John 4:22-24: Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God seeks true worshippers! When our Lord, the great soul-winner, found the woman at the well, she was a worshipper but not a “true worshipper.” She and the people of Samaria worshipped, but they did not know what they worshipped. Having rejected Scripture, the Samaritans were sincere but sincerely wrong.

Mankind is in danger of sincerely worshipping something that is not God. Most people’s theology or beliefs about God derive from their reasoning, personal experience, and high ideals. With phrases like “to me God is… or my God would never…” they have created a god in their imagination and worship this created god. The scary thing about this is that the god they have contrived looks, acts, and feels just like them! They might even call him Jesus! They essentially worship a god made in their own image. While the real God says in His very first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me!”

True worship can only be derived from Scripture. The Bible is the one and only book about the one and only God.  God reveals Himself to humanity in His Word. In its pages, we see God’s attributes, attitudes, and characteristics of His unchangeable personality. Only when we see the true God can we worship Him in truth.

“A man worships God in spirit, when, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, he brings all his affections, appetites, and desires to the throne of God; and he worships him in truth, when every purpose and passion of his heart, and when every act of his religious worship, is guided and regulated by the word of God.” – Adam Clark.