John 4:1-42

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

1 When Jesus realized that the Pharisees were aware He ^[a] was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John

2 (although it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples),

3 He left Judea and returned to Galilee.

4 Now He had to pass through Samaria.

5 So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

6 Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. ^[b]

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 “You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ^[c]

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water?

12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

14 But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said to her, “You are correct to say that you have no husband.

18 In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I see that You are a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

23 But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.

24 God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

26 Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”

The Disciples Return and Marvel

27 Just then His disciples returned and were surprised that He was speaking with a woman. But no one asked Him, “What do You want from her?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

28 Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people,

29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

30 So they left the town and made their way toward Jesus.

31 Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But He told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33 So the disciples asked one another, “Could someone have brought Him food?”

34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.

35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe ^[d] for harvest.

36 Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.

37 For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”

40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days.

41 And many more believed because of His message.

42 They said to the woman, “We now believe not only because of your words; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man truly is the Savior 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]. Literally When therefore Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus; NE, WH, BYZ, and TR When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus
• [b]. That is, about noon
• [c]. Tischendorf does not include this sentence.
• [d]. Literally white