Bible Study Notes - Gospel of John 4:1-26 - Part II

Bible Study Notes – Gospel of John 4:1-26 

Part II

• Her entrenched beliefs will be the basis of her defensiveness later in the conversation.  Like many contemporary Christians, this woman struggles to align her beliefs with her lifestyle.  When questioned about nay inconsistencies, she appeals to the correctness of her theoretical beliefs as justification.
• In an act of pure empathy, Jesus foregoes furthering any controversy about religion. He shifts the conversation to a discussion of genuine spirituality as it develops as a natural outgrowth of a vibrant relationship with Almighty God.
• In employing the symbolism of living water, Jesus demonstrates the limited ability of staid religious beliefs to affect positively someone’s life.  Just as anyone drinking from Jacob’s well at noon on a sunny day in this Middle Eastern town will thirst again, anyone relying upon theoretical religious concepts will still thirst for love, peace, joy and wholeness.
• In contrast, Jesus offers living water which is the Holy Spirit and His fruit which become an everlasting spring of abundant and eternal life within anyone who receives Christ.  The fruit of the Holy Spirit is faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, love, peace, patience and self-control.  These attributes yield an unimaginable life!  Moreover, they naturally further a growing relationship with Almighty God.  Whether you adhere to orthodox doctrine or not, if you progress in a relationship with God, He will satisfy any existential thirst you have.
• The Samaritan woman immediately asks for living water.  Although, she still relegates her thirst to a physical need instead of spiritual or emotional ones.  Yet, her question ends with a desire to remove the need of returning to the well each day.  Perhaps, her statement signifies the limitations she sees in her religion.
• With loving empathy, Jesus incredulously responds by asking her to call her husband.  This conversation must have been one of the strangest ones the Samaritan woman ever had.  In reply to her request for living water, Jesus instructs this woman to retrieve her husband.  What does her marital status have to do with her desire for living water?  Actually, it is central to her ability to receive it.  Prophetically, Jesus knows she possesses a very deep thirst for genuine, unconditional love.  He senses her tremendous need which ritualistic religion cannot satisfy.  Significantly, Jesus does not raise the issue to condemn or demean her.  He addresses her deepest need and pain.  Practically speaking, he feels her need thereby showing her considerable and incredible empathy.  He switches places with this woman because His heart feels her pain.
• The Samaritan woman answers factually.  She says “I have no husband.”  This fact, however, cloaks her deep emotional, spiritual and psychological need.  Her limited truthfulness demonstrates the inadequacies of her religious commitment.
• Jesus acknowledges the truth of her statement.  Yet, he challenges her to examine the underlying and more significant truth which belies the factual correctness of her answer.  Having been married five times previously and currently living with a man, this Samaritan woman greatly desires love.  I imagine she probably is not older than forty if she has reached that age.  Consider her internal thirst for relational and financial security which she expects to find in marriage.  Imagine the cumulative emotional pain she suffers as she risks again and again to find genuine love.  Ponder the self-condemnation she imparts upon herself as a “serial monogamist.”  Think of the things her mother, siblings, childhood friends and neighbors have said to her over the years.  Then as well as now, society assuredly judges and dismisses someone who experiences this number of marriages.  In stark contrast, Jesus departs from this conventional practice.  He refuses to condemn this woman.  He loves here and desires inner healing and wholeness for her.  Jesus does not humiliate this woman; instead he genuinely empathizes with her hurt and seeks her restoration.
• Regrettably, she reignites the religious and ethnic argument.  She appeals to the mountain on which they are standing as her religious and personal justification.  Whereas she respects Jesus as a prophet, she believes his words emerge from his Jewish beliefs. 
• On the contrary, Jesus redirects the conversation toward genuine spirituality.  In the twenty-first verse, he dismisses her emphasis upon geography whether on Jacob’s mountain or in Jerusalem.  Without any definitive commitment to God with a heartfelt intention to strive for integrity, does it matter where you worship?
• In the next verse, Jesus declares salvation originates with the Jews.  After all, Yahweh makes His initial covenant with the Israelites who are to be a light unto every other nation.  Then, Jesus who is the Lord and Savior of the world is a Jew.  Accordingly, anti-Semitism is antithetical to Christianity.  I refer you to Romans 9 to 11 where Paul details God’s covenantal commitment to Israel even in the new covenant with Jesus Christ.
• The twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses arguably comprise the heart of this passage.  Jesus defines true worshipers as those people who glorify and honor the Father in Spirit and in truth.  Disciples develop a vibrant relationship with the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, the Triune God.  The Holy Spirit is not a religious concept.  He is a Person with whom believers relate in order to know His voice and receive His wisdom.  The Scriptures contain Christ’s truth.  Disciples adhere to the Bible in their lifestyles.  James exhorts us to be “doers of the Word” more so than mere “hearers of the Word.”  Our Heavenly Father seeks worshipers whose lifestyle accords with Christ’s commands. 
• Jesus says God is spirit.  This teaching relegates the enduring controversies about Christ’s physical appearance to meaninglessness.  Ultimately, we are eternal spirits who are born of the Great Eternal Spirit, Almighty God Himself.  To honor and glorify Him, we do so with love, truth, justice, joy and integrity.
• Still, the Samarian woman returns to her religious argument.  She dismisses Jesus’ teachings with a reference to the coming Messiah who will explain divine truth.
• Jesus concludes their conversation with a self-declaration as the Messiah.
• The Samaritan woman discovers genuine faith in Almighty God as she encounters Jesus.  God offers the same privilege to anyone who humbly and authentically receives Jesus into his or her heart.