In John 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. She speaks of worship in John 4:20: “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” She means Mount Gerizim, and she states it with certainty.
The Samaritans were not pure Jews. They came from a mix of Israel’s remnant and foreigners brought in after Assyria’s conquest, as 2 Kings 17:24-29 records. They followed the five books of Moses but changed them to match their claims. They taught that Gerizim was where Abraham offered Isaac and where Moses commanded blessings—not Jerusalem or any other place. They even altered Deuteronomy 27:4 in their texts to read “Gerizim” instead of “Ebal.” Long before Jesus’ time, they built a temple on that mountain. Though it was gone by His day, they still held it as the true place of worship. That is why they held to it so firmly.
Jesus replies in John 4:22: “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” Their worship stood on error, not truth. Many today walk the same path. They cling to their own “mountain”—a belief or way of life resting on false ideas. They see it as right, just as the Samaritans did, but it pulls them away from God.
Jesus makes it clear in John 4:24: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Too many people worship God with their own “truth.” They twist His Word to fit their desires, add rules to Scripture and claim others are not right with Him if they do not follow, or even justify sins in His name. Like the Samaritans, they build a mountain of error and call it holy. Jesus shows there is no place for this—worship must be in spirit and in truth, nothing less.
The woman heard this truth and went to her city, saying in John 4:29, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.” Many believed because of her.
That is soul-winning—leading people from their false mountains to God’s truth. One talk with Jesus turned a town to Him.
