NIV Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition - Flipbook - Page 29
page 1805
4:10
cIsa 44:3; Jer 2:13;
Zec 14:8; Jn 7:37,38;
Rev 21:6; 22:1,17
4:12
dver
6
4:14
eJn 6:35
fJn 7:38
gMt 25:46
4:15
6:34
hJn
4:19
iMt 21:11
4:20
11:29; Jos 8:33
9:53
jDt
kLk
4:21
lJn 5:28; 16:2
mMal 1:11; 1Ti 2:8
4:22
n2Ki 17:28-41
oIsa 2:3; Ro 3:1,2;
9:4,5
J ohn
4:23
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan b woman.
How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. a )
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a
drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” c
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. W
here
can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the
well d and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever
drinks the water I give them will never thirst. e Indeed, the water I give them will become
in them a spring of water f welling up to eternal life.” g
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty h and have
to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are r ight when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is,
you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you
have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. i 20 Our ancestors wor
shiped on this mountain, j but you Jews c laim that the p
lace where we must worship is
in Jerusalem.” k
21“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming l when you will worship the
Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. m 22You Samaritans worship what you
do not know; n we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. o 23Yet a time
a
9 Or do not use dishes Samaritans have used
of his or her race, social position, and past sins. We must be prepared to
share the gospel at any time and in any place. Jesus crossed all social,
cultural, and political barriers to share the gospel, and we who follow
him must do no less. What barriers do you need to cross?
4:10 What did Jesus mean by “living water”? In the Old Testament, many
verses speak of thirsting after God as one thirsts for water (Psalm 42:1;
Isaiah 55:1; Jeremiah 2:13; Zechariah 13:1). God is called the fountain of
life (Psalm 36:9) and the spring of living water (Jeremiah 17:13). In saying
he would bring living water that could forever quench a person’s thirst
for God, Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. Only the Messiah could
give this gift that satisfies the soul’s desire.
4:13-15 Many spiritual functions parallel physical functions. As our
bodies hunger and thirst, so do our souls. But our souls need spiritual
food and water. The woman confused the two kinds of water, perhaps
because no one had ever talked with her about her spiritual hunger and
thirst before. We would not think of depriving our bodies of food and
water when they hunger or thirst. Why, then, should we deprive our souls?
The living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, the Bible, satisfy our
hungry and thirsty souls.
4:15 The woman mistakenly believed that if she received the water
Jesus offered, she would not have to return to the well each day. She was
interested in Jesus’ message because she thought it could make her life
easier. But if that were always the case, people would accept the Good
News for the wrong reasons. Jesus did not come to take away challenges
but to change us on the inside and to empower us to deal with problems
from God’s perspective.
4:16-20 When this woman discovered that Jesus knew all about her
private life, she quickly changed the subject. Often people become uncomfortable when the conversation gets too close to home, and they
try to talk about something else. As we talk to others, we should feel free
to gently guide the conversation back to Jesus and what he has done for
us. Jesus’ presence exposes sin and can make people uncomfortable,
but only he can forgive sin and give new life. We must recognize and
embrace this tension that we will often experience when we share our
faith with others.
4:20-24 The woman brought up a popular theological issue—the correct place to worship. But her question was a smoke screen, a diversion, to
keep the conversation from becoming too personal and vulnerable. Her
lifestyle had most likely brought much ridicule and rejection from others,
and she probably expected this from Jesus as well. Jesus directed the
conversation to a much more important point: The location of worship
is not nearly as important as the one whom we worship. Jesus knew
that once the woman recognized him as the Messiah, her life choices
would change as she was transformed into a person constantly refreshed
with living water.
4:22 When Jesus said, “Salvation is from the Jews,” he meant that only
through the Jewish Messiah would the whole world find salvation. God
had promised that through the Jewish people the whole earth would
be blessed (Genesis 12:3). The Old Testament prophets had called the
Jews to be a light to the other nations of the world, bringing them to
a knowledge of God and showing them God’s way to live and how to
treat others. They had also predicted the Messiah’s coming. The woman
at the well may have known of these passages and been expecting the
Messiah, but she didn’t realize that she was talking to him!
Mediterranean
Sea
GALILEE
N
Cana
Nazareth
Mount Ebal
SAMARIA
Mount Gerizim
Sychar
Jerusalem
JUDEA
IDUMEA
Capernaum
Sea of
Galilee
Jordan River
4:9
bMt 10:5; Lk 9:52,53
•
PE
RE
A
Dead
Sea
0
0
20 mi
20 km
THE VISIT
IN SAMARIA
Jesus went to
Jerusalem for the
Passover, cleared
the temple, and
talked with Nicodemus, a religious
leader, about eternal
life. He then left
Jerusalem and traveled in Judea. On
his way to Galilee,
he visited Sychar
and other villages
in Samaria. Unlike
most Jews of the
day, he did not try
to avoid the region
of Samaria.