John 4:23 “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. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
The Lord was speaking with a Samaritan woman who had some knowledge of the coming of “the Christ” (John 4:29), but the Lord told her “Ye worship ye know not what” (John 4:22) because the Samaritans’ worship had been much entangled with idolatry since the early days of the Old Testament Kings (II Kings 17:27-34). The Lord was very kindly toward this woman, but was also very candid; He told her “they that worship” “God” “must worship him in spirit and in truth”. To “worship him in spirit and in truth” is to do it according to His Word, in the manner that He prescribed and under the “truth” that He has established in His Word, the “holy scriptures” (II Timothy 3:15). It ought to be the conviction and determination of all Children of God to read the “holy scriptures” and to confine themselves to the simple and sincere “worship” that the Lord has prescribed. No man has the authority to add anything to the “holy scriptures” or take anything away from the “holy scriptures” (Revelation 22:19). Therefore, it is our solemn duty to compare our “worship” to the “holy scriptures” to see if we have either added anything to or taken anything away from the New Testament “worship” as God has prescribed it in His Holy Word. If our “worship” is not in accordance with the “holy scriptures”, we should change, for the Lord declared “they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”!