John 4:1-42

1 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus more disciples doth make and baptize than John,

2 (though indeed Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples,)

3 he left Judea and went away again to Galilee,

4 and it was behoving him to go through Samaria.

5 He cometh, therefore, to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the place that Jacob gave to Joseph his son;

6 and there was there a well of Jacob. Jesus therefore having been weary from the journeying, was sitting thus on the well; it was as it were the sixth hour;

7 there cometh a woman out of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her, `Give me to drink;'

8 for his disciples were gone away to the city, that they may buy victuals;

9 the Samaritan woman therefore saith to him, `How dost thou, being a Jew, ask drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?' for Jews have no dealing with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said to her, `If thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked him, and he would have given thee living water.'

11 The woman saith to him, `Sir, thou hast not even a vessel to draw with, and the well is deep; whence, then, hast thou the living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who did give us the well, and himself out of it did drink, and his sons, and his cattle?'

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

14 but whoever may drink of the water that I will give him, may not thirst -- to the age; and the water that I will give him shall become in him a well of water, springing up to life age-during.'

15 The woman saith unto him, `Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.'

16 Jesus saith to her, `Go, call thy husband, and come hither;'

17 the woman answered and said, `I have not a husband.' Jesus saith to her, `Well didst thou say -- A husband I have not;

18 for five husbands thou hast had, and, now, he whom thou hast is not thy husband; this hast thou said truly.'

19 The woman saith to him, `Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet;

20 our fathers in this mountain did worship, and ye -- ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where it behoveth to worship.'

21 Jesus saith to her, `Woman, believe me, that there doth come an hour, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father;

22 ye worship what ye have not known; we worship what we have known, because the salvation is of the Jews;

23 but, there cometh an hour, and it now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father also doth seek such to worship him;

24 God [is] a Spirit, and those worshipping Him, in spirit and truth it doth behove to worship.'

25 The woman saith to him, `I have known that Messiah doth come, who is called Christ, when that one may come, he will tell us all things;'

26 Jesus saith to her, `I am [he], who am speaking to thee.'

27 And upon this came his disciples, and were wondering that with a woman he was speaking, no one, however, said, `What seekest thou?' or `Why speakest thou with her?'

28 The woman then left her water-jug, and went away to the city, and saith to the men,

29 `Come, see a man, who told me all things -- as many as I did; is this the Christ?'

30 They went forth therefore out of the city, and were coming unto him.

31 And in the meanwhile his disciples were asking him, saying, `Rabbi, eat;'

32 and he said to them, `I have food to eat that ye have not known.'

33 The disciples then said one to another, `Did any one bring him anything to eat?'

34 Jesus saith to them, `My food is, that I may do the will of Him who sent me, and may finish His work;

35 do not say that it is yet four months, and the harvest cometh; lo, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and see the fields, that they are white unto harvest already.

36 `And he who is reaping doth receive a reward, and doth gather fruit to life age-during, that both he who is sowing and he who is reaping may rejoice together;

37 for in this the saying is the true one, that one is the sower and another the reaper.

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

39 And from that city many believed in him, of the Samaritans, because of the word of the woman testifying, -- `He told me all things -- as many as I did.'

40 When, then, the Samaritans came unto him, they were asking him to remain with them, and he remained there two days;

41 and many more did believe because of his word,

42 and said to the woman -- `No more because of thy speaking do we believe; for we ourselves have heard and known that this is truly the Saviour of the world -- the Christ.'

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.