← Back to John

ವ್ಯಾಖ್ಯಾನ ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾತ್ರ ಲಭ್ಯವಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ ಪ್ರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿದೆ.

Gospels · John

John 4 — The Water That I Shall Give Him Shall Be in Him a Well of Water Springing Up Into Everlasting Life

Summary

He must needs go through Samaria. At Jacob's well, wearied — Give me to drink. The Samaritan woman; the living water. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Thou hast had five husbands. I that speak unto thee am he. The disciples return; the woman runs to the city. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. The fields are white already to harvest. Many of the Samaritans believed — we have heard him ourselves... this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. He heals the nobleman's son in Capernaum by a word from Cana.

Key verse

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

— John 4:14

Outline
  1. v.1-26 The woman at the well
  2. v.27-42 Many Samaritans believe
  3. v.43-54 The nobleman's son healed
Verse-by-verse
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Never thirst. Not because the desire is removed but because the well is now inside, not outside. The Christian carries his fountain.

Springing up. The verb implies bubbling, leaping. The Spirit's life is not stagnant; it ascends from within.

Cross-references John 7:38-39 · Isaiah 12:3 · Revelation 22:17 · Jeremiah 2:13
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

In spirit and in truth. Worship is no longer place-based (this mountain or Jerusalem). It is heart-based and truth-based. The two cannot be separated — feeling without truth is sentimentality; truth without spirit is mechanism.

The Father seeketh such. God is actively looking for true worshippers. The verse reverses the usual picture — the worshipper does not find God so much as God finds His worshippers.

34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

My meat. Doing the Father's will fed Him. The thing that exhausts the un-spiritual man strengthens the obedient one.

Finish his work. Christ's aim was completion, not partial labor. The cross would be His way of finishing — it is finished (19:30) echoes here.

Cross-references John 17:4 · John 5:30 · John 6:38 · Matthew 4:4
42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Heard him ourselves. The woman's testimony brought them; the encounter with Christ kept them. Every Christian witness is meant to deliver hearers to Christ's own voice.

Saviour of the world. A startling claim from Samaritan villagers in a Gospel's opening chapters. The scope of His mission was perceived immediately by the unlikely.

Cross-references 1 John 4:14 · John 3:17 · Acts 4:12 · 1 Timothy 4:10
Key doctrines
The Spirit as a Well Within
John 4:14 · John 7:38-39 · Revelation 22:17
Worship in Spirit and Truth
John 4:23-24 · Philippians 3:3 · Romans 12:1
Christ Sustained by the Father's Will
John 4:34 · John 17:4 · John 6:38
Christ the Saviour of the World
John 4:42 · 1 John 4:14 · 1 Timothy 4:10
Application

Verse 14 settles where you go for thirst. The wells you have been drinking from leave you thirsty again. The water Christ gives is in you. If you keep going back to dry wells — entertainment, ambition, approval — you have not yet drunk what Christ offered. Ask for the inner well; it springs up.

Christ in this chapter

John 4 shows Christ's missionary heart. He breaks ethnic taboos for a Samaritan woman; He breaks geographic ones for a nobleman's son. The chapter's reach is the gospel's. He is the water inside, the worship-locator, the food of obedience, the Saviour of the world.

← John 3 Chapter 4 of 21 John 5 →