Water, Spirit, & Truth

Each person called to Spirit & Truth?

“The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”  — John 4:23

During my first three days along the Pine River in July, one of the passages I kept returning to was John 3 and 4.I had never noticed the contrast quite the same way before. In John 3, Jesus speaks with Nicodemus—educated, religious, respected, a teacher of Israel. Jesus tells him about being born of water and Spirit. The Spirit is like the wind. We cannot control Him or see where He comes from, yet we can see His work.

Then, almost immediately, John takes us to another conversation. This time Jesus is speaking with a Samaritan woman. She is almost Nicodemus’s opposite. Different gender. Different social standing. Different religious background. Different reputation. Yet Jesus again begins speaking about something that cannot be produced merely through human effort. He offers her living water, and then tells her that the Father is seeking people who will worship Him in Spirit and truth.

Sitting beside the Pine River, surrounded by water, that connection struck me deeply. Somewhere between those two people are all of us. We all need Jesus and we are to worship in Spirit and truth.

What does it actually mean to walk in the Spirit and set my mind on the Spirit? Is every thought either spirital or flesh or is there something more here?

The more I wrestled with Romans 8, the more I began to see that Paul was describing something larger than the subject matter of an individual thought. He was describing an orientation. What governs my mind? Who is ruling? The flesh continually turns inward toward self—my desires, my appetites, my reputation, my security, my control, my little kingdom. Whereas the Spirit continually turns us toward God. Paul tells the Colossians to “set your minds on things that are above” (Colossians 3:2), yet only a few verses later he tells them that whatever you do, you should do it for the Lord (Colossians 3:17, 23). Apparently a mind set on things above can still think about very earthly things.

Work. Responsibilities. Relationships. Serving people. Meals. Sleep. Even brushing your teeth. 

Then another passage came to mind, also written by Paul, who gave us some examples of what to think about in Philippians 4:8.

Whatever is true. Whatever is honorable. Whatever is just. Whatever is pure. Whatever is lovely. Whatever is commendable. Whatever is excellent. Whatever is worthy of praise. Think about these things.

I had often read that passage simply as a list of good things to think about. But beside Romans 8 and John 4, it began to look different. Perhaps Philippians 4:8 gives us a glimpse of what a mind increasingly shaped by the Spirit looks like. And the first word on Paul’s list is important: True.

Jesus said the Father seeks worshipers who worship in Spirit and truth. Jesus later called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth, who guides His people into truth (John 16:13). The Spirit leads us into truth. And truth gives our thoughts something solid upon which to rest.

Yet even there I found another challenge. Something can be factually true and still be used selfishly. I can win an argument with truth. I can even use truth to rebuild the very little kingdom God has been teaching me to hold loosely. Therefore, Paul writes on:

Is it honorable?

Is it pure?

Is it lovely? (Am I speaking the truth in love? Does it need to be said at all?)

Is it commendable? (Are my words building someone up, or merely building me up?)

Do my thoughts lead me toward loving God and loving my neighbor—or toward protecting, gratifying, or glorifying myself? That may be where walking by the Spirit becomes intensely practical. The Spirit does not merely change what I think about. He increasingly changes how I think about everything. Maybe how we think about things can actually become worship if we approach it with a desire to serve others and glorify GOD, even work, relationships, and mondane tasks.

Serving another person can become worship. Remaining silent when I would rather defend myself can become worship. Taking a thought captive rather than allowing it to grow into resentment, lust, pride, envy, or self-justification can become worship. Romans 12 makes essentially the same connection. Paul calls us to offer our entire lives to God as worship and then immediately speaks about the renewing of our minds. Worship, apparently, happens long before a song begins.

Perhaps that is part of what Jesus was teaching the woman beside another body of water nearly two thousand years ago. True worship would no longer be primarily about which mountain people stood upon. It would be about whose they were. A people born of the Spirit. A people guided into truth. A people whose minds, words, actions, and increasingly even their motives are being surrendered to God. And it leaves me with a different question than the one I first brought to Romans 8.

Not: Was every thought I had today spiritual?

But: Where is my mind increasingly being set?

Toward self—or toward God and others?

Toward whatever feeds the flesh—or whatever is true, honorable, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise?

Perhaps walking by the Spirit is not escaping ordinary life. Perhaps it is allowing the Spirit of Truth to transform the way we live all of it. And perhaps that is what worship in Spirit and Truth looks like.