True Spirituality

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

John 4:24

Former Congressman J. C. Watts, Jr. (Republican, Oklahoma) made the statement famous in his speech at the 1996 Republican Convention, while one of the earliest references to it comes from the nineteenth-century evangelist D. L. Moody. Since Moody’s day, and Congressman Watts’s day, and up to the present day, this statement continues to ring true: “Character is what you are when no one is looking.”

The issue, of course, is double-mindedness. Are we really who we say we are? If so, what is the essence of a Christian—that is, the true nature and character of a follower of Jesus Christ? One of the surest ways to discover the essence of true spirituality is to pull back the curtain on heaven and see what occupies its residents. Since we leave everything else behind when we enter heaven, perhaps whatever we take with us is close to the definition of true spirituality.

The book of Revelation suggests that one thing dominates heaven: worship (Revelation 4:8, 11; 5:9–10, 13–14; 7:11–12; 11:15–18; 15:3–4; 19:1–8). When we are stripped of all we pretend to be, worship is what will endure for eternity.

For the Christian, worship is what we should do even when no one sees us except God.