reveals the truth concerning spiritual worship. Whether the Samaritan woman grasped

His teaching is not our concern--let us not miss its import.

"The hour cometh and now is."--We have here a period that follows on the

destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, the reference to the place of worship at Jerusalem

being read in the light of Matt. 23: 37 - 24: 2.  This passage covers the present

"True worshippers."--There is no allusion here to the false worship of idols--John

uses "true" and "truth" many times with the sense of "real": "For the law was given by

Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1: 17). Here "grace and truth"

means "true grace" or "real grace" in contrast with the "type and shadow" grace of the

law. "My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven" (John 6: 32). Here the use of

the words "true bread" does not mean that the manna in the wilderness was false, but that

it was in itself a type or shadow of the "real bread"--the Lord Himself.

Perhaps the most precious word in the whole statement is the word "seeketh"--"The

Father seeketh such". Is not this a revelation of the heart of God? The Father seeks the

true worshipper as the Son seeks the lost. The Father goes out to us in our worship

perhaps more than we can ever go out to Him. What a blessed thought, that as surely as

we draw near to Him, He is drawing near to us!

Worship lies behind the original purpose of Satan's creation and underlies his terrible

fall (Ezek. 28:). Worship is the first cause in the covenant with Israel. Worship was

the desire of the tempter in the wilderness (Matt. 4:), and worship is the goal of the great

antichristian apostacy at the end (Rev. 13:).

The church of the mystery, and its association with heavenly places, is intimately

connected with worship. This church is itself a holy temple (Eph. 2:). As the true

circumcision its worship is entirely spiritual (Phil. 3:), and its members, holding the

Head, repudiate any imposition upon them of the worship of angels (Col. 2:). The

oft-recurring word "godliness" in the epistles to Timothy, literally means "good or

acceptable worship".

If John's Gospel ministers to the needs of believers who are to-day on the outer fringe

of the dispensation of the mystery, then the Lord's words to the Samaritan woman are

words in season. Just as the Lord told Nicodemus that to stumble at the revelation

concerning earthly things precluded all reference to heavenly things, so we shall find that

where believers are entangled with "places" of worship, ensnared in denominational

jealousies, subscribing to carnal ordinances, ceremonials and the like, they are unlikely to

hear the truth committed to the apostle Paul.