I am reading in John 4:1-30. It is a very long passage so I will summarize some of it and I will quote some of it.
Jesus Christ, on his way to Galilee, had to pass through Samaria, but not just because of geographical reasons, but because he had a divine appointment with a woman at a well waiting for him there. Jesus, wearied from his journey, sat down at Jacob’s well. And there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus asked her for a drink of water, and the two of them got into conversation. But since Jews did not typically associate with Samaritans, who were a mixed race, the woman was surprised at this.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
What or who is the “gift of God”? Jesus Christ, his death on a cross, and his resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God are the gift of God. Our salvation (deliverance) from sin and obedience to God are gifted to us by God. Even our faith to believe in Jesus Christ is God’s gift to us. For none of this is of ourselves, but it comes from God, and it is gifted to us by God, but we must receive all this by faith, denying self, dying to sin, and via walking in obedience to our Lord, in his power, wisdom, and strength.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]
Now Jesus was speaking, not of physical water, but of spiritual water to satisfy our spiritual thirst for new life in Christ Jesus, our Lord, cleansed of our sins, forgiven, renewed of the Spirit, and born again to new life in Christ Jesus in dying with him to sin, and in obedience to his commands. For when we believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us, changing us to be more like Christ, counseling, helping and guiding us in how to live for God. And we are empowered of the Spirit to walk with God.
The woman asked Jesus for this water of which he spoke, but she was still thinking in physical terms, and not in spiritual terms. Then Jesus told her to go and call her husband and “come here.” The woman admitted she had no husband. Jesus knew that, and he acknowledged the correctness of her statement and that he knew that she had had five husbands and the one she had now was not her husband. And that led to a discussion of the proper physical place of worship of God, either in Jerusalem or another location.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Do you get what this is teaching us today? Worship of God has nothing to do with a physical location. For true worship of God has to do with us giving our lives to Jesus Christ, as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual worship of God. We are to no longer be conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but now we are to be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God in death to sin and in obedience to our Lord’s commands, so that our lives testify to God’s grace (see Romans 12:1-2).
And to worship God in “spirit and in truth” has to do with our changed lives of the Spirit of God, and with our sincere faith which comes from God and not from human flesh. True worship of God is not in the raising of hands and in the singing of songs if our lives are not surrendered to the will of God in dying to sin and in walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands. And we don’t have to go to a building in order to worship God. For we should be in a continuous state of worship of God if we are of genuine faith in Christ Jesus.
Going back to the passage of Scripture..
At this point Jesus’ disciples arrived, so the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” They left the city, and were coming to Him. And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus Christ because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” And many more believed because of the word of Jesus, not just because the woman’s testimony. Praise God!
May we all who believe in Jesus Christ give testimony to the biblical gospel of Christ (taught in the correct context), as to what Jesus did in dying on that cross that we might now die to sin and obey his commandments and live holy lives, pleasing to God, in his power, wisdom, and strength. Amen!
My Jesus, I Love Thee
Hymn lyrics by William R. Featherstone, 1864
Music by Adoniram J. Gordon, 1876
My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;
For thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
In mansions of glory and endless delight;
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
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They Believed in Jesus Christ
An Original Work / September 29, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
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