“True Worshippers Shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth”
Joseph Smith Translation, John 4:25–26
25 And 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.
26 For unto such hath God promised his Spirit. And they who worship him, must worship in spirit and in truth.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
“I remember the occasion more than 70 years ago when, as a missionary, I was speaking in an open-air meeting in Hyde Park, London. As I was presenting my message, a heckler interrupted to say, ‘Why don’t you stay with the doctrine of the Bible which says in John, “God is a Spirit”?’
“I opened my [King James Version of the] Bible to the verse he had quoted and read to him the entire verse:
“‘God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:24).
“I said, ‘Of course God is a spirit, and so are you in the combination of spirit and body that makes of you a living being, and so am I.’
“Each of us is a dual being of spiritual entity and physical entity. All know of the reality of death when the body dies, and each of us also knows that the spirit lives on as an individual entity and that at some time, under the divine plan made possible by the sacrifice of the Son of God, there will be a reunion of spirit and body. Jesus’s declaration that God is a spirit no more denies that He has a body than does the statement that I am a spirit while also having a body.
“I do not equate my body with His in its refinement, in its capacity, in its beauty and radiance. His is eternal. Mine is mortal. But that only increases my reverence for Him. I worship Him ‘in spirit and in truth.’ I look to Him as my strength. I pray to Him for wisdom beyond my own. I seek to love Him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. His wisdom is greater than the wisdom of all men. His power is greater than the power of nature, for He is the Creator Omnipotent. His love is greater than the love of any other, for His love encompasses all of His children, and it is His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters of all generations (see Moses 1:39).”
(“In These Three I Believe,” Ensign, July 2006, 4.)
