Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Instead of worshiping God “in spirit” (recognizing that he is spirit himself and asks for spiritual worship), idolaters become preoccupied with external, visible, and tangible objects. Even the worship of the people of Israel had a constant tendency to degenerate into formalism and even blatant hypocrisy. The seventh and eighth century [B.C.] prophets were scathing in their denunciation of Israel’s empty religion, and Jesus applied their criticism to the Pharisees of his own day: “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’” So whatever outward forms we may use in Christian worship (liturgies, processions, drama, ritual, kneeling or raising our arms), we need to ensure that they escape the charge of idolatry by passing the double test of being “in spirit and in truth.”
... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), Basic Christianity, Nottingham, U.K.: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008, third edition, p. 94-95 
(see the book; see also John 4:23-24; Isa. 1:13-17; 29:13-14; Amos 5:21-24; Mark 7:6-7; John 1:17; Rom. 8:15,26; Gal. 4:6; Col. 3:5; Jude 1:20-21; more at Criticism, God, Hypocrisy, Idol, Jesus, Pharisaism, Prophet, Spirit, Truth, Worship)
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Last updated:
04/14/16
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