---
title: John 4:23
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-4-23/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-4-23.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: John 4:23
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# John 4:23

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for indeed, the Father is looking for ones like these to worship him."

## JW Usage

A central verse for Watchtower worship practice — true worshippers worship the Father, in spirit and truth, which is understood as worship directed to Jehovah alone according to accurate knowledge. It is used to justify not directing worship to Jesus, since the Father is named as the one sought.

## Protestant Usage

Jesus is contrasting worship at Jerusalem with worship at Gerizim, not ruling on which persons of the Godhead may be worshipped. Reading it as an exclusion requires the verse to be answering a question the Samaritan woman never asked. Against the exclusion, the New Testament repeatedly shows worship directed to Jesus and accepted: the disciples worship him at Matthew 14:33 and 28:9; God commands the angels to worship him at Hebrews 1:6; Thomas addresses him as "my Lord and my God" and is commended rather than corrected. Compare that with Revelation 22:8-9, where an angel refuses worship outright — which is what a creature does. There is also something useful in the next verse. The NWT renders John 4:24 "God is a Spirit," adding an indefinite article to a predicate noun that has no article in the Greek — the same construction as John 1:1c. Nobody thinks that sentence means God is one spirit among many; everybody reads it as describing what God is by nature. That is exactly what "the Word was God" says at 1:1, and exactly what "a god" denies. Compare John 20:29, John 6:27, John 17:23.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Angels Do Not Share the Divine Nature](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/angels-not-divine-nature.md) — Hebrews 1:5-14 — the seven-fold contrast between the Son and angels [Deity of Christ]