:37).

Now if our Saviour had intended to teach this woman the essential

nature and being of God, our comments would constitute a criticism of His

Words, and we should stand condemned.  He was teaching this woman, and all

who will learn, not the nature of the Absolute and Unconditioned, but what

the nature of that worship must be that is offered to, and is acceptable to,

a Being of such a nature.  To obtain but a glimpse of the Divine nature, is

to forego for ever all the trappings of ceremonial, all rites and all

observances as being essential to true worship.  A God who is `spirit' must

be worshipped in `spirit and in truth'.

In the Old Testament worship is offered to `The Lord' who is referred

to as `The Lord thy God'.  In the New Testament (The Revelation), worship is

offered to `God', and to `Him that made heaven and earth', but here in John 4

it is the `Father' that is worshipped, it is the `Father' that seeks worship,

and surely none but `children' can worship the `Father', none but `children'

can offer to Him His due.  And will `children' who seek thus to render homage

to a `Father' feel under any necessity to pay such reverence in a temple?

Need such adopt priestly vestments? need such perform an elaborate ritual?

No title of God is so intimate, so near to the heart, so far removed from

ritual and ordinances as the title `Father' and worship that

is offered to Him in that capacity must of necessity participate in the same

If we rigorously restrict our New Testament studies in connection with

worship to the occurrences and usage of proskuneo, our task is practically

ended.  The reader however naturally expects that such passages as that of

Philippians 3:3 or of Colossians 2:18,23 will be included.  We must give

these passages a consideration, for they are the only references to `worship'

found in the epistles of Paul written after Acts 28, and so have distinct

bearing upon the worship offered by the church of the Mystery.  Before we

consider these passages, let us pause and consider what lesson is intended

for us, particularly in the fact that proskuneo is never once used in

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and 2 Timothy.

In the first place, Paul, the writer of these epistles, was fully

acquainted with the use and occurrences of this word; for a reader of the

Septuagint as he was, would be aware of its presence throughout the Law, the

Prophets and the Psalms.  In that version of the Old Testament proskuneo

occurs nearly two hundred times.  The omission of this word therefore is

deliberate and inspired, and consequently both the fact of its omission, and

the change suggested by the words substituted, challenge our deepest

First let us cite the passages that speak of worship in the Prison

`We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice

in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh' (Phil. 3:3).

`Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and

worshipping of angels' (Col. 2:18).