Lit., fountain; as in v. 14.

I.e., 6:00 p.m.

Samaria was the leading region of the northern kingdom of Israel and was the site of its capital (1 Kings 16:24, 29). Around 700 B.C., the Assyrians captured Samaria and brought people from Babylon and other heathen countries to the cities of Samaria (2 Kings 17:6, 24). From that time the Samaritans became a people of mixed heathen and Jewish blood. History tells us that they had the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) and worshipped God according to that part of the Old Testament. But they were never recognized by the Jews as being part of the Jewish people.

This signifies the enjoyment of material things and the amusement obtained from worldly entertainment. These cannot quench the thirst deep within man. However much he drinks of this material and worldly "water," he will thirst again. The more he drinks of this "water," the more his thirst increases.

See note John 3:15¹.

This word was intended to touch her conscience by referring to her history of immorality, so that she would repent of her sins.

The woman tried the first husband, drinking of that "water," and she was not satisfied. Then she tried the second, third, fourth, and fifth husbands. Since none of these satisfied her, she was trying another. Her changing of husbands fully proved that however much she drank of that "water," she was still thirsty. "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again." This word of the Lord's is true!

The woman's problem, like the questions in John 8:3-5 and John 9:2-3, was a matter of yes or no, which belongs to the tree of knowledge; but the Lord turned her to the spirit (vv. 21-24), which belongs to the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 17).

God here is the complete Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

Spirit here refers to the nature of the complete Triune God; it does not refer merely to the Lord Spirit. To worship God, who is Spirit, we must worship with our spirit, which is of the same nature as He is.

This word was given to instruct the Samaritan woman regarding her need to exercise her spirit to contact God the Spirit. To contact God the Spirit with the spirit is to drink of the living water, and to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God.

This is our human spirit. According to typology, God should be worshipped
1) in the place chosen by God for His habitation (Deut. 12:5, 11, 13-14, 18),
2) with the offerings (Lev. chap. 1—6). The place chosen by God for His habitation typifies the human spirit, where God's habitation is today (Eph. 2:22). The offerings typify Christ; Christ is the fulfillment and reality of all the offerings with which the people worshipped God. Hence, when the Lord instructed the woman to worship God the Spirit in spirit and truthfulness, He meant that she should contact God the Spirit in her spirit instead of in a specific location, and through Christ instead of with the offerings. Since Christ, as the reality that issues in the human virtue of truthfulness, has come (vv. 25-26), all the shadows and types are over.

According to the context of this chapter and the entire revelation of John's Gospel, truthfulness here denotes the divine reality becoming man's genuineness and sincerity (which are the opposite of the hypocrisy of the immoral Samaritan worshipper — vv. 16-18) for the true worship of God. The divine reality is Christ (who is the reality — John 14:6) as the reality of all the offerings of the Old Testament for the worship of God (John 1:29; 3:14) and as the fountain of living water, the life-giving Spirit (vv. 7-15), partaken of and drunk by His believers to be the reality within them, which eventually becomes their genuineness and sincerity in which they worship God with the worship that He seeks. See note 1 John 1:6⁶; Rom. 3:7 and note Rom. 15:8^2a.

By this word Jesus led her to believe that He was the Christ, that she might have eternal life (John 20:31). She believed (v. 29).

Whoever drinks the living water and is satisfied with it will drop his preoccupations and testify of it. In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this also is the changing of death into life.

This indicates that the woman believed that Jesus was the Christ. By thus believing, she received the living water and was satisfied.

The sinner was satisfied by receiving the Savior's living water, and the Savior was satisfied by doing God's will in satisfying the sinner. Doing the will of God to satisfy the sinner is the Savior's food (v. 34).

Or, for.

See note John 3:15¹.

Others have labored should mean that some had sown the seed among the Samaritans using the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), which the Samaritans did possess. Here the Lord sent His disciples to reap what the earlier laborers had sown.

The Lord went to Galilee to avoid gaining fame, which He had gained in Jerusalem (John 2:23).

See note John 2:1^3b.

Galilee, a despised place (John 7:41, 52), signifies the world, which is in a low and mean condition.

The word of life out of the mouth of the Lord gives life to the dying.

I.e., 7:00 p.m.

The first sign in Cana (John 2:1-11) signifies the changing of death into life, setting forth the principle of life. The second sign here is a continuation, an application of the principle of the changing of death into life. The source of death is the tree of knowledge, and the source of life is the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 17).