John 4:1-45

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ¹baptizing more disciples than John

2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples),

3 he left Judea and departed ²again for Galilee.

4 ³And he had to pass through Samaria.

5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ⁴that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, ⁵wearied 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, ⁶“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? ” ( ⁷For 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 ⁸living 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 ⁹Are you greater than our father Jacob? ¹⁰He 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 ¹¹whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ¹²will never be thirsty again. ^[b] The water that I will give him will become ¹³in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. ”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, ¹⁴give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. ”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, ¹⁵call 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 ¹⁶you are ¹⁷a prophet.

20 ¹⁸Our fathers worshiped on ¹⁹this mountain, but you say that ²⁰in Jerusalem is ²¹the place where people ought to worship. ”

21 Jesus said to her, ²²“Woman, believe me, ²³the hour is coming when ²⁴neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22 ²⁵You worship what you do not know; ²⁶we worship what we know, for ²⁷salvation is ²⁸from the Jews.

23 But ²⁹the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ³⁰in spirit and ³¹truth, for the Father ³²is 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 ³³Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ³⁴he will tell us all things. ”

26 Jesus said to her, ³⁵“I who speak to you am he. ”

27 Just then ³⁶his 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 ³⁷who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? ”

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

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ³⁸“Rabbi, eat. ”

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about. ”

33 So the disciples said to one another, ³⁹“Has anyone brought him something to eat? ”

34 Jesus said to them, ⁴⁰“My food is ⁴¹to do the will of him who sent me and ⁴²to accomplish his work.

35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ⁴³the fields are white for harvest.

36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ⁴⁴sower and ⁴⁵reaper ⁴⁶may rejoice together.

37 For here the saying holds true, ⁴⁷‘One sows and another reaps. ’

38 I sent you to reap ⁴⁸that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ⁴⁹and you have entered into their labor. ”

39 Many Samaritans ⁵⁰from that town believed in him ⁵¹because of ⁵²the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did. ”

40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.

41 And many more believed ⁵³because of his word.

42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ⁵⁴and we know that this is indeed ⁵⁵the Savior ⁵⁶of the world. ”

43 After ⁵⁷the two days he departed for Galilee.

44 (For Jesus himself had testified ⁵⁸that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown. )

45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, ⁵⁹having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For ⁶⁰they too had gone to the feast.

John 4:1-45 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. 4:1 ch. 3:22, 26
• 2. 4:3 ch. 2:11, 12
• 3. 4:4 [Luke 13:33]
• 4. 4:5 ver. 12; Gen. 33:19; 48:22; Josh. 24:32
• 5. 4:6 ch. 19:28; [Matt. 4:2; 8:24; 21:18]
• 6. 4:7 [See ver. 6 above]
• 7. 4:9 Luke 9:53; [ch. 8:48; Ezra 4:3, 10]; See Matt. 10:5
• 8. 4:10 ch. 7:38; Jer. 2:13; 17:13
• 9. 4:12 [ch. 8:53]
• 10. 4:12 ver. 5
• 11. 4:14 [ch. 6:35, 51, 58; 7:37]
• 12. 4:14 [Isa. 49:10; Rev. 7:16]
• 13. 4:14 ch. 7:38
• 14. 4:15 [ch. 6:34]
• 15. 4:16 ch. 16:8
• 16. 4:19 ch. 9:17; [ch. 6:14]
• 17. 4:19 Luke 7:16, 39; See Matt. 21:11
• 18. 4:20 Gen. 12:6, 7; 33:18, 20; Deut. 11:29; 27:12; Josh. 8:33
• 19. 4:20 Judg. 9:7
• 20. 4:20 See Deut. 12:5
• 21. 4:20 [ch. 11:48]
• 22. 4:21 ch. 2:4
• 23. 4:21 ver. 23; ch. 5:25, 28; 16:2, 25, 32
• 24. 4:21 Zeph. 2:11; Mal. 1:11; 1 Tim. 2:8
• 25. 4:22 [2 Kgs. 17:28-34; Acts 17:23]
• 26. 4:22 Ps. 147:19, 20; Isa. 2:3; Rom. 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5
• 27. 4:22 Ps. 147:19, 20; Isa. 2:3; Rom. 3:1, 2; 9:4, 5
• 28. 4:22 Matt. 2:4, 5; Acts 13:23; Rom. 11:26
• 29. 4:23 ver. 21
• 30. 4:23 [Rom. 8:15; Eph. 2:18; 6:18; Phil. 3:3]
• 31. 4:23 Ps. 145:18; [ch. 1:17]
• 32. 4:23 [ch. 6:44]
• 33. 4:25 See ch. 1:41
• 34. 4:25 Deut. 18:18; [ver. 29]
• 35. 4:26 ch. 9:35-37
• 36. 4:27 ver. 8
• 37. 4:29 ver. 17, 18; [ver. 25]
• 38. 4:31 See ch. 1:38
• 39. 4:33 [ver. 11, 15; ch. 3:4; 6:34, 52]
• 40. 4:34 [Job 23:12]
• 41. 4:34 ch. 5:30; 6:38; 14:31
• 42. 4:34 ch. 5:36; 17:4
• 43. 4:35 Matt. 9:37; Luke 10:2; [ver. 25, 30]
• 44. 4:36 [Matt. 13:37; Mark 4:14]
• 45. 4:36 ver. 38
• 46. 4:36 Isa. 9:3; [Amos 9:13]
• 47. 4:37 [Job 31:8]
• 48. 4:38 Josh. 24:13
• 49. 4:38 [Acts 8:5-17, 25]
• 50. 4:39 ver. 5, 8
• 51. 4:39 [ch. 17:20]
• 52. 4:39 ver. 29
• 53. 4:41 ch. 8:30
• 54. 4:42 [1 John 5:20]
• 55. 4:42 1 John 4:14; [ch. 3:17; 12:47; 1 Tim. 4:10]
• 56. 4:42 See ch. 1:29
• 57. 4:43 ver. 40
• 58. 4:44 See Matt. 13:57
• 59. 4:45 ch. 2:23; 3:2
• 60. 4:45 ver. 20

Footnotes

• [a] 4:6 That is, about noon
• [b] 4:14 Greek 'forever'