THE KING’S BUSINESS
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that that of the Samaritans was a religion of ignorance. Our Lord did not say “ Ye worship Him Whom ye know not: we worship Him whom we know,” He rather said, “ Ye worship that which ye know n o t “we worship that which we know.” He thus uses an abstract form instead of a personal form in speaking of God, the full revelation of God as a Person was yet to be made, or rather was now being made in the Son (cf. ch. 14:9). The Samaritans were sincere in their worship. They really believed that they were right, but sincerity is not enough; worship to be acceptable ■ must be of the right Person and in the right way. The more sincere any one is in error, the farther they will be led astray by it, and, therefore, the more they will be injured by it. For all their sincerity, our Lord put the ban of His disapproval on their wor ship. In this verse our Lord identifies Himself with the Jews, He includes both .the Jews and Himself in the use of the pronoun “ we.” This is the only place in the Gospels where He identifies Himself with the Jewish race. He was the seed o f Abraham therefore “ salvation was out o f the Jews,” and in Abraham’s seed, our Lord Jesus, shall all the nations, of the earth be blessed (Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:16). Salvation will be linked with the Jewish people, not •only in this present dispensation but in that which is to come (Rom. 11:12; Zech, 8:23). V. 23. “But the hour cometh (rather, an hour cometh), and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in (omit in') truth: for the Father seek- eth such to worship Him (rather, for the Father also seeketh such to be those worshipping Him).”
The phrase “ the hour cometh” car ries us back to verse 21. Verse 23 shows why in the coming hour that neither in Gerizim nor in Jerusalem would men worship the Father. The worship determined by times and places might do, and was appointed, for the infancy in the development . of those whom God was training to be His worshippers, but the time ot infancy was now past, the time for full grown men was about to come (cf. Gal. 4 :1 -7 ); therefore a worship largely determined by times and places and outward forms must come to an end and a worship of inward reality, utterly independent of times, places and forms, must take its place. When this hour so near at hand came, neither the worship of the Samaritan on Mt. Gerizim nor the worship of the Jew in Jerusalem would be acceptable. Worship which would be acceptable would be wor ship “ in spirit and truth,” no matter where offered. This is one of the profoundest utterances to be found in the literature of any nation. John could not have thought it out for himself. Neither could any other man o f that day, nor of any day. It must have emanated from Him who spake as never man spake. It marks the one who utters it as a teacher beyond a question “ sent from God.” By adding the phrase, “ And now is” our Lord sets forth the thought that the time for such worship had already dawned. His own presence among men brought with it this re sult at once, though the local wor ship o f the Jews would not be abro gated (because that which it typically set forth was not yet fulfilled) until Christ hung upon the cross. We have the setting forth in the two phrases side by side “ The hour com eth” “ and now is” a very subtle con trast between the immediate and ulti-
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