Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 4-5.

The account of the lame man at the pool whom Jesus healed contains a couple of interesting points.  The first one being the question which Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to get well?”  The man’s response to the question is interesting and instructive.  He said that he couldn’t get well because he had no one to help him.  Together these tell us something about helping people in need.  We cannot help those who do not wish to be helped, and sometimes all people need is someone to walk along side offering some assistance.  Which brings us to what Jesus did to heal the man.  He told him to get up, pick up his mat, and walk.  He gave the man something to do.  Then later, Jesus found the man and told him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”  That is a message for all of us.  When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He forgave our sins and made us well with God.  We need to stop sinning or something worse may happen to us.  Fortunately, God will help us with that, just like He made us well.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 4-5.

When the Jewish leaders began to persecute Jesus because He healed on the Sabbath, He defended His actions by saying that the Son can only do what He sees the Father doing.  I was struck by the thought that just as Jesus could only do what He saw His Father doing, we should only do that which we see Jesus doing.  As the well of living water which He has given to us springs up within us, let us share that water with others so that they also may no longer thirst.  Then that well will reside within them as it resides within us.

I want to also write about Jesus teaching that we must worship God in spirit and in truth.  I am convinced that this connects with what I wrote in the first paragraph, but I could not find words to express that connection.  I find it interesting that the NIV translates it that true worshipers will worship God in “the Spirit and truth”, while other translations state it as I did above.  I think that there is something to be learned from the juxtaposition of these two ways of translating the phrase.  We can only worship God in spirit and in truth by worshiping Him through His Spirit.  Which really provides the connection between this and what I wrote in the previous paragraph.  The well of living water which Jesus has placed within us is God’s Spirit, and we can only worship God in spirit if that Spirit is within us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 4-5.

Usually when we think about the Samaritan woman at the well we do not actually think about her.  We think about the fact that she was a Samaritan, and the issues with a Jew, especially a religious Jew, talking with a Samaritan.  Or, we think about the fact that she was a woman, and the issues with a religious Jewish man talking to a woman who was not his wife or his mother.  And sometimes we think about the fact that she was a Samaritan woman, and how that made combination exacerbated the two problems.  We do not think about the fact that the people of that town would have considered her a woman of low moral character; she had had five husbands and now was not married to the man she was living with.  The context makes it likely that at least several of her marriages had ended in some way other than the death of her husband.  Yet, this was the woman to whom Jesus chose to preach the Gospel in order to reach the people of her town.  More importantly, she was the right person to whom to preach the Gospel in order to reach the people of her town.  Of course, what makes this even more amazing, and more of a lesson for us, Jesus did not talk to her in order to preach the Gospel to the town.  He didn’t even talk to her in order to preach the Gospel to her.  No, both of those things happened because of what she said to Him and how He just replied with what came naturally to Him.  Jesus reached this town of Samaritans with the Gospel because He talked to a stranger who could do nothing for Him except damage His reputation.  The lesson on how to preach the Gospel: talk to strangers about every day things.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 4-5.

We can learn a lot of lessons from John’s account of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well.  First, we should notice that the woman was “the sort” of woman to whom someone who wanted to have a good reputations should not be seen talking.  Jesus didn’t care, and no one dare question Him on it.  Not only did Jesus speak with a woman of questionable reputation, they had a discussion about fairly complex theology.  More interesting to me is the fact that the people of the town came to hear what Jesus had to say because the woman told them that they should.  In fact, not only did they come to listen to Jesus because of her account of her conversation with Him, but many of them believed in Him from her testimony.  Let’s unpack this a little bit.  This woman came to get water in the middle of the day so as to avoid the town gossips, who got their water first thing in the morning along with everyone else.  Jesus had to know she was an outcast coming to get water at around noon. And she knew that He knew that.  Yet, He talked to her anyway. Jesus willingness to take her seriously on religious issues allowed Him to reach not just her, but her neighbors as well.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 4-5

As I read this I was struck by Jesus statement that the time has arrived for true worshipers to worship God in spirit and in truth.  The context in which He made this statement was in response to a question about worshiping God on Mt Gerizim or in Jerusalem.  The time has come when we must truthfully worship God.  If we worship God in spirit and in truth He will send us to harvest those He is bringing to eternal life.  If we worship in spirit and in truth, we will follow Jesus’ example as shown later in today’s passage.  When the Jewish leaders harassed Jesus for breaking their Sabbath rules He told them that His Father was always working, so He was as well.  We need to always be working to bring blessings to those around us, to show them how to worship in spirit and in truth.  If we listen to Jesus’ message and act according to His instructions we will receive eternal life and, more importantly, we will show others how they too can receive that eternal life.  I wanted to end there, but I need to write one more thing from this passage.  We can do nothing by ourselves, just as Jesus said that He could do nothing by Himself.  Jesus did only what He saw the Father doing.  We should do only that which we see Jesus doing.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 4-5

After Jesus told the crippled man to take up his mat and walk, the Jewish religious leaders began to harass Him for not following their interpretation of properly keeping the Sabbath.  Jesus’ responded that He was only doing what He saw the Father doing.  The implication being that we should do as we see Jesus doing.  Jesus went on to say that He needed neither human testimony, nor His own words to show people who He was.  No, the Jesus’ works and how He taught people to live testified to the fact that He was the Messiah. 

Which brings me around to the story of the Samaritan woman.  At the end of that story, her fellow Samaritans testified that they initially believed in Jesus because of the testimony of the woman at the well.  However, they said that, in the end, they believed Jesus because they heard what He said (and saw what He did).  This should be a model for how we bring people to the Lord.  They should become believers because they see the testimony of what we say and do, but should come to know Jesus for themselves and believe because of that knowledge.