‘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, will never thirst, for the water that I will give him will become in him a well (pege as in Joh 4:6) of water springing up producing eternal life”.’

Jesus made clear that He was in fact greater than Jacob. The water that He was offering was not of temporary satisfaction like the water of this well, but was permanent and constantly self-renewing. That is because the one who drank of it would receive within himself an inner source of water, a spring of water resulting in eternal life. It is deeply significant that Jesus was at this stage offering spiritual life, the life of the age to come, to a Samaritan, without requiring conversion to Judaism. He recognised the valid worship of the Samaritans and knew no barriers in His offer of salvation to them, even though it would still be a problem for His followers for some time to come.

‘Springing up’ – ‘allomenou. The verb is nowhere else used in Scripture of water bubbling up but its equivalent is so used in other literature. Its literal meaning is ‘leaping up, leaping on’. It is used in the Septuagint (LXX) of the Holy Spirit ‘leaping on’ men (Jdg 14:6; Jdg 14:19; Jdg 15:14 ; 1Sa 10:6; 1Sa 10:10) but it can be used figuratively of the quick movement of inanimate things as here. The combined use is especially significant here in view of the fact that the water symbolises the Spirit.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Joh 4:13-14. Whosoever drinketh of this water, &c. “This water can allay the pain of thirst only for a little while, because, though it be drank ever so plentifully, the appetite will return again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; shall at no time be subject to any vehement painful sensations, arising from unmortified irregular appetites; but the water, &c. shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life; shall yield him divine satisfaction now, and shall be the source of happiness to the faithful to all eternity in heaven; where they shall feel none of the bodily appetites or wants so troublesome to men in this life.” Thus Jesus, under the image of living, or spring water, taken from the well beside which he was sitting, beautifully described, as his manner was, the efficacy of the influences of the Spirit of God; for, as water quenches thirst, so these, by quieting the agitation, and cooling the fervency of earthly desires, beget an unspeakable inward peace. By this image he also set forth the plenitude and perpetuity of the celestial joys, flowing from holy dispositions, produced by the influences of the Spirit of God. For these, by an innate power, satisfying all the capacities and desires of the soul, render it so completely happy, that it is not able to form a wish or a thought of any thing better.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 4:13-14 . Not an explanation, but (comp. Joh 3:5 ) a carrying out of the metaphor, to lead the woman nearer to its higher import.

] referring to the well.

. . ] “will certainly not thirst for ever,” antithesis to fleeting bodily refreshment, Joh 4:13 . Comp. Joh 6:34 . That heavenly grace and truth which Christ communicates, when received by faith into the inner life, for ever supplies what we need in order to salvation , so that the lack of this satisfaction is never felt, because the supply is always there. Bengel admirably remarks: “Sane aqua illa, quantum in se est, perennem habet virtutem; et ubi sitis recurrit, hominis non aquae defectus est.” The expression in Sir 24:20 : (Wisdom) , rests upon a different view of the continuity of enjoyment, namely, that of the individual moments passing in the continual alternation of desire and satisfaction, and not of the unity which they make up, and of their condition as a whole.

, . . .] the positive effect following the negative (and hence is emphatically repeated): divine grace and truth appropriated by faith will so energetically develope their life in him in inexhaustible fulness, that its full impelling power endures unto eternal Messianic life . Upon his entrance into the Messiah’s kingdom (comp. Joh 3:3 ; Joh 3:5 ), the man takes along with him this inner living power of divine , Joh 6:27 .

, to spring up into , often also in the classics (Hom. Il . a . 537; Xen. Mem . i. 3. 9), but with reference to water here only. A Greek would say ; still the word in the text is stronger and more vivid. The . is conceived of locally , in keeping with the comparison of a widespreading spring; to render “ reaching to everlasting life” (B. Crusius, Luthardt, Brckner, Ewald), arbitrarily lets go the concrete comparison, one of the main features in which is endless power of springing up. This description of the well springing up into everlasting life is the finishing touch of the picture. On . ., see Joh 4:36 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

Ver. 13. Shall thirst again ] So shall all they, quibus avaritiae aut ambitionis salsugo bibulam animare possidet. He that seeks to satisfy his lusts goes about an endless business. Give, give, is the horse’s leech language. The worldling hath enough to sink him, not to satisfy him.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13, 14. ] Our Lord, without noticing this, by His answer leaves it to be implied, that, assuming what she has stated , He is greater than Jacob: for his (Jacob’s) gift was of water which cannot satisfy: but the water which He should give has living power , and becomes an eternal fountain within. This however, ‘that He was greater than Jacob ,’ lies only in the background: the water is the subject, as before.

The words apply to every similar quenching of desire by earthly means: the desire springs up again; is not satisfied , but only postponed . The manna was as insufficient to satisfy hunger, as this water, thirst, see ch. Joh 6:49 ; Joh 6:58 : it is only the , and the , which can satisfy .

The sets forth the recurrence, the interrupted seasons, of the drinking of earthly water; the the once having tasted , and ever continuing in the increasing power, and living forth-flowing, of that life-long draught.

, shall never have to go away and be exhausted, and come again to be filled; but shall have the spring at home, in his own breast, so that he can “ draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation ” ( Isa 12:3 ) at his pleasure. “Ubi sitis recurrit, hominis, non aqu, defectus est.” Bengel.

] All earthly supplies have access only into those lower parts of our being where the desires work themselves out are but local applications; but the heavenly gift of spiritual life which Jesus gives to those who believe on Him, enters into the very secret and highest place of their personal life , the source whence the desires spring out; and, its nature being living and spiritual, it does not merely supply , but it lives and waxes onward, unto everlasting life, in duration , and also as producing and sustaining it .

It should not be overlooked, that this discourse had, besides its manifold and wonderful meaning for us all, an especial moral one as applied to the woman, who, by successive draughts at the ‘broken cistern’ of carnal lust, had been vainly seeking solace: and this consideration serves to bind on the following verses (Joh 4:16 ff.) to the preceding, by another link besides those noticed below.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 4:13-14 . Jesus in reply, though He does not quite break through the veil of figure, leads her on to think of a more satisfying gift than even Jacob had given in this well. . He contrasts the water of the well with the water He can give; and the two characteristic qualities of His living water are suggested by this contrast. The water of Jacob’s well had two defects: it quenched thirst only for a time, and it lay outside the town a weary distance, and subject to various accidents. Christ offers water which will quench thirst lastingly, and which will be “in” the person drinking, . For this figure put to another though similar use, see Marcus Aurelius, vii. 59, and viii. 51, with Gataker’s notes. The living water lastingly quenches human cravings and is within the man, inseparable from him, and always energetically and afresh shooting up.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Whosoever drinketh = Every one who is in the habit of drinking.

shall = will.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13, 14.] Our Lord, without noticing this, by His answer leaves it to be implied, that, assuming what she has stated, He is greater than Jacob: for his (Jacobs) gift was of water which cannot satisfy: but the water which He should give has living power, and becomes an eternal fountain within. This however, that He was greater than Jacob, lies only in the background: the water is the subject, as before.

The words apply to every similar quenching of desire by earthly means: the desire springs up again;-is not satisfied, but only postponed. The manna was as insufficient to satisfy hunger,-as this water, thirst, see ch. Joh 6:49; Joh 6:58 : it is only the , and the , which can satisfy.

The sets forth the recurrence, the interrupted seasons, of the drinking of earthly water;-the -the once having tasted, and ever continuing in the increasing power, and living forth-flowing, of that life-long draught.

, shall never have to go away and be exhausted, and come again to be filled;-but shall have the spring at home, in his own breast,-so that he can draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3) at his pleasure. Ubi sitis recurrit, hominis, non aqu, defectus est. Bengel.

] All earthly supplies have access only into those lower parts of our being where the desires work themselves out-are but local applications; but the heavenly gift of spiritual life which Jesus gives to those who believe on Him, enters into the very secret and highest place of their personal life, the source whence the desires spring out;-and, its nature being living and spiritual, it does not merely supply, but it lives and waxes onward, unto everlasting life, in duration, and also as producing and sustaining it.

It should not be overlooked, that this discourse had, besides its manifold and wonderful meaning for us all, an especial moral one as applied to the woman,-who, by successive draughts at the broken cistern of carnal lust, had been vainly seeking solace:-and this consideration serves to bind on the following verses (Joh 4:16 ff.) to the preceding, by another link besides those noticed below.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 4:13

Joh 4:13

Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again:-Jesus tries again to direct her mind away from this material water to the water of spiritual life. This water gives temporary relief.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

No More Thirst

Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.Joh 4:13-14.

1. Those who have read with care the addresses of Christ must be struck, not only with their illustrative character, but, which is very important in the use of illustrations, with their perfect adaptation to the case in point. The force of His imagery is heightened by the fact that the emblems and figures used were taken from objects which the audience had in view at the time He addressed them, and from external things with which their minds were thoroughly familiar, and in which they had a special interest. When the multitudes sought Him at Capernaum for the meat which perisheth, He began to speak of the meat which endureth unto everlasting life. In the case before us, He gradually leads the mind of the woman of Samaria from the material water which she was drawing from the well of Jacob, to the living water that He could give, and which would be in her a well of living water springing up unto eternal life.

2. There are two kinds of wells, one a simple reservoir, another containing the waters of a spring. It is the latter kind that is spoken about here, as is clear not only from the meaning of the word in the Greek, but also from the description of it as springing up. That suggests at once the activity of a fountain. A fountain is the emblem of motion, not of rest. Its motion is derived from itself, not imparted to it from without. Its silvery column rises ever heavenward, though gravitation is too strong for it, and drags it back again. So Christ promised to this ignorant, sinful Samaritan woman that if she chose He would plant in her soul a gift which would thus well up, by its own inherent energy, and fill her spirit with music, and refreshment, and satisfaction.

I

The Thirst of the Soul

Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. It is not difficult to discern traces of this thirst in the faces of those whom we meet in the common way. If we take our stand at the corner of the street and scan the faces of the passing crowd, it is only now and again that we gaze upon a countenance which is significant of peace. How rarely the face suggests the joy and the serenity of a healthy satisfaction. We are confronted by an abounding unrest. The majority of people seem to be afflicted with the pain of unsatisfied want. The very faces are suggestive of a disquieting thirst. We have a varied vocabulary in which we describe this prevailing condition:restless, discontented, dissatisfied, not right with himself.

Water is an essential of animal and vegetable life. With a constantly recurring appetite we seek it. To have no thirst is a symptom of disease or death. But the soul also, not having life in itself, needs to be sustained from without; and when in a healthy state it seeks by a natural appetite that which will sustain it. And as most of our mental acts are spoken of in terms of the body, as we speak of seeing truth and grasping it, as if the mind had hands and eyes, so David naturally exclaims, My soul thirsts for the living God. In the living soul there is a craving for that which maintains and revives its life, which is analogous to the thirst of the body for water. The dead alone feel no thirst for God. The soul that is alive sees for a moment the glory and liberty and joy of the life to which God calls us; it feels the attraction of a life of love, purity, and righteousness, but it seems continually to sink from this and to tend to become dull and feeble, and to have no joy in goodness. Just as the healthy body delights in work, but wearies and cannot go on exerting itself for many hours together, but must repair its strength, so the soul soon wearies and sinks back from what is difficult, and needs to be revived by its appropriate refreshment.1 [Note: M. Dods.]

I think there is something implanted in mans heart, fallen creature as he is, which defies him to be content with anything but God alone. It is a trace of original majesty, which leaves a mark of what he was before the fall. He is always panting for something fresh; and that is no sooner attained than it palls upon his taste. And this strong necessity of loving something makes a man form idols for himself, which he invests with fancied perfections, and when all these fade away in his grasp, and he finds their unsubstantiality, he must become either a misanthrope or a Christian. When a man has learned to know the infinite love of God in Christ to him, then he discovers something which will not elude his hold, and an affection which will not grow cold; for the comparison of Gods long-suffering and repeated pardon, with his own heartless ingratitude, convinces him that it is an unchangeable love.1 [Note: Life and Letters of F. W. Robertson, 57.]

O God, where do they tendthese struggling aims?

What would I have? What is this sleep which seems

To bound all? Can there be a waking point

Of crowning life? The soul would never rule;

It would be first in all things, it would have

Its utmost pleasure filled, but, that complete,

Commanding, for commanding, sickens it.

The last point I can trace isrest beneath

Some better essence than itself, in weakness;

This is myself, not what I think should be:

And what is that I hunger for but God?2 [Note: Browning, Pauline.]

II

The Wells of the World

All things that are of earth are unsatisfactory. Our spirit craves for something more than time and sense can yield it. Nothing which comes of earth, even if it should yield a transient satisfaction, can long maintain its excellence. Pointing to the water in Jacobs well, our Lord said, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; and therein He took up His parable against all earthly things, whether they be fame, or riches, or fleshly pleasure, or aught else beneath the sun. He that drinks at these shallow wells shall not quench his thirst, or if for a time he imagines that he has so done, he will be undeceived, and in a little season the old craving will return. That which is born of the flesh is flesh even at its best, and all flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth. The religion of the flesh shares in the common fate, if it has a mans own self for its author, his own energy as its impulse, and his own opinions for its creed. It may for a little while flourish like the flower of the field, but the wind passeth over it and it is gone. Waters from his own cistern may stay a mans desires for a space, but ere long he must thirst again.

Too often we try to allay a spiritual thirst by a carnal draught. When Newman in his early life was burdened with the sense of his own shortcomings in the presence of his Lord, and his letters home lacked their usual buoyancy, his mother wrote to him:Your father and I fear very much from the tone of your letters that you are depressed. We fear you debar yourself a proper quantity of wine. That is a type of suggestion which is often made to people who are troubled with spiritual unrest. They are recommended to material ministries by which their feverish unrest is only intensified and inflamed. But they thirst again. Others make an attempt to realize satisfaction and peace by immersing themselves in stimulants like novel-reading and theatre-going, and in the manifold pleasures of society. They intensify the social stimulant. Yet they thirst again. Others plunge more deeply into business. The songster is languishing! How then? Re-gild his cage. The soul is languishing! How then? Re-gild her cage. Seek for more gold, more gold, and surround the soul with material treasure. And yet the soul refuses to be appeased, and thirsts again. Or, again, we give opiates to our disquieted and feverish souls. How many people find an opiate in making a promise to amend. They find contentment in their intentions. But the satisfaction is only transient. They speedily awake out of their unnatural rest, and they are thirsty still. Others give themselves the opiate of self-disparagement. Many a man thinks he is becoming better because he severely condemns himself. They esteem it a sign of virtue to denounce themselves as fools. They discover a sort of spiritual comfort from their own self-severity. All these are pitiable evasions. At the best they are only transient ministries, which, when their immediate influence passes away, leave us in deepened disquietude and intensified unrest.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett, Thirsting for the Springs, 140.]

No man is so poor, so low, so narrow in capacity, so limited in heart and head, but he needs a whole God to make him restful. Nothing else will. To seek for satisfaction elsewhere is like sailors who in their desperation, when the water-tanks are empty, slake their thirst with the treacherous blue that washes cruelly along the battered sides of their ship. A moments alleviation is followed by the recurrence, in tenfold intensity, of the pangs of thirst, and by madness, and death. Do not drink the salt water that flashes and rolls by your side when you can have recourse to the fountain of life that is with God.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

There is a Persian legend of the well of Chidher, the fountain of eternal youth, which men are ever seeking and never find.

Thee have thousands sought in vain

Over land and barren main,

Chidhers well,of which men say,

That thou makest young again;

Fountain of eternal youth,

Washing free from every stain.

To thy waves the aged moons

Aye betake them, when they wane;

And the suns their golden light,

While they bathe in thee, retain.

From that fountain drops are flung,

Mingling with the vernal rain,

And the old earth clothes itself

In its young attire again.

Thitherward the freckled trout

Up the water-courses strain,

And the timid wild gazelles

Seek it through the desert plain.

Great Iskander, mighty lord,

Sought that fountain, but in vain;

Through the land of darkness went

In its quest with fruitless pain,

When by wealth of conquered worlds

Did his thirst unslaked remain.

Many more with parched lip

Must lie down and dizzy brain,

And of that, a fountain sealed

Unto them, in death complain.

If its springs to thee are known,

Weary wanderer, tell me plain.

From beneath the throne of God

It must well, a lucid vein;

To its sources lead me, Lord,

That I do not thirst again,

And my lips not any more

Shall the earths dark waters stain.1 [Note: R. C. Trench, Chidhers Well.]

III

The Eternal Spring

1. What, then, is this living waterthis thirst-quenching, soul-satisfying gift promised by Christ? The answer may be put in various ways, which really all come to one. It is Himself, the unspeakable Gift, His own greatest gift; or it is the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive, and whereby He comes and dwells in mens hearts; or it is the resulting life, kindred with the life bestowed, a consequence of the indwelling Christ and the present Spirit. And so the promise is that they who believe on Him and rest upon His love shall receive into their spirits a new life-principle which shall rise in their hearts like a fountain, springing up unto everlasting life.

2. As regards this wonderful water, there are four points to be specially noted.

(1) It is a gift of God.The water that I shall give him, says Christ. There is no suggestion as to digging deep with much learning into the bowels of mysterious truth to find the water for ourselves; this priceless draught is freely handed out to us by our Redeemer, without our bringing either bucket or line. There is no hint in the text that we are to purchase the life-giving water; it is presented to us without money and without price. There is no allusion to a certain measure of fitness to qualify us for the draught, it is purely a gift to be received by us here and now. Our Lord told the woman that had she known the gift of God she would have asked and He would have given. Sinner as she was, she had only to ask and have. There is no other way of obtaining eternal life but as the free gift of sovereign grace.

The divine gift of eternal life is not in us by nature. It cannot be produced in us by culture, or infused into us by ceremonies, or propagated in us by natural descent; it must come as a boon of infinite charity from heaven, unpurchased, undeserved. Wisdom cannot impart it, power cannot fashion it, money cannot buy it, merit cannot procure it, grace alone can give it. If men desire wages they may earn them beneath the mastership of sin, for the wages of sin is death. On the side of God all is of grace, for the gift of God is eternal life. Whoever, then, is to be saved must be saved by the boundless charity of Godin other words, by the free gift of the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]

(2) It is a fountain within.It shall be in him, it is something that we may carry about with us in our hearts, inseparable from our being, free from all possibility of being filched away by violence, rent from us by sorrows, or even parted from us by death. What a man has outside of him he only seems to have. Our real possessions are those which have passed into the substance of our souls. All else we shall leave behind. The only good is inward good; and this water of life slakes our thirst because it flows into the deepest place of our being, and abides there for ever.

I stood a little while ago in the fine old ruin of Middleham Castle. I passed beyond the outer shell, and beyond the inner defences into the keep, and there in the innermost sanctum of the venerable pile was the old well. The castle was independent of outside supplies. If it were besieged it had resources of water at its own heart. The changing seasons made no difference to the gracious supply. That is the purpose of our Master in placing the well within us. He wants to make us independent of external circumstances. Whatever be the season that reigns without, He wants fulness and vitality to reign within. So the Masters gift is the gift of a well, springing up, leaping up, unto eternal life. We are renewed by his Spirit in the inner man.2 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

(3) It is a springing fountain.The water that I shall give him shall become in him a springing fountain; it shall not lie there stagnant, but shall leap like a living thing, up into the sunshine, and flash there, turned into diamonds when the bright rays smile upon it. Here is the promise of activity. There seems small blessing, in this overworked world, in a promise of more active exertion; but what an immense part of our nature lies dormant and torpid if we are not Christians! How much of the work that is done is dreary, wearisome, collar-work, against the grain. Do not the wheels of life often go slowly? Are we not often weary of the inexpressible monotony and fatigue? And do we not go to our work sometimes, though with a fierce feeling of need-to-do-it, yet also with inward repugnance? And are there not great parts of our nature that have never wakened into activity at all, and are ill at ease, because there is no field of action provided for them? The mind is like millstones; if we do not put the wheat into them to grind, they will grind each others faces. So some of us are fretting ourselves to pieces, or are sick of a vague disease, and are morbid and miserable because the highest and noblest parts of our nature have never been brought into exercise. Surely this promise of Christs should come as a true gospel to such, offering, as it does, if we will trust ourselves to Him, a springing fountain of activity in our hearts that shall fill our whole being with joyous energy, and make it a delight to live and to work. It will bring to us new powers, new motives; it will set all the wheels of life going at double speed. We shall be quickened by the presence of that mighty power, even as a dim taper is brightened and flames up when plunged into a jar of oxygen. And life will be delight-some in its hardest toil, when it is toil for the sake of, and by the indwelling strength of, that great Lord and Master of our work.

The indwelling power of the Holy Spirit rises superior to all disadvantages, like a spring which cannot be kept under, do what we may. Our engineers and builders know how hard it is to bind up the earth-floods from overflowing, and the spiritual floods are yet more unconquerable. It is wonderful how springs will bubble up in places where we least expect them. The great desert of Sahara will no doubt be made a very easy county to traverse, and, perhaps, may even become a fertile plain, from the fact that there is water everywhere at no very great depth below the surface, and where it is reached an oasis is formed. The government of Algeria has sent engineers into parts of the Sahara bordering on the French possession, and these men have bored the rock by Artesian wells, and greatly astonished the natives; for in the wilderness have waters leaped out and streams in the desert. At the magic touch of the living water, palm trees have sprung up and an undergrowth of vegetation, so that the solitary places have been made to sing together. When the Lord gives our souls to drink from the fountains of the great deep of His own eternal love, and to have a vital principle of grace within us, our wilderness rejoices and blossoms as the rose, and the Sahara around us cannot wither our verdure; our soul is as an oasis, though all around is barrenness.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]

In the mid garden doth a fountain stand;

From font to font its waters fall alway,

Freshening the leaves by their continual play:

Such often have I seen in southern land,

While every leaf, as though by light winds fanned,

Has quivered underneath the dazzling spray,

Keeping its greenness all the sultry day,

While others pine aloof, a parchd band.

And in the mystic garden of the soul

A fountain, nourished from the upper springs,

Sends ever its clear waters up on high,

Which while a dewy freshness round it flings,

All plants which there acknowledge its control

Show fair and green, else drooping, pale, and dry.2 [Note: Trench, Poems, 144.]

(4) It is an eternal fountain.The water of a fountain rises by its own impulse, but however its silver column may climb it always falls back into its marble basin. But this fountain rises higher, and at each successive jet higher, tending towards, and finally touching, its goal, which is at the same time its source. The water seeks its own level, and the fountain climbs until it reaches Him from whom it comes, and the eternal life in which He lives. The Christian character is identical in both worlds, and however the forms and details of pursuit may vary, the essential principle remains one. So that the life of a Christian man on earth and his life in heaven are but one stream, as it were, which may, indeed, like some of those American rivers, run for a time through a deep, dark caon, or in an underground passage, but comes out at the farther end into broader, brighter plains and summer lands; where it flows with a quieter current and with the sunshine reflected on its untroubled surface, into the calm ocean. He has one gift and one life for earth and heavenChrist and His Spirit, and the life that is consequent upon both.

It shall be in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. The grace continues with us, and overflows into a blessed immortality. The Spirit that redeems will also perfect. Whatever may be our estate when it finds us, our ultimate attainments will be the likeness of the Lord. The living water rises from Heaven, and rises towards Heaven. We shall at length be presented blameless before the Throne of God.

Never thirst. That does not mean that in the Christian life desire is ended. The ill of all ills is the death of desire. In the redeemed life desire is intense and wakeful. There is desiring, but no despairing. There is longing, but no languishing. There is fervour, but no fever. There is aspiration and contentment. There is striving and rest. We still thirst for the fulness of grace not yet received, but there is no pain in the thirst. In the Christian life the very thirst for greater fulness is itself a delight. If I may quote Calvin, Believers know desire, but they do not know drought.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

My spirit longeth for Thee,

Within my troubled breast,

Altho I be unworthy

Of so divine a Guest.

Of so divine a Guest,

Unworthy tho I be,

Yet has my heart no rest,

Unless it come from Thee.

Unless it come from Thee,

In vain I look around;

In all that I can see,

No rest is to be found.

No rest is to be found,

But in Thy blessed love;

O! let my wish be crownd,

And send it from above!2 [Note: J. Byrom.]

No More Thirst

Literature

Banks (L. A.), Christ and His Friends, 154.

Bardsley (J. W.), Illustrative Texts and Texts Illustrated, 65.

Hodges (G.), The Human Nature of the Saints, 230.

Hopkins (E. H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 55.

Ingram (A. F. W.), The Gospel in Action, 261.

Jay (W.), Short Discourses, ii. 447.

Jowett (J. H.), Thirsting for the Springs, 18, 137.

Liddon (H. P.), Passiontide Sermons, 244.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions: John i.viii., 214.

Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 75.

Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, v. 154.

Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xv. (1869) No. 864; xx. (1874) No. 1202.

Tyndall (C. H.), Object Lessons for Children, 26.

Wells (J.), Bible Echoes, 169.

Christian World Pulpit, xxxix. 232 (Evans).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

Whosoever: Joh 6:27, Joh 6:49, Isa 65:13, Isa 65:14, Luk 16:24

Reciprocal: Joh 6:35 – never hunger

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

3

We have an excellent example of the proper way to approach a subject figuratively. Jesus did not launch upon the theme with the full comparison, for the woman would not have been able to understand it; instead, he unfolded it little by little. The woman needed only to be reminded that such water as the well furnished would not give permanent relief, but must be drunk of time after time.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 4:13. Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. The question receives no direct reply: the greatness of the Giver must be learnt from the quality of the gift. Even the living water from Jacobs well has no power to prevent the return of thirst.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Joh 4:13-15. Jesus said, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again How much soever this water may be esteemed, and though it may refresh the body, and allay its thirst for a little while, yet the appetite will soon return, even if it be drunk ever so plentifully. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him Will find it so reviving and satisfying to his soul; that he will never thirst Be without refreshment, dissatisfied, or unhappy; that is, provided he continue to drink thereof. If ever his thirst, or his dissatisfaction and uneasiness return, it will be the fault of the man, not of the water. But the water that I shall give him The Spirit of faith and love, hope and joy, of holiness and happiness; shall be in him An inward, living principle; a well of water A fountain, as signifies. A well is soon exhausted. Springing , bubbling up, and flowing on into everlasting life, which is a continence, or rather an ocean of streams arising from this fountain. Some would render the original expression, , (instead of shall never thirst,) shall not thirst for ever: but not to urge how much this spoils the antithesis, the expression used, Joh 6:35, , is not liable to any such ambiguity. The force and truth of our Lords assertion seems to lie in this, that the most impatient and restless desires of the soul being satisfied, when it is fixed on God as its supreme happiness, other thirst was not worth being mentioned. Doddridge. The woman Still ignorant of our Lords meaning, and understanding him as speaking only of natural water; saith unto him, Sir, give me this water Extraordinary as it is, according to thy declaration; that I thirst not Any more for ever, and may be saved the trouble of coming every day so far for water. She seems to have had a mind to turn Christs words into ridicule. It therefore became necessary that he should open to her a new scene, and, by bringing her besetting sin to remembrance, touch her in a tender part, as he does in the next words.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 13, 14. Jesus answered and said to her: Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life.

It is to no purpose that the water of the well is spring-water; it is not that which Jesus means by living water; it has not the power of reproducing itself in him who drinks it; so, after a certain time, the want revives and the torment of thirst makes itself felt. A beautiful inscription, says Stier, to be placed upon fountains. Such water presents itself to the thought of Jesus as the emblem of all earthly satisfactions, after which the want reappears in the soul and puts it again in dependence upon external objects in order to its satisfaction.

Jesus defines in Joh 4:14 the nature of the true living water; it is that which, reproducing itself within by its own potentiality, quenches the soul’s want as it arises, so that the heart cannot suffer a single moment of inward torment of thirst. Man possesses in himself a satisfaction independent of earthly objects and conditions. ; yes, I, (in opposition to Jacob).With Reuss, I formerly referred the words , unto eternal life, not to time, but to the effect produced, to the mode of appearance: in the form of eternal life. The parallel term, however, for ever, favors rather the temporal sense, even to the life without end.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

6. The living water of which Jesus speaks in Joh 4:10 is supposed by Godet to be the eternal life, and he refers to Joh 4:13-14, as showing this to be the correct view. The words of those verses, however, speak of this water as being a well of water springing up into eternal life. We find also, in the sixth chapter, that the living bread and the bread of life are presented as that which is the means and support of life in the believer. It would seem more probable, therefore, that, in this expression, that which forms the basis and principle of the new life is referred to, than the new life itself. That which Jesus gives to the worldin one view, grace and truth, in another view, Himself as the source of lifemay be understood as that to which He refers.

7. The word eternal life, in Joh 4:14, is placed in a parallelism with , and, for this reason, it seems here to be carried forward in its meaning to the future. The thought in this place is of the future and final blessedness, as well as of the present inward life, and the former is thrown into prominence, as the contrast is intended to be between the passing away of the satisfaction coming from the earthly source and the never-ending blessing of the life in union with Him.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Jesus explained that He was not really speaking about literal water but a spiritual source of refreshment and fulfillment that satisfied completely. To provide such water Jesus would indeed have to be greater than Jacob. Jesus described this water as welling up within the individual. Clearly He was referring to the Holy Spirit who provides eternal life (cf. Joh 7:38-39). As in His conversation with Nicodemus (Joh 3:5), Jesus again alluded to the Old Testament passages that promised salvation as satisfying water (e.g., Isa 12:3; Isa 44:3; Isa 49:10; Isa 55:1-7; Jer 31:29-34; Eze 36:25-27; Joe 2:28-32). The water that Jesus promised provided satisfaction without hard work in contrast to the literal water that the woman had to draw out of the well.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)