John 4:1-42

1 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus makes and baptises more disciples than John

2 (however, Jesus himself did not baptise, but his disciples),

3 he left Judaea and went away again unto Galilee.

4 And he must needs pass through Samaria.

5 He comes therefore to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Now a fountain of Jacob's was there; Jesus therefore, being wearied with the way he had come, sat just as he was at the fountain. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman comes out of Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her, Give me to drink

8 (for his disciples had gone away into the city that they might buy provisions).

9 The Samaritan woman therefore says to him, How dost thou, being a Jew, ask to drink of me who am a Samaritan woman? for Jews have no intercourse with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11 The woman says to him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou the living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?

13 Jesus answered and said to her, Every one who drinks of this water shall thirst again;

14 but whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life.

15 The woman says to him, Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.

16 Jesus says to her, Go, call thy husband, and come here.

17 The woman answered and said, I have not a husband. Jesus says to her, Thou hast well said, I have not a husband;

18 for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom now thou hast is not thy husband: this thou hast spoken truly.

19 The woman says to him, Sir, I see that thou art a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.

21 Jesus says to her, Woman, believe me, [the] hour is coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.

22 Ye worship ye know not what; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews.

23 But [the] hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers.

24 God [is] a spirit; and they who worship him must worship [him] in spirit and truth.

25 The woman says to him, I know that Messias is coming, who is called Christ; when *he* comes he will tell us all things.

26 Jesus says to her, I who speak to thee am [he].

27 And upon this came his disciples, and wondered that he spoke with a woman; yet no one said, What seekest thou? or, Why speakest thou with her?

28 The woman then left her waterpot and went away into the city, and says to the men,

29 Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?

30 They went out of the city and came to him.

31 But meanwhile the disciples asked him saying, Rabbi, eat.

32 But he said to them, I have food to eat which ye do not know.

33 The disciples therefore said to one another, Has any one brought him [anything] to eat?

34 Jesus says to them, My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work.

35 Do not ye say, that there are yet four months and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest.

36 He that reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together.

37 For in this is [verified] the true saying, It is one who sows and another who reaps.

38 I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured; others have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours.

39 But many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him because of the word of the woman who bore witness, He told me all things that I had ever done.

40 When therefore the Samaritans came to him they asked him to abide with them, and he abode there two days.

41 And more a great deal believed on account of his word;

42 and they said to the woman, [It is] no longer on account of thy saying that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.

John 4:1-42 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 JOHN 4

In this chapter the apostle cautions against seducing spirits; advises to try them, and gives rules by which they may be known, and by which they are distinguished from others; and then returns to his favourite subject, brotherly love. He exhorts the saints not to believe every man that came with a doctrine to them, but to try them, since there were many false teachers in the world; and gives a rule by which they may be tried and judged, as that whatever teacher owns Christ to be come in the flesh is of God, but he that does not is not of God, but is the spirit of antichrist that should come, and was in the world, 1Jo 4:1,2, but, for the comfort of those to whom he writes, he observes, that they were of God, and had overcome these false teachers, through the mighty power of the divine Spirit in them, who is greater than Satan, and all his emissaries, 1Jo 4:4. He distinguishes between seducing spirits, and faithful ministers of the word; the former are of the world, speak of worldly things, and worldly men hear them; but the latter are of God, and they that have any spiritual knowledge of God hear them; but such as are not of God do not heal them, by which may he known the spirit of truth from the spirit of error, 1Jo 4:5,6. And then the apostle returns to his former exhortation to brotherly love, which he enforces by the following reasons, because it is of God, a fruit of his Spirit and grace, and because it is an evidence of being born of God, and of having a true knowledge of him; whereas he that is destitute of it does not know him, seeing God is love, 1Jo 4:7,8, and having affirmed that God is love, he proves it, by the mission of his Son, to be a propitiation for the sins of such that did not love him, and that they might live through him; wherefore he argues, that if God had such a love to men, so undeserving of it, then the saints ought to love one another, 1Jo 4:9-11. Other arguments follow, engaging to it, as that God is invisible; and if he is to be loved, then certainly his people, who are visible; and that such who love one another, God dwells in them, and his love is perfected in them; and that he dwells in them is known by the gift of his Spirit to them, 1Jo 4:12,13, and that God the Father so loved the world, as to send his Son to be the Saviour of it, before asserted, is confirmed by the apostles, who were eyewitnesses of it; who also declare, that whoever confesses the sonship of Christ, God dwells in him, and he in God; and who had an assurance of the love of God to them, who is love itself; so that he that dwells in God, and God in him, dwells in love, 1Jo 4:14-16. And great are the advantages arising from hence, for hereby the saints' love to God is made perfect; they have boldness in the day of judgment, since as he is, so are they in this world, and fear is cast out by it, 1Jo 4:17,18, but lest too much should be thought to be ascribed to love, that is said to be owing to the love of God to them, which is prior to theirs to him, and the reason of it, 1Jo 4:19. And the chapter is closed with observing the contradiction there is between a profession of love to God, and hatred of the brethren, seeing God, who is invisible, cannot be loved, if brethren that are seen are hated; and also the commandment, that he that loves God should love his brother also, 1Jo 4:20,21.

Footnotes

• [a]. Another word is used for the 'well,' ver. 11, in which the spring was; and this word, translated 'fountain,' is used for what springs up as life in the renewed man.
• [b]. Lit. 'thus:' see 1Cor. 7.26, 'so as he is' and Note, 2Pet. 3.4.
• [c]. 'Never thirst for ever' is a little awkward, but 'never thirst' is too vague; it may be to our minds much as a present thing for this life. The expression is strong in negation, and expresses lasting for ever: see chs. 8.51,52; 10.28; 11.26; 13.8.
• [d]. Proskuneo, and so to ver. 24: see Matt 4.10.
• [e]. Or 'an hour,' as ch. 5.25,28, and see Note, 1John 2.18.
• [f]. Or 'God [is] spirit.'
• [g]. As ch. 2.11.