John 4:1-15
4: Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “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?” (For 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 living 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 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He 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 whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Reflection
The world of sinners loved by God includes both respectable insiders seeking truth (Nicodemus) and broken outsiders running from the truth (the Samaritan woman). None of us are beyond the need of God’s grace, and none of us are beyond the reach of God’s grace.
This interchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman shows us that eternal life isn’t just about our life in heaven when we die; it is also about the life of heaven “welling up” (John 4:14) in us while we are still here. Jesus’ conversation is designed to help this woman see the realities of “heaven” despite the realities of her sin and shame. The gospel is not abstract or impractical; it is for real people living in everyday situations. The woman was shocked that a Jewish man would speak openly to a Samaritan woman. Here Jesus confronts racism and sexism. He has come, as the old hymn says, to “make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.”
Titus 3:1-3
3: Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Reflection
Three often overlooked evidences of gospel change are submissiveness (Titus 3:1), kindness in speech (v. 2), and humility (v. 3). These are qualities demonstrated more in the home than on the stage. If the gospel has not transformed us in these areas, we cannot claim to know anything of its power (cf. 1 John 3:16–24; James 1:26–27; 3:6–12). Again Paul is making a direct contrast between the lives of true believers and false teachers (Titus 1:10–16; 3:9–11). Christ’s disciples are “submissive” rather than “insubordinate”; “gentle” and “courteous” rather than “evil beasts” and “detestable”; “ready” for every good work rather than “unfit” for them; and they avoid “quarreling” rather than “quarreling about the law.” This is the fruit produced by the gospel of grace.
Psalm 30:3
3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
Eternal life is already underway for the disciple of Jesus. Praise God for beginning this work in your life, and ask him to cause it to make a difference in the way you live today.