John 4:7-38

The Woman of Samaria

7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."

8 For His ¹disciples had gone away into ²the city to buy food.

9 Therefore the ³Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For ⁴Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you ⁵living water."

11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that ⁶living water?

12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who ⁷gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"

13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;

14 but whoever * drinks of the water that I will give him ⁸shall never * thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to ⁹eternal life."

15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, ¹⁰give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."

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

17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said, 'I have no husband ';

18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly."

19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are ¹¹a prophet.

20 "¹²Our fathers worshiped in ¹³this mountain, and you people say that ¹⁴in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, ¹⁵an hour is coming when ¹⁶neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22 "¹⁷You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for ¹⁸salvation is from the Jews.

23 "But ¹⁹an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ²⁰in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship ²¹in spirit and truth."

25 The woman said to Him, "I know that ²²Messiah is coming (²³He who is called Christ ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us."

26 Jesus said to her, "²⁴I who speak to you am He."

27 At this point His ²⁵disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?"

28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men,

29 "Come, see a man ²⁶who told me all the things that I have done; ²⁷this is not the Christ, is it?"

30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "²⁸Rabbi, eat."

32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."

33 So the ²⁹disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?"

34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to ³⁰do the will of Him who sent Me and to ³¹accomplish His work.

35 "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest '? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white ³²for harvest.

36 "Already he who reaps is receiving ³³wages and is gathering ³⁴fruit for ³⁵life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

37 "For in this case the saying is true, '³⁶One sows and another reaps.'

38 "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."

John 4:7-38 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. John 2:2
• 2. John 4:5, 39
• 3. Luke 9:52
• 4. Ezra 4:3-6, 11f; Matthew 10:5; John 8:48; Acts 10:28
• 5. Jeremiah 2:13; John 4:14; John 7:37; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:1, 17
• 6. Jeremiah 2:13; John 4:14; John 7:37; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:1, 17
• 7. John 4:6
• 8. John 6:35; John 7:38
• 9. Matthew 25:46; John 6:27
• 10. John 6:35
• 11. Matthew 21:11; Luke 7:16, 39; Luke 24:19; John 6:14; John 7:40; John 9:17
• 12. Genesis 33:20; John 4:12
• 13. Deuteronomy 11:29; Joshua 8:33
• 14. Luke 9:53
• 15. John 4:23; John 5:25, 28; John 16:2, 32
• 16. Malachi 1:11; 1 Timothy 2:8
• 17. 2 Kings 17:28-41
• 18. Isaiah 2:3; Romans 3:1; Romans 9:4
• 19. John 4:21; John 5:25, 28; John 16:2, 32
• 20. Philippians 3:3
• 21. Philippians 3:3
• 22. Daniel 9:25; John 1:41
• 23. Matthew 1:16; Matthew 27:17, 22; Luke 2:11
• 24. John 8:24, 28, 58; John 9:37; John 13:19
• 25. John 4:8
• 26. John 4:17
• 27. Matthew 12:23; John 7:26, 31
• 28. Matthew 23:7; John 6:25, 49">2John 6:25, 49; Mark 9:5; Mark 11:21; Mark 14:45; John 1:38, 49; John 3:2, 26; John 6:25; John 9:2; John 11:8
• 29. Luke 6:13-16; John 1:40-49; John 2:2
• 30. John 5:30; John 6:38
• 31. John 5:36; John 17:4; John 19:28, 30
• 32. Matthew 9:37, 38; Luke 10:2
• 33. Proverbs 11:18; 1 Corinthians 9:17
• 34. Romans 1:13
• 35. Matthew 19:29; John 3:36; John 4:14; John 5:24; Romans 2:7; Romans 6:23
• 36. Job 31:8; Micah 6:15

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Lord"
• [b]. Or "Lord"
• [c]. Or "Lord"
• [d]. Or "Spirit"
• [e]. I.e. the Messiah