John 4:22-23 You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.… I. THIS REVELATION INCLUDES THREE THINGS. 1. God is real — not a dream or picture, a thought or an abstraction. The living God is. Thou art born of Him, and thy power to think of Him is proof of His existence. 2. God is Spiritual — not a material substance or a physical force. These cannot create thought, feeling, and free will. I am greater than mountains, rivers, gravitation, electricity; I reason, love, hope, will. The object of my worship must be like me and far above me. 3. God is personal — (1) Positivism tells us that He is abstract and general. "A Being immense and eternal — Humanity" (Comte). But adoration fixes itself on a single person. (2) Pantheism tell us that He is everything, the Eternal substance which appears as conscious in our thought and unconscious in nature (Hegel). But we can no more worship this than a leaf can a tree, or a wave the ocean. (3) Agnosticism tells us that He is unknowable, "the Power not ourselves which makes for righteousness" (M. Arnold). But behind the power we seek the Will, behind the law the Giver. (4) From these vague abstractions the soul flies to God the Father with an eye to pity and an arm to save. II. THE INFERENCE is swift and inevitable. 1. Our worship must correspond to the reality of God's nature. 2. The text does not condemn outward forms. Christ used and instituted them. But all forms are dead and meaningless without reality. 3. In the temple there must be a spiritual altar; on the altar a living fire — the motion of the heart towards God. As fire is manifest in light and heat so is worship in praise and prayer. Without the intercourse of the two spirits it is only a painted fire.Lessons: 1. When you are bewildered in your religion remember that the most adorable attributes are not metaphysical but spiritual. Our Father brings Him near to us. 2. True worship is no light thing. It is not found in a careless sleepy hour; not possible to a divided frivolous mind. 3. This text does not unconsecrate the Church; it consecrates the world. (H. J. Van Dyke, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. |
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