WORSHIPING GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH
God is worshiped not by our mood when it’s good, but through sincere actions, in real life.
However, even if our actions are sincere, we may easily slide down into the path of self-justification and self-righteousness. Then, even sincerity in worshiping can turn into self-exaltation and temptation if it doesn’t result from actions that perceive themselves as fruit of Grace.
Unless we are fully conscious that even the sincerity in our actions is a gift of God, we won’t be able to live in sincerity without sincerity becoming a virtue of our own, which leads us into the belief that God feels “compelled” to acknowledge us as true worshipers.
For that reason, such actions of sincerity should not be performed as if we were doing the work of God; otherwise, we will soon be worshiping our work to God, not God any longer.
Therefore, my actions towards God should not be actions for the Cause of God, but be-Cause of God.
Our worship to God, therefore, doesn’t consist of actions for the divine Cause; it arises from our love of God as The Cause of our existence and its Purpose as well. So, the worship in spirit and in truth isn’t done at a given fixed place—neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount Gerizim—, but in life, in the open air, as we go on, live and exist on the Way.
It’s this way because the kind of worship that Jesus seeks doesn’t happen as a religious rite, but in a living that expresses the joy of being reconciled to God and men.
Aware of this, see to it that your worship to God is actually worship to God, not a religious expression of self-worshiping narcissism, though performed, supposedly, in God’s name.
Caio
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From the original: “CULTUANDO A DEUS EM ESPÍRITO E EM VERDADE”
Translated by F. R. Castelo Branco | November 2006
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International 