Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 4:23

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers." — John 4:23 (ASV)

Jesus avoided the argument by elevating the issue above mere location. He made no concessions and intimated that the Samaritans’ worship was confused: “You Samaritans worship what you do not know.” Probably he was alluding to the error of the woman’s ancestors, who had accepted a syncretism of foreign deities with the ancestral God of the Jewish faith. To Jesus, true worship is that of the spirit, which means that the worshiper must deal honestly and openly with God. She, on the contrary, had been furtive and unwilling to open her heart to God.