John 4:4-30

4 ¹And he had to pass through Samaria.

5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ²that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, ³wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.^[a]

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ⁴"Give me a drink."

8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (⁵For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you ⁶living water."

11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

12 ⁷Are you greater than our father Jacob? ⁸He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock."

13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

14 but ⁹whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ¹⁰will never be thirsty again.^[b] The water that I will give him will become ¹¹in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, ¹²give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

16 Jesus said to her, "Go, ¹³call your husband, and come here."

17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';

18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that ¹⁴you are ¹⁵a prophet.

20 ¹⁶Our fathers worshiped on ¹⁷this mountain, but you say that ¹⁸in Jerusalem is ¹⁹the place where people ought to worship."

21 Jesus said to her, ²⁰"Woman, believe me, ²¹the hour is coming when ²²neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22 ²³You worship what you do not know; ²⁴we worship what we know, for ²⁵salvation is ²⁶from the Jews.

23 But ²⁷the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ²⁸in spirit and ²⁹truth, for the Father ³⁰is seeking such people to worship him.

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

25 The woman said to him, "I know that ³¹Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ³²he will tell us all things."

26 Jesus said to her, ³³"I who speak to you am he."

27 Just then ³⁴his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"

28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,

29 "Come, see a man ³⁵who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"

30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

John 4:4-30 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.

Cross References

• 1. [Luke 13:33]
• 2. ver. 12; Genesis 33:19; Genesis 48:22; Joshua 24:32
• 3. John 19:28; [Matthew 4:2; Matthew 8:24; Matthew 21:18]
• 4. [See ver. 6 above]
• 5. Luke 9:53; [John 8:48; Ezra 4:3, 10]; See Matthew 10:5
• 6. John 7:38; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13
• 7. [John 8:53]
• 8. ver. 5
• 9. [John 6:35, 51, 58; John 7:37]
• 10. [Isaiah 49:10; Revelation 7:16]
• 11. John 7:38
• 12. [John 6:34]
• 13. John 16:8
• 14. John 9:17; [John 6:14]
• 15. Luke 7:16, 39; See Matthew 21:11
• 16. Genesis 12:6, 7; Genesis 33:18, 20; Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 27:12; Joshua 8:33
• 17. Judges 9:7
• 18. See Deuteronomy 12:5
• 19. [John 11:48]
• 20. John 2:4
• 21. ver. 23; John 5:25, 28; John 16:2, 25, 32
• 22. Zephaniah 2:11; Malachi 1:11; 1 Timothy 2:8
• 23. [2 Kings 17:28-34; Acts 17:23]
• 24. Psalms 147:19, 20; Isaiah 2:3; Romans 3:1, 2; Romans 9:4, 5
• 25. Psalms 147:19, 20; Isaiah 2:3; Romans 3:1, 2; Romans 9:4, 5
• 26. Matthew 2:4, 5; Acts 13:23; Romans 11:26
• 27. ver. 21
• 28. [Romans 8:15; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 3:3]
• 29. Psalms 145:18; [John 1:17]
• 30. [John 6:44]
• 31. See John 1:41
• 32. Deuteronomy 18:18; [ver. 29]
• 33. John 9:35-37
• 34. ver. 8
• 35. ver. 17, 18; [ver. 25]

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, about noon
• [b]. Greek forever