Jesus compares “this water” with “the water I will give.” Jesus made an obvious statement: “whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again.” But Jesus is using “this water,” the water in that well in Samaria, as a metaphor of the woman’s sinful life. She was trying to quench her soul thirst in a way that did not satisfy her, and worse, left her “thirsty again.”
John 4:15 ESV 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.”
Still thinking in physical terms, she has made no connection yet between her life and the physical water, or between Jesus and the “water” that would quench her thirst.
There was an issue in this woman’s life that was preventing her from understanding spiritual truth. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV).
To receive the Spirit, sin must be addressed and confessed. Notice how Jesus draws the woman’s mind to her past sinful life, but does so with such grace:
John 4:16-18 ESV Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” (17) The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; (18) for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
Question 5. What does Jesus now reveal about Himself to this woman?
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Jesus now showed this woman two truths:
First, He revealed Himself to this woman as being divine, showing that He knew everything about her. He knew her entire past life, her present situation, including her sins. Only God knows all things. My friend, Jesus knows every single thing you have ever done, yet He comes to you in grace, in love, in acceptance and invites you to turn from “this water” (pornography, sexual impurity of all kinds) and come and drink from Him.
Second, Jesus helped the woman make the connection between her life and “this water.” She had gone from man to man, six in total, and had not been satisfied. She had been drinking from a well that could not satisfy, that continually left her thirsty. Are you making this same connection? Coming to understand that lust does not satisfy your heart, but continually leaves you “thirsty” for more? That sin is like salt-water, never able to quench thirst?
This woman may have even begun to realize this truth, herself, lately because she did not marry man number six, she just lived with him. Perhaps she had come to understand that all the excitement, laughter and fun of a new relationship is short-lived and she would soon have to move on, yet again. “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again.”
We must learn and apply this lesson Jesus taught as well: if we seek to quench our thirst with pornography, we will go from one image to another and never be satisfied. We will have to come back for yet another drink, and another and another. “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again.”
If we have one illicit or adulterous relationship we will find that we are likewise not satisfied. “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again.”
If we are involved in a culturally accepted but anti-biblical alternative lifestyle, we will find that there is a deep discontentment in our souls, an emptiness that cannot be filled and which leaves us thirsting, yearning, and craving for true love, for real satisfaction. “Whoever drinks this water will thirst again.”
The truth that the woman at Samaria had to learn and the reality we must learn is that “whoever drinks this water will thirst again” because “this water” is not truly satisfying.
Question 6. How has your involvement in impurity taught you the truth that sin does not permanently satisfy the desires of your heart?
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