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.