but whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life.
Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. She came for ordinary water, and He offers her a gift that ends thirst for good and becomes a spring inside her.
The Well That Never Satisfies
The woman had told Jesus the well was deep. One writer hears in her words the story of every life spent drawing from the world:
There are volumes contained in these four words, "The well is deep." They spoke of a weary existence. She was tired of life. Her will and her sin had only left her heart empty. Despised by all, isolated and abandoned, she came at a time when the well was very empty. And is that not what every man finds as he passes through this world? "The well is deep," and it gets deeper every year he lives. He has to keep lengthening the rope as he tries to draw the water he longs to satisfy his heart with. That becomes harder as time goes on, and the Lord tells us why: "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again."
A Gift, Not a Payment
The verse turns on the Lord's own promise: I will give. Nothing in the sentence asks for a contribution from the one who drinks.
Mark well what the living water is: the new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. It springs up in glad and holy worship to the Father, and it flows out in fullness of blessing to men. The Lord does not give it in return for any surrender on our part, or effort that we can make, or price that we can pay. "I shall give," said the Lord, and "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."
What the Water Is
One writer names the water and says why it is new:
But now in John 4 we get something wholly new. Jesus gives a divine gift ("I will give"): living water that forms a well within, always springing up into everlasting life, so that there shall be no more thirst. This is the Holy Spirit, whom God gives to live in the one who is born again. He is the power and energy of a life in communion with God, its source and end. Here then is a source of joy apart from all circumstances and independent of them. The joy is the deepest kind, and eternal. The source never fails, though at times the joy may be clouded over here below.
A Spring Inside the Man
The striking word in the verse is in him. What Christ gives is not a supply kept elsewhere and fetched as needed.
We have everlasting life in Him, and we shall never be separated from Him. The man also has a well of water in himself: "The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water." This is power coming down from God — heaven is brought down into my heart. It is the power of divine life bringing me into fellowship with the Father and the Son. It is nothing short of all that is in God dwelling in me... There is an eternal spring in my own soul. The man drinks it in — he receives it as a thirsty person — and then it becomes in him a well that makes him a partaker of what is in God.
Springing Up — and Flowing Out
The water does not sit still. One writer sets out what it does in a man, and then through him for others:
He proposes to make men independent of the world... In the same way He also proposes to make them contributors to the deep need of thirsty hearts within the world. To have a deep well-spring of satisfaction within, springing up into everlasting life — this is the upper spring. It rises to its Source and Giver in intelligent appreciation and worship. And then these same refreshing waters flow out in rivers to others for their blessing too — this is the lower spring.
Summary
- Thirst — every well of this world must be drunk from again; the rope only gets longer with the years.
- Gift — Jesus says, "I will give." No surrender, effort, or price buys it; thirst is all He asks.
- Indwelling — writers identify the living water as the Holy Spirit, whom God gives to live in the one born again.
- Inward — Christ puts the spring in him: an eternal spring in the soul, not a store outside that he must go and fetch.
- Upward, then outward — the well rises to its Giver in worship. The same waters then flow out in rivers to other thirsty hearts.