What does "everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again" mean (John 4:13)?

John 4:13-14. The Lord, in His reply, contrasts the water which occupied the woman's thoughts, with the living water of which He was speaking. The water of the well, like all earthly joys, of which it is the symbol, can never satisfy. There is no source of lasting satisfaction in things earthly. Money, pleasure, ambition, duties and earthly relationships, if pursued, may provide a moment's distraction or provide a passing gratification, but no lasting satisfaction. "Every one who does not know Christ has either a disappointed heart, or a heart seeking what will disappoint it" (J.N.D.).

The Lord thus explains more clearly than ever how the living water is the great supernatural gift man needs. The water of an earthly spring, however good, like every natural boon, lasts but for the moment. It quenches thirst, only to recur soon and constantly, as is the nature of all things seen and temporal. The soul, immortal as it is, needs more to satisfy, as God delights in giving when He is looked to in felt want. But here the Lord vouchsafes what satisfies the believer and God Himself, what forms a blessed and permanent and intimate relationship with the Son and the Father. It is not only eternal life, as in John 3, but the Spirit of adoption given, and therefore said to become in him, the believer, a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. Not only are creature things no longer an object of desire, but a fountain of divine refreshment is within through the indwelling Spirit, Who ever leads the believer to worship by His own power, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to have no confidence in the flesh. It is not holy longings only as of old, but present possession and enjoyment by virtue of Christ come and redemption. It is inexhaustible and leads the soul to the sources on high.

Here, in the interview with the woman of Samaria, the water is used as a type of the Spirit, but as that which ministers life, and refreshing. "We have been made to drink into one Spirit." The figure is different, but equally clear, and most precious. I cannot do better than to trace this figure in the Old Testament, as seen in Israel's history. This will enable us to see the beautiful appropriateness of the figure used by our Lord with this poor sinful woman. But first let us listen to His words just prior: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." On every fountain — broken cisterns, are they not? — of man's digging we may write these words. No matter where man turns for refreshment, he fails to find that which can truly quench thirst; pleasure, reputation, power, wealth — whatever the heart of man craves — can never satisfy. As in the book of Ecclesiastes, those who have most diligently drawn water out of these wells have been constrained to confess "vanity of vanities." Let us as Christians take note of this and refuse that which does not satisfy even the world. Whom have we, Lord, but Thee, Soul-thirst to satisfy? Exhaustless spring! the waters free! All other streams are dry."

But the Son of God stands in contrast to Jacob's well. In Him was living water. The fountain of life was in Him for those who were in this arid desert parched and dying without the knowledge of God. He draws the contrast between Himself and the well from which the woman came to draw: "Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." There is no satisfaction to be derived from the creature springs of earth. Men think that there is enough in this world to satisfy every craving of the heart. In this they are mistaken. They think if they could only drink from every earthly well they would allay the terrible soul thirst which devours all their happiness; but like this woman they complain that the well is deep. They are sanguine that there is satisfaction to be found in the pleasures of the world, but they are debarred from the enjoyment of them from want of means. The poor think that happiness is to be found in wealth, but the rich have not found it so. There was a man who tried everything that proposed satisfaction for the heart, and we have his verdict. Solomon tells us that he tried everything that any other man could try. He gathered everything together that his soul lusted after. Nothing was withheld from him. He says he withheld not his heart from any joy. If he was told of anything that might minister enjoyment to the craving of his appetite, he got it. Many a man hears of what he might call good things and has no means of procuring them. The well is too deep and he has nothing to draw with; the rope is too short. However deep the well was Solomon could draw, he had plenty of means. If you read what Solomon gathered around his person you will be surprised. He tried everything that could be had in his day, and there is nothing new under the sun. And he was inspired by God to put his experience upon record, and he virtually says what the Lord says to this woman, "Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again." There is neither satisfaction nor profit. All is vanity and pursuit of the wind. If we could only believe all that this wise man was inspired to put upon record it would be well, but most of us prefer to learn by our own experience.

The "gift of God" the Lord speaks of to the woman is not simply life, as it was introduced in the third chapter. There we are told of the communication of a new life by the Holy Ghost to the soul, which by faith in the lifted-up Son of Man, and the opening of heavenly things, takes the character of eternal life. What I find the Lord proposes here is an added blessing — the Holy Ghost as the power of life forming a well (Gr. a fountain) within. He says, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Christ Himself is here the giver, and therefore "the gift of God" cannot be Himself. You may say to me, Is it not eternal life? We find in the Epistle to the Romans that "the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). Again, we find the apostle Paul saying, "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift" (2 Cor. 9:15). That may refer to the Lord Jesus. Scripture never repeats itself. Here, however, is something new proposed. "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is" that has stooped down so low as to say, "Give me to drink," your heart would have been attracted, your confidence won, and "thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." He makes no claim on her, but her need is a just claim on His gracious heart. Love and need are face to face, in this touching scene, and therein is always the point of contact between the soul and God — need on my side, love on His.

Thoroughly interested, "the woman says to him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with." She is surprised. She does not understand the Lord, she does not rise to the thought in His heart, so she goes on, "and the well is deep." What a revelation! There are volumes contained in these four words, "The well is deep." They bespoke a weary existence. She was tired of life. Her will and her sin had but left her heart empty. Despised of all, isolated, and abandoned, she came at a time when the well was very empty. And is not that exactly what every man, passing through this world finds, "The well is deep," and gets deeper every year he lives, and he has to lengthen the rope by which he seeks to draw the water with which he would fain satisfy his heart. That becomes more difficult as time goes on, and the Lord tells us the reason, "Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again." The water from the world's well can never satisfy the soul that drinks thereof, but observe the deeper meaning in the next words, "Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well (a fountain) of water springing up into everlasting life." "The well is deep," indeed, for you, if you have not found the Lord. You have not received eternal life, nor the Holy Ghost, and you are not satisfied. There is no satisfaction here except in the love of Christ. No one can be satisfied without Christ. You may be seeking after your pet objects, following your pet occupations, and be engrossed by your choicest pleasures, but, mark, there is sin coupled with every one of them. And what is the result? Man is unsatisfied. He is lost, at a distance from God, and he never can be satisfied until he comes back to Him. What a contrast exists between an unsatisfied sinner in his sins, and on his road to hell, and a real Christian who possesses Christ, and enjoys Him, too, because he has within him "a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

But the Lord does not tell her how much greater than Jacob He is: He knows rather how to lead her to find this out for herself. He then tells her what she herself knew, that, though drinking of the water of the well, she would thirst again; and from this He proceeds to tell her what she had never heard, that if she would drink of the water that He freely gave, she would never thirst again forever, that water being a well within the receiver, springing up into everlasting life.

Today we are privileged to understand that this living water is the Spirit of God in living reality working in the soul, to give a refreshment and satisfaction unknown except by His divine power (cf. John 7:37-39). The fullness of this was not to be known until the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), but the woman is encouraged in this blessed direction.

She does not yet understand, but her heart is awakened, and evidently also a genuine confidence in this unusual Stranger, so that she does just what He had suggested to her: she asked for this living water. She was indeed a thirsting soul, and weary of her very existence, weary of coming to draw water.

Further describing this water, and showing that it is not an earthly thing, He declares it is eternal life. Whoso drinketh of this water, whatever it may be — wealth, pleasure, honors, sin, — drinks only to have his thirst awakened again, a thirst which eventually shall never be slaked in eternity but he who drinketh of the water which He gives has his thirst quenched forever, and has in himself a satisfying spring of water ever flowing — to eternal life.

The woman follows the natural course of her own thoughts in talking about the water from the well (v. 11, 12). But Christ says, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water," etc. In using what sin gives in this world, it is soon spent; its strength is gone in the spending: the spring becomes dry. But with spiritual things it is just the reverse. The more I spend, the more I have got. "To him that hath shall more be given." And it leaves no desire for anything else - no hankering after what I have not got. "He shall never thirst" - never thirst after anything else, while there will be the increasing sense of need of the living water continually. I cannot say this practically of one whose soul is hankering after earthly things. When there is this hard crust over the soul, there is need of humbling; but the natural state of a Christian is to go on and have more given. A Christian sunk down into the flesh is thirsting. If one went down to the bottom of his soul, one might find the well; but there ought to be rather the sense of possession than of need in the soul.

134 Here is rest and power. We have not only everlasting life in Him from whom we shall never be separated; but the man has a well of water in himself. "It shall be in him a well of water," etc. 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. I have got something that lays hold of that life - the gift of God. Mark, it is here the well of water in the individual. There is an eternal spring in my own soul. There is a power in the person associating him with all that is in God; the man drinks it in - receives it as a thirsty person - and then it becomes in him a well which makes him partaker of what is in God. It brings into intercourse with, and feeding in spiritual apprehension on, the things of God.

I pray you to notice that the "well springing up" and "everlasting life" are distinct, and they must not be confounded. When the soul, through the sovereign grace of God, has been born of Him, and possesses the divine nature, the next thing the Lord proposes is this — I will put a power within you, the exercise of which will ever lead you to enjoy that which belongs to you in heavenly relationship, and to which you belong. It shall be "a well (fountain) of water springing up into everlasting life." It is not our idea of a well that is here represented. You know what a fountain is. It is a perennial spring, ever bubbling up, and unhindered. The statement which the Lord here makes is a wonderful one. "Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst." The soul that thus drinks is landed in a region of satisfied desire.

Evidently the woman of Samaria did not comprehend the Lord's words, as her next words were, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." She knew not then who He was, but as He passes on, in His marvellous presentation of grace, she gradually gets her eyes, as well as her heart, opened. His grace evidently greatly attracted her, while she also felt what a toil was connected with sin, and you may depend upon it no man can sin, in this earthly scene, without having toil and sorrow connected with it. But she thought as yet, doubtless, more of her toil than of her sin, therefore the Lord now begins to deal with her conscience. Man has a conscience, and the conscience must be met, and reached, and the springs of the soul's history be touched with a sense of its sin, and guilt, or there never will be a link with God, or the true enjoyment of His grace. She would greatly have liked to be relieved of her toil, forgetting that she would not have been there trying to get a drop of water to quench her thirst had it not been for her sin, so the Lord now touches her conscience. "Go," He says, "call thy husband, and come hither." It was not often that the Lord bade any one go from Him, but it was necessary in this case. It was this "Go" which tested her heart, as to whether she cared enough for Him to induce her afterwards to come back. She was now sensibly alone with Jesus — alone with God, and I ask you, Have you ever known in your soul's history, what it is to be alone with God? She was consciously alone with God, but her conscience is not yet fully reached. "Go, call thy husband, and come hither," deeply touched her, however. She quibbles, and without a blush replies, "I have no husband."

The misunderstanding of the woman led to further unfoldings contained in verse 14, which again seem to range themselves under three heads. First, the one who drinks of the living water as the gift of Christ will have it "in him," abiding in his very being. Then, it will be in him as a "well," or "fountain," of water, "springing up into everlasting life." A fountain of life within, which springs up to the level of its Source! Lastly, the drinking of such water and the possession of such a fountain will produce abiding satisfaction. The Lord used a very strong expression — "shall never thirst for ever."

By "living water" the Lord indicated the Spirit of God as is quite evident when we reach chapter 7:39. In the previous chapter the only begotten Son is God's gift to the world but in this chapter, the Spirit of God is God's gift to the believer, but a gift which is administered by the Son of God; who was the Speaker, seated on Sychar's well. By the Spirit we have the life within — He is spoken of elsewhere as "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2) — and by Him the life within springs up to the Source of the life above. In this way did the Lord indicate the life of communion and worship and satisfaction which He was about to make available for the believer. As a result, the believer today may anticipate the millennial joy, set forth figuratively in the beginning of miracles at Cana of Galilee: and not only anticipate, but also know it in truer measure and a more spiritual way.