Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 46-54

The nobleman believed that Jesus could heal his son who was at the point of death, but only because he believed that prophets could do miracles. Jesus objected to this man that he, like all Galileans, could only believe in his miracles, but they could not believe His gospel. The nobleman ignored Jesus' objection and simply pleaded with Jesus to heal his son. Jesus, being full of love and compassion, gave in to the man's plea and told him that He would heal his son. The man believed Jesus' word, and as he was going home, he met some of his servants who told him that his son had been healed in the same hour that Jesus said he would be healed. This man and his house apparently came to believe that Jesus had to be more than just a prophet because of this miracle, but God's Word provides no indication that this man and his house became saved by grace. The gospel usually provides clear indications whenever Jesus saved someone by His grace. Nicodemus demonstrated his salvation by grace when he tried to defend Jesus against false accusations and when he helped to bury Jesus' body. John 8:50-53; John 19:38-42. The woman at the well left her waterpot and went to witness to her city that she had found the Messiah whom she believed to be the Savior. John 4:28-29. The woman who came into the Pharisees' house and washed Jesus' feet with her tears and anointed Him with perfume demonstrated her great love for Him. Jesus did not heal her of anything, but He forgave her sins and told her she had been saved by her faith which could only mean she had been saved by His grace. Luke 7:36-50. The gospels indicate that Jesus did not save by His grace most of the people whom He healed. Everything that God does lasts forever which can only mean that everyone whom Jesus healed had to have been healed forever. This fact provides evidence that God must supply a lesser form of salvation for every living human not saved by His grace. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; Luke 20:38.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 39-42

Many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman's personal witness. But they did not believe because of the woman's voice. They believed because they heard the words of Jesus in the woman's voice. All of the Samaritans came to Jesus, and many more believed. But they all confessed to the woman that they did not believe because of her. They believed because they heard Jesus preach the gospel. They were saved solely by the Power of God. This same condition holds true with the local churches. The churches only deliver the message of the gospel. Only the Holy Spirit can cause sinners to repent and believe the gospel. John 16:7-11.

For this reason, no human ever goes to one of the regions of death because God's messengers failed to preach the gospel to that person. God has arranged for His messengers to preach His gospel at certain times and places so that people will hear the gospel preached by the Holy Spirit. God will reward those who obey, and He will punish those who disobey, but His messengers do not win any souls to Christ, and they do not cause any soul and spirit to go to one of the regions of death. Only the Holy Spirit holds the Power to cause sinners to repent and believe the gospel, and the Holy Spirit preaches to every human who ever lived. John 1:9; Colossians 1:20-23. Jesus often preached using parables in order to separate believers with a spiritual nature from unbelievers who could not understand. Matthew 13:13; Matthew 13:34-35; Luke 8:9-10. The messengers in the local churches preach the gospel for the same reason. Nevertheless, In the end of the world God will save all of the unbelievers within the regions of death with a lesser form of salvation when He appears to them in a great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14.

                                                                                                                                   Verses 43-45

After this great revival among the Samaritans, Jesus returned to Galilee where He had been raised. Jesus testified to them that they would not honor Him even though they believed He was a prophet. The Galileans received Him, but only as a kind of home-grown prophet who could do miracles. Apparently, they blinded themselves to faith that He was the Son of God because of their familiarity with Him. In other words, they believed Jesus to be a kind of local good old boy who made good. For this same reason, some in the churches never become saved by grace because they consider Jesus to simply have been a good and great teacher who once lived on the earth. For reasons of His own, God gave to a group of Samaritans, whom the Jews despised, spiritual natures capable of spiritual faith, and to His own people material natures incapable of spiritual faith while still alive in the flesh.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                     Verses 31-34

Jesus' disciples urged Jesus to eat some of the food they had brought. The fact that they urged Him to eat could mean that they had not seen Him eat any food for a while. Jesus, being God, did not desire to eat much human food. He probably liked heavenly food better, and so He often ate food that angels brought Him, which food would satisfy one's hunger for a long time. Matthew 4:11; I Kings 19:5-8. His disciples then wondered if anyone had brought Him something to eat, but Jesus answered them that doing His Father's will gave Him strength. His answer let His disciples know that He really did not need any earthly food.

                                                                                                                                     Verses 35-38

Jesus then preached a sermon to His local church. Jesus was the Pastor of His church, and His disciples, except for Judas Iscariot, were like deacons. Jesus had other members of His local church who worshiped Him at times, but His deacons followed Him wherever He went. Luke 10:38-42; John 12:1-3.

In His sermon, Jesus prophesied about how He expected His Church to carry on His Father's work after He had ascended. Being empowered by the Spirit, the Body of Christ should carry on His work in the world. Acts 2:1-4. Jesus taught His disciples that every local church should work together as a team. God would send some in His churches to reap the harvest; that is, win souls to salvation by His grace. These believers would be the preachers, missionaries, and personal witnesses. Jesus sent the woman at the well to be a personal witness. All others in His churches would be those who sowed the seed; that is, those who prayed for the soul winners and supported them with finances. All the members of His local churches should obey the Holy Spirit and work together as a team. This means the Holy Spirit might inspire one of the sowers to become a witness to just one or more persons in that believer's entire life, or the Holy Spirit may never call a particular sower to ever be a personal witness. Whatever the Holy Spirit commands a believer to do, that believer should certainly obey the Holy Spirit. Jesus ended His sermon by teaching His disciples that the sowers and the reapers should work together as a team to do God's work and win souls to faith in Christ. Jesus also taught that both the sowers and the reapers would receive great rewards from God for their faithful work.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 19-30

When Jesus accurately told the woman about her life with men, she realized that Jesus had to be at least a prophet, a man sent from God. She then expressed a desire to learn what constitutes true worship. She did not try to excuse or defend herself about that which Jesus had told her. She honestly realized that she was a sinner in need of a true contact with God. Jesus told her that salvation would come through the Jews. He did not mean the Jews' religion but Himself. Jesus told her that she was about to learn how to be a true believer and worshiper of God. Jesus informed her that true believers "shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." Jesus made her realize that when she became a true believer, she would be able to worship God at any time and anywhere. Jesus further informed her that since "God is a Spirit," then those who believe in Him while still alive in the flesh would be able to worship Him "in spirit and in truth."

When the woman heard Jesus preach that spiritual message, she became even more deeply inspired by the Holy Spirit because she realized that this type of gospel could only come from the prophesied Messiah. She believed that only the Messiah could tell the people all they needed to know about God. Jesus then openly revealed to her that He was that Messiah.

At this point, the woman must have immediately become saved by grace because she left her waterpot and went back to her city to tell everyone that she had found the Messiah. This reaction happens to be exactly that which every person saved by grace does. They want to tell everyone that Jesus has saved them. But she was able to tell only the men in her city. The women avoided her because they did not like her. They were afraid that she would seduce their husbands. The woman did succeed in getting the men to go out to see Jesus. The women probably followed later.

Just before this woman left her waterpot to return to the city, Jesus' disciples came back from the city where they had gone to buy food. They were surprised to see Jesus talking with a Samaritan because they assumed that Jesus did not like Samaritans either. But they did not ask Jesus why He talked with her probably because they realized that Jesus loved everyone.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 16-18 continued

Jesus taught another lesson about marriage that is quite important. The Sadducees tried to trap Jesus into saying something heretical when they asked Him about marriage after the resurrection. They did not believe in the resurrection, but they were only trying to confuse Jesus. Jesus answered that humans in a sinful world often marry each other, by which He meant that they often had marriage ceremonies but without consulting God about whom they should marry. Jesus told them that when He raises His living humans from the dead, they will not participate in sinful marriages. Jesus did not mean that they would be celibate. In His new world, Christ will recreate every living human with righteous souls, spirits, and bodies. Physical bodies need physical love, so Christ will give every living human on His new earth one wife or one husband, and each marriage by God will live together in love forever. At the end of His teaching the Sadducees, Jesus told them that every living human is alive to God, and since Christ has abolished death, then Christ must raise all living humans from the regions of the dead in a general resurrection in the end of the world after they return to a willing repentance and faith in Him. Luke 20:27-38; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; I Timothy 6:13; II Timothy 1:10.

Living humans saved by grace will have spiritual bodies like that of Christ after the Rapture of the Church, and they will live with Him in Heaven forever. Having a spiritual body means that a person can become a spirit or a physical body as that person wills. Philippians 3:20-21. At times when living humans in Heaven will themselves to be physical bodies, then they will need physical love. Christ has promised that He will give His saints whatever they ask for and whatever they need. John 16:23-24; I John 5:14-15. God desires that His intelligent creations perform creative acts. Physical love between one man and one woman in marriage ordained by God happens to be a very blessed and creative act. This fact can only mean that God will give to every saint in Heaven one husband or one wife.

When Jesus told the woman at the well to go call her husband and come back to Him, He had to have meant that she had the husband that God meant for her to have. But Jesus also sought to get this woman to realize that she was a sinner before God. When Jesus told her to call her husband, He knew that she did not consider him to be her husband. Jesus knew that when she admitted this, then He would be ready to cause her to realize that she was a sinner. The woman protested that she had no husband by which she meant that she felt that she was living in a sinful condition. When Jesus agreed with her that she had no husband, He did not contradict Himself. When Jesus told her that she had had five husbands and that the man she was with was not her husband, He simply meant that she was right to realize that she was a sinner.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 16-18 continued

Believers should know that a true marriage should always be between one man and one woman because Jesus taught that. Matthew 19:3-6. Nevertheless, God sometimes allowed even His great men in the Old Testament to have more than one wife, and He allowed Moses to write divorce into His Law. Matthew 19:7-9; II Samuel 12:8. Both divorce and multiple marriages are sins, and yet, the Old Testament holds no record that God ever punished His people for either one of these sins. God punished King David for adultery and murder, but his sins had to be deliberate since he knew the Law very well. But no record exists that God ever punished David for multiple marriages. God apparently had a lot of tolerance for sins of weakness in the Old Testament. But God holds humans saved by grace in the Church Age to a higher standard. God expects their marriages to be only between one Godly man and one Godly woman. God never condones sin, but He has great confidence in Himself that He can readily handle sins of weakness in His people of faith. But God will often severely punish deliberate sins because those types of sins go directly against faith in Him.

The Bible (KJB) makes a clear distinction between sins of weakness and deliberate sins. Sins of weakness happen when a person with a particular weakness becomes overcome by temptation and falls into sin. A deliberate sin happens when a person willfully disobeys God. Numbers 15:24-36; Exodus 21:12-14. This sin displays an attitude that one does not need God or that God does not exist or that He is weak. Great cruelty toward others can only be deliberate sins because even in atheists God has put His latent faith. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:27; Romans 12:3; Romans 1:18-23. Worship of anything other than God can also only be a deliberate sin. The Bible (KJB) relates that God has a lot more tolerance and patience with sins of weakness than with deliberate sins. Samson had a weakness for women, but God did not punish him for that. God punished him severely when he deliberately and willfully allowed his long hair to be cut because through it God had given him his great strength. When Samson did this, he acted as if he no longer needed God. Judges 16:20. King David also had a weakness for women, but God did not punish him for having many wives. But when he deliberately committed adultery and murder, God severely punished him. If one ignores God's Law then one ignores God. II Samuel 12:8-14. Jesus demonstrated compassion for sins of weakness, but He also demonstrated severe condemnation for the Pharisees and Sadducees who deliberately violated God's Law for their own purposes. John 8:1-11; Matthew 23:1-36. However, God holds Christians in the Church Age to a higher standard, although He seems to punish even Christians less for sins of weakness than for deliberate sins. But God will forgive and cleanse both types of sins when any person truly repents and puts their faith in the power that Christ has over their sins and evil. John 5:24; I John 1:8-9.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                       Verses 16-18

At this point, Jesus knew that this woman had become fully ready to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. But she first had to realize that she had sinned and that she was ready to give up her sins. So Jesus told her to go and bring her husband to Him. Apparently, Jesus knew that her husband also had a spiritual nature. Since Jesus told her to call her husband, then He must have considered the man she was with to be truly her husband. God had put this man and woman together to be husband and wife in His sight. God permits no other type of true marriage. This woman was married to five other men in the eyes of her community, but they were not true marriages in God's eyes. Humans have many religious and civil marriage ceremonies that are not marriages to God.

From the beginning, God put a man and a woman together in marriage without any marriage ceremony. Genesis 2:23-25. The Old Testament has a decided lack of marriage ceremonies. The New Testament records only one marriage ceremony. However, there are good and bad aspects of marriage ceremonies. One of the good aspects of marriage ceremonies happens to be that they assure everyone in the church or in the community in the case of civil marriage that the man and woman are truly married in human eyes. These types of marriages are almost always between a man and a woman who have fallen in love, and therefore, can only be sins of weakness. Throughout His Word, God demonstrates that He has great compassion for sins of weakness. This could be one reason why God allowed Moses to write divorce into His Word. Matthew 19:3-9. The bad aspects happen to be that the ceremonies, especially the beautiful ones, put the ideas in the man and woman's heads that their beautiful romance will cause them to have a blissful marriage, when in fact, their marriage may be one of trials and heartaches. In addition, since the bride happens to be the star of beautiful ceremonies, this event sometimes puts the idea in her head that she will be the star of the marriage, when in fact, she and her husband should be equals in their marriage.

Believers saved by grace should never marry anyone except another true believer. They should abstain from making love until they both know that God has made them man and wife. They should fervently pray for at least several months for God to tell them that they should become man and wife. God tells a person who has become saved by grace that He has saved them, and He tells a person when He has called that person to preach, so God will tell a man and woman that He has married them. When a man and a woman assure themselves, after a lot of prayer, that God has put them together in marriage, then they should simply announce to their church in a particular worship service that God has put them together to live as man and wife. They should not go on dates before marriage because that invites temptation. They should simply talk together after worship services, and when they begin to fall in love, they should agree to fervently pray about whether or not God wants them to marry. If God says no, then they should accept His will even though they are falling in love. Although they should love each other, they should not attach a lot of romance to their marriage because God, for His own reasons, may give them a marriage of trials and heartaches

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                       Verses 6-15 continued

God created some humans to possess a spiritual nature, and all others to possess a material nature. Romans 9:1-24. God uses both types for His glory. God plans to save both types forever with a higher and a lower form of salvation. God has promised in His Word that if a person with a material nature sincerely confesses that they believe that Christ is their God and Savior, then He will give them His spiritual salvation even though they will probably never feel the presence of His Holy Spirit who will reside within their inner being. John 20:24-29; Romans 10:8-10.

Jacob had the spiritual nature, but Esau had a material nature. When God's Word states that God loved Jacob but hated Esau, it does not mean that God hated his spiritual nature that God put into him when He created him. It means that God hated Esau's evil nature that dominated his material nature that, in turn, dominated his spiritual nature. Romans 9:13. God creates every human in His image. Genesis 1:27. When God changed Esau's heart and caused the love he had for his brother Jacob to overwhelm him and cause him to hug Jacob and weep with him and be reconciled to him, this event did not symbolize salvation by grace, Genesis 33:4. This event symbolized that a day will come when God will break the hold that evil has on every unbeliever on the earth and within the regions of the dead, and by the power of His Love and Majesty He will cause every unbeliever to repent and believe in the Lamb of their own free will so that their spiritual natures, no matter how small, will become reconciled to Him so that He can recreate their spiritual natures with new bodies to live righteous lives on His new earth forever. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; II Peter 3:9-13; Colossians 1:15-20.

The woman at the well then asked Jesus from where He could obtain that living water that He said He could give her. She also asked Jesus if He was greater than her ancestor Jacob who had given her people the well. Her inquires demonstrated that her spiritual nature caused her to seek spiritual truths. Jesus gave her the deeper, spiritual insight that she sought. Jesus told her that material water could only satisfy a temporary, physical thirst, but that the living water that He could give her, symbolic of the Holy Spirit, would be like an artesian well flowing out of her to give to her everlasting life. When she heard that, her spiritual thirst became even more pronounced, and she asked Jesus to give her that living water so that she would never thirst for material water again. Her assumption demonstrated that she had come to believe that this living water could somehow replace and annul her material nature. The spiritual nature evokes faith in the supernatural power of God. This woman had that kind of faith.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 6-15

Jesus went to a city of Samaria called Sychar and sat on a well and waited for the woman. The woman came to the well and immediately recognized that Jesus was a Jew probably because of the type of robe He wore. She was surprised that Jesus asked her to give Him some water because Jews seldom even spoke to Samaritans. Jesus replied to her question, as He often did in His ministry, by comparing a material object; that is, water, with a spiritual idea; that is, living water. He also told her that He had the power to give her this living water.

As Jesus already knew, this woman possessed a deep spiritual nature because she immediately recognized that this living water had to be something more than just material water. She also began to realize that Jesus must be someone special; that is, someone perhaps sent from God.

Whenever Jesus spoke in parables or compared material objects to spiritual ideas, He deliberately did so to separate the spiritual believers from the unbelievers. Jesus knew that the spiritual nature of potential believers would cause them to begin to grasp the spiritual ideas hidden within His parables and His comparison of material objects with spiritual ideas.

God is fair. God wrote His entire Word in such a way as to separate believers from unbelievers. Isaiah 6:9-13. God even allowed contradictions in His Word, and quotes from pagans, to cause unbelievers to disbelieve. Ezekiel 20:25; Acts 17:28. God feels that unbelievers have every right to disbelieve. God gave them the free will to do so. For this reason, God's Word (KJB) has to be inerrant and infallible because it accomplishes one of the very purposes for which God wrote it. God does not want unbelievers to associate with believers saved by grace because the evil influence of the unbelievers will cause a lot of confusion among His believers. II Corinthians 6:14-18. Even so, the Devil sometimes causes unbelievers to stick with believers to cause sin and confusion among believers. John 12:1-8. Those who contend that God's Word can only be inerrant and infallible because it contains no contradictions or errors do not understand that one of the reasons God wrote His Word was to separate believers saved by grace from unbelievers. Nevertheless, God created every living human in His image with a latent faith, and therefore, He will cause every living human eventually to repent and believe in Christ of their own free will, some by His grace and all others within the regions of death when He reveals Himself to them in a future, great worship service. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Genesis 1:31; Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 1-5 continued

One day the Father told Jesus to travel from Judea to Galilee but to go through Samaria. At that time, the Jews did not like the Samaritans because they had a different religion, and the Samaritans did not like the Jews. For this reason, the Jews seldom went to Samaria. When they traveled from Judea to Galilee, they went around Samaria. Jesus felt the need to go through Samaria because He knew that there were some people there who would become saved by His grace. Jesus knew that the key to reaching these people with the gospel happened to be a woman He would meet at a well. His Father arranged it all that way.

God has instructed His Church to operate in this same way. God instructs preachers to preach the gospel to crowds at certain times and places so that some of them might believe in Christ and become saved by grace. God also instructs personal witnesses to witness to a particular person or a small group of persons so that some might become saved by grace. All believers in Christ are His witnesses, but no believer should actually witness until instructed by God to relate the gospel at particular times and places to particular people. Unless empowered by the Holy Spirit, a believer's witness will not be effective. Acts 1:8; John 15:4-5. God has instructed His Church to operate as a team. God calls some believers to preach and witness, and they win many souls to faith in Christ, but He calls others to pray for souls to be saved or to simply support those who preach and witness. I Corinthians 12:4-31. Nevertheless, all believers should pray to be constantly in tune with the Holy Spirit so that if He should instruct a believer to witness to a particular person or group of persons at a particular time and place, that believer should certainly obey the Holy Spirit. John 15:4-5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                                 Chapter Four

                                                                                                                                      Verses 1-5

The Pharisees thought that Jesus preached the same doctrine that John the Baptist had previously taught before God inspired him to recognize who Jesus really was. The Pharisees thought that Jesus baptized in water for the remission of sins. Like all religious people, they believed that contact with God could only happen through material ceremonies such as baptism in water, or in the case of the Pharisees, through animal sacrifices and doing good works. Many humans possess a material mindset. They believe everything has to be something material. They cannot see beyond matter and energy. To their way of thinking, any immaterial substance, such as soul and spirit, can only be equal to nothing. But souls and spirits are real as totally abstract and immaterial substances although soul can be partially material when manifested as emotion. Souls and spirits equal information made real by consciousness, both of which are completely separate from anything material but can be manifested through intelligent, living humans. People who cannot get beyond a material philosophy tend to be atheists or idol worshipers. They may be religious even as atheists, or they may claim to believe in God, but they can only see God as something material.

Jesus did not baptize in water, but He instructed His disciples to baptize in water to symbolize the faith of those baptized in His death, burial, and resurrection for the remission of their sins. For this same reason, Jesus commands His Church to baptize His believers in water to witness to the world, in symbolic form, that they have already been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ. Matthew 28:18-20; I Corinthians 12:12-13. In this way, even some materialists can demonstrate their faith in Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for their salvation by grace even though they cannot understand spiritual matters or ever feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in their inner beings. John 20:24-29.