Becoming a theologian: God is spiritual

Today, we turn our attention to some of God's communicable attributes. Communicable attributes are attributes that we may see not only in God, but also we may see evidence of in our lives. The first attributes we will look describe God's being - or in some way what God is made of. Today we will look at God's spirituality.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

John 4:24

Here in John 4, Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman at the well. The Samaritans were descended from Israelites who had married people of other religions. Though the Samaritans may have practiced their religion similarly to the Jews of Jesus days, they had differences in how and where they worshipped God. Jesus is explaining to the Samaritan woman how God is to be worshipped. In this verse, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman both about God and about God's worshippers.

• God is spirit. The Greek word used here is pneuma which sometimes is used to refer to the Holy Spirit and more generally refers to the spirit or soul of someone/something. Other times it is even used to refer to the wind.
• From this little bit Jesus says about God, we can infer two things
1. God, the Father, does not have a physical body. We've already, from our study of the incommunicable attributes, learned how God cannot be measured and how he is omnipresent. That would be impossible if God had a physical body.
2. The Holy Spirit, as part of the trinity, is equal to God, the Father.
• Jesus goes on to say how God's worshippers should worship God in spirit and in truth. The Greek word used here for spirit is also pneuma. From this we can learn...
1. We are not just physical bodies. We posses a spirit or a soul.
2. From our spirit, we should worship God.
• Have you ever seen the wind? Or have you only seen the effects of the wind?
• Have you ever seen God? Or have you seen what God has done and is doing?
If God is spirit and he has given us a spirt, is this one way that we are created in the image of God?
• Do you want to worship God in spirit and in truth?