“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
The occasion when Jesus is speaking with the woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria gives Him an opportunity to teach a universal truth about acceptable worship: it must be in spirit and in truth.
In this teaching, Jesus cuts to the heart of what God expects from those who want to please Him in worship. First, He mentions spirit, indicating the attitude, focus, and sincerity one is to manifest and not the performance of a great deal of physical activity.
Then he mentions truth, indicating that a true worshiper must base all aspects of worship on what God specifies in His word because His word is truth. Worship not specified in God’s word, then, comes from a source outside His word.
So, to carry out the command given here, a true worshiper must conduct the service according to God’s word, he must concentrate on each item as he or she participates, and he must truly mean everything he does or says during the service. Otherwise, worship has not taken place, according to Jesus in this passage.