Jesus says the hour is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). He grounds this in God’s nature: “God is spirit,” and says worship must align with that reality (John 4:24).
In John 4:16–26, Jesus shifts the conversation from “living water” to the woman’s personal situation, exposing what she tries to keep hidden. Her response changes from evasive to impressed, and she raises the long-running dispute about where people should worship. This scene sits in John’s larger pattern of Jesus meeting individuals and taking ordinary topics into deeper questions about God and life (as with Nicodemus in John 3). In John 4, Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman at a well, beginning with water and moving toward a gift that satisfies more deeply.
Jesus deliberately turns the conversation from “living water” to the woman’s personal history (verses 16–18). He draws out a truthful statement from her (“I have no husband”) and then discloses that her situation is more complicated than she has said. The text presents this as accurate knowledge that changes how she evaluates him (verses 19–20).
A common mistake is to turn the wording into a slogan. The better reading keeps the phrase tied to the passage, the speaker, and the problem the book is addressing.
Start with John 4:23, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
23But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.