John 4:24
John 4:2424God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
The Watchtower cites this verse to argue that worship must be invisible, internal, and detached from any visual or material aid. Reasoning From the Scriptures uses it alongside and to ban not only worshipped images but any image in a worship setting at all — crosses, nativity scenes, paintings of Jesus, stained-glass windows. The argument: God is a spirit, so worship of him must dispense with anything bodily or visible.
Jesus' point is that geographical and ritual access — Mount Gerizim versus Jerusalem, the topic the Samaritan woman has just raised — is no longer the question. God's nature is spirit; therefore, real worship is not contained by location. That does not abolish the body or the senses; it locates worship in something deeper than them. The same God who is spirit commanded the cherubim of Exodus 25, the carvings of 1 Kings 6, and the bronze serpent of Numbers 21 — none of which were idolatrous until people burned incense to them. "In spirit and truth" describes orientation, not iconoclasm. The verse rules out empty ritual and parochial gate- keeping; it does not rule out a cross on a wall.
The NWT renders "God is a Spirit" with an indefinite article — the same grammatical move it makes at c ("the Word was a god"). Standard English versions read "God is spirit" (anarthrous predicate noun, describing the divine nature). The NWT's wording subtly recasts the verse as if God belonged to a category of spirit-beings rather than as if spiritual essence is what God is. The choice fits a theology in which Jesus is "a god," angels are "spirit creatures," and the Father is "a Spirit" — all members of a graded spirit hierarchy.