<p>4:23 <i>But the hour comes and now is, when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such worshipers are who the Father seeks</i>- The Lord&rsquo;s &lsquo;hour&rsquo; which was to come was His death (2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23,27; 13:1; 16:32 Gk.; 17:1; 19:27). Yet in a sense the essence of His death was ongoing throughout His life; the &lsquo;hour&rsquo; was to come, and yet was. Then, through the cross, true worship of the Father in spirit and in truth was enabled, when the veil of the temple was torn down, and the system of Mosaic worship ended. I have noted above that the Spirit was only to be given when the Son was glorified; but that hour was then and was also to come; therefore in a sense the Spirit could be given even then.</p><p>The &lsquo;true&rsquo; worship of the Father doesn&rsquo;t imply necessarily a &lsquo;false&rsquo; worship prior to it; it is the &lsquo;true&rsquo; in contrast to the shadow that had existed before it (cp. the true vine, the true manna). But the true worship was to be in the Spirit, in the heart, the place where the fountain of living water could be placed.</p><p>There are many examples of where God and man are portrayed as being in some kind of mutual relationship. Consider Jn. 4:23: &ldquo;The Father seeks such to worship Him&rdquo;. The Hebrew / Greek idea of &lsquo;seeking&rsquo; God implied to worship Him. Understanding that, albeit through the mask of translation, we see that the Father is seeking seekers. We seek Him, He seeks us; and thus we meet. Men were found by Jesus, just as they were seeking to find Him (Jn. 1:39,43); there is an electric moment when the Lord and man meet. He seeks for us, and we seek for Him; and we find each other.</p>