“The true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeks such as these, who will worship him” ( John 4:23 ).
Beloved brethren! We have now heard in the Gospel that true servants of the true God worship Him in Spirit and Truth, that God seeks , that is, desires, such worshipers. If God desires such worshipers, then it is clear that only such worshipers and servants He accepts, only such worshipers and servants are pleasing to Him. This teaching was proclaimed to us by the Son of God Himself. We believe the teaching of Christ! With all love, we accept the all-holy teaching of Christ! To follow Him faithfully, let us consider what it means to worship God the Father in Spirit and Truth.
The Truth is our Lord Jesus Christ, as He testified of Himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life" ( John 14:6 ). The Truth is the Word of God: "Your word is truth" ( John 17:17 ; Col. 1:16 ). This Word was eternally in God, spoken by God and to God; this Word is God, this Word is the Creator of all that exists, visible and invisible ( John 1:1, 3 ; Col. 1:16 ). This "Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" ( John 1:14 ). "No one has ever seen God , but the Word of God, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has confessed Him" ( John 1:18 ). The Son of God, the Word of God, confessed God before men and fully revealed Him to them; the Son of God revealed to men the truth inaccessible to them, testifying to and sealing it incontestably with the most abundant impartation of divine grace. "From His fullness we have all received grace to give thanks: grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" ( John 1:16-17 ). This means: Jesus Christ did not deliver some more or less detailed and clear concept of grace and truth, but grace itself, truth itself, were essentially imparted to men, implanted in men. We have become partakers of the divine nature ( 2 Pet. 1:4 ).
Truth has a Spirit inherent in Itself. This Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth ( John 15:26, 16:13 ). He is the Spirit proceeding from the Father ( John 15:26 ). He is the Holy Spirit of God ( John 14:26 ). He is the Spirit of the Son ( Gal. 4:6 ), as He is ever present with the Son, as He constitutes with the Father and the Son a single, indivisible, and unmerged Divine Being. Acceptance of Truth is also acceptance of the Holy Spirit: therefore, the All-Holy Truth proclaims of Itself that It will send the Holy Spirit from the Father to Its disciples. It is natural for the Holy Spirit of Truth to be present where Holy Truth acts and to imprint its actions. Likewise, where the Holy Spirit is active, there is a most abundant manifestation of Truth, as the Lord said to His disciples: "When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" ( John 16:13 ). Describing the wondrous relationship of the Divine Word to the Divine Spirit, the Lord said of the Spirit: "He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Me, and will declare it to you. All things whatsoever the Father hath, they are Mine" ( John 16:14-15 ). The Spirit proclaims and reveals to men the Son, co-natural to Him—the Spirit, drawn by men by faith in the Son, co-natural to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit builds the true Christian spiritually and transforms him into a dwelling place of God ( Eph. 2:22 ); He depicts and inhabits Christ in the inner man ( Eph. 3:16-17 ). He adopts men as sons to God, making them like Christ, implanting in them the attributes of Christ ( John 14:6 ). Men adopted by God relate to Him in their prayers as to a Father, because the Holy Spirit quite clearly and tangibly testifies to the spirit of the man renewed by Him ( Rom. 8:16 ) of this man's union with God, of his adoption as sons by God. "Because ye are sons ," says the apostle, " God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father'" ( Gal. 4:6 ). Such worshipers are recognized as true worshipers of God! Such worshipers, who worship God in Spirit and Truth, are sought and accepted by God. Outside of true Christianity there is neither knowledge of God nor worship. "No one comes to the Father but by Me" ( John 14:6 ), said the Lord. For those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no God: “whoever rejects the Son neither has the Father” ( 1 John 2:23 ), “whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” ( John 3:36).). It is impossible to approach God, it is impossible to enter into any kind of communion with God except through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator and Intercessor, the only means of communion between God and men! There is no true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ without the mediation of the Holy Spirit! “No one can ,” said the apostle, “ say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit” ( 1 Cor. 12:3 ). “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” ( Rom. 8:9 ). Outside Christianity there is no virtue worthy of Heaven! “Good,” said St. Mark the Ascetic , “can neither be believed in nor acted upon except in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit” 111 . Unworthy of God are the natural good deeds of man, flowing from our fallen nature, in which good is mixed with evil, in which good is for the most part barely noticeable amidst the multitude of evil. Fallen nature is capable exclusively of evil, as God Himself testified: "The mind of man is set intent on evil from his youth" ( Gen. 8:21 ). "You, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children" ( Luke 11:13 ; Matthew 7:11 ). Such is the value before the Gospel and God of natural human goodness and the actions that flow from it. In vain does fallen nature glorify its loud and great good deeds! Such self-praise is evidence of terrible blindness! Such self-praise is an involuntary denunciation of the quality of loud human deeds, inspired and fueled by vanity. The stench of pride that these whited sepulchers emit is abominable to God: the incense of humility is pleasing to Him.
For this reason, the Lord commanded fallen and blind humanity to renounce its nature, unaware of its grievous fall, but rather seeing in it a magnificent triumph, seeking to develop this triumph. Renunciation of sin is essential for salvation! But sin has become so ingrained in us that it has become part of our very nature, part of our very soul. Renunciation of sin has become essential to renunciation of our fallen nature, renunciation of the soul ( Matthew 10:39 ), renunciation not only of obvious evil deeds, but also of the highly esteemed and worldly good deeds of the old man. It is essential to replace one's way of thinking with the mind of Christ, and to replace activity driven by the senses and the dictates of carnal wisdom with the diligent fulfillment of Christ's commandments. "If you continue in My word ," said the Lord, " you will truly be My disciples; and you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free" ( John 8:31-32 ). These are remarkable and profound words! The direct consequence of them is that sin enslaves man solely through incorrect and false concepts. It is equally obvious that the pernicious incorrectness of these concepts lies precisely in recognizing as good that which is essentially not good, and in not recognizing as evil that which is essentially murderous evil. "He who is of God will hear the words of God" ( John 8:47 ), said the Lord. Brethren! Let us humble ourselves before the Lord our God! In contrast to the hardened Jews, who rejected both the Lord and His teaching, let us obey the Lord by submitting to His all-holy and saving teaching! Let us lay aside the way of thinking imposed upon us by our fallen nature and by a world hostile to God! Let us adopt the way of thinking offered to us by the Lord in His Holy Gospel! Let us follow the Truth, and we will inherit the Truth. The Truth frees the human mind from the invisible bonds of error with which sin has bound it. This is not enough: the all-powerful Truth, having granted spiritual freedom to the mind, having renewed and enlivened it with life from above—the Word of God—leads it onto the path of Christ's commandments, "and removes from it the way of unrighteousness" ( Psalm 119:29 ). The soul, enlivened by the Truth, sings with the inspired prophet: "I ran the way of Your commandments, when You enlarged my heart." "Order me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I will seek them continually. Give me understanding, and I will search out Thy law, and I will keep it with my whole heart" ( Ps. 119:32-34 ). Such a soul inevitably becomes a partaker of the Holy Spirit, Who cannot but be present where Divine Truth is present and reigns, Who, in His mysterious council with the All-Holy Truth, proclaims of Himself thus: "I am a partaker of all those who fear Thee and keep Thy commandments" ( Ps. 119:63 ) . 112
As long as man remains in his fallen nature, he is immersed in the darkness of profound ignorance: he does not know how to pray, nor what he should pray for ( Rom. 8:26 ), and is incapable of serving God. Faith in Christ alone provides knowledge of the Truth; faith, expressed by fulfilling Christ's commandments, draws the grace of the Holy Spirit into the heart of the believer, as the divinely inspired prophet said: "I drew upon the Spirit, for I delighted in Your commandments" ( Psalm 119:131 ). Only a true Christian, a Christian in faith and deeds, can be a true worshiper of God, worshiping and serving God as Father, in Spirit and Truth. Amen.
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ignatij_Brjanchaninov/asketicheskaya_propoved/27