John 4:1
The Lord knew — Though none informed him of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Lord knew — Though none informed him of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
He left Judea — To shun the effects of their resentment.... [ Continue Reading ]
And he must needs go through Samaria — The road lying directly through it.... [ Continue Reading ]
Sychar — Formerly called Sichem or Shechem. Jacob gave — On his death bed, Genesis 48:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus sat down — Weary as he was. It was the sixth hour — Noon; the heat of the day.... [ Continue Reading ]
Give me to drink — In this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge which the apostles were so long in attaining.... [ Continue Reading ]
For his disciples were gone — Else he needed not have asked her.... [ Continue Reading ]
How dost thou — Her open simplicity appears from her very first words. The Jews have no dealings — None by way of friendship. They would receive no kind of favour from them.... [ Continue Reading ]
If thou hadst known the gift — The living water; and who it is — He who alone is able to give it: thou wouldst have asked of him — On those words the stress lies. Water — In like manner he draws the allegory from bread, John 6:27, and from light, John 8:12; the first, the most simple, necessary, com... [ Continue Reading ]
Our father Jacob — So they fancied he was; whereas they were, in truth, a mixture of many nations, placed there by the king of Assyria, in the room of the Israelites whom he had carried away captive, 2 Kings 17:24. Who gave us the well — In Joseph their supposed forefather: and drank thereof — So ev... [ Continue Reading ]
Will never thirst — Will never (provided he continue to drink thereof) be miserable, dissatisfied, without refreshment. If ever that thirst returns, it will be the fault of the man, not the water. But the water that I shall give him — The spirit of faith working by love, shall become in him — An inw... [ Continue Reading ]
That I thirst not — She takes him still in a gross sense.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus saith to her — He now clears the way that he might give her a better kind of water than she asked for. Go, call thy husband — He strikes directly at her bosom sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou hast well said — We may observe in all our Lord's discourses the utmost weightiness, and yet the utmost courtesy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou hast had five husbands — Whether they were all dead or not, her own conscience now awakened would tell her.... [ Continue Reading ]
Sir, I perceive — So soon was her heart touched.... [ Continue Reading ]
The instant she perceived this, she proposes what she thought the most important of all questions. This mountain — Pointing to Mount Gerizim. Sanballat, by the permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon Mount Gerizim, for Manasseh, who for marrying Sanballat's daughter had been expel... [ Continue Reading ]
Believe me — Our Lord uses this expression in this manner but once; and that to a Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say unto you. The hour cometh when ye — Both Samaritans and Jews, shall worship neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem — As preferable to any other p... [ Continue Reading ]
Ye worship ye know not what — Ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but of the very object of worship. Indeed, they feared the Lord after a fashion; but at the same time served their own gods, 2 Kings 17:33. Salvation is from the Jews — So spake all the prophets, that the Saviour should... [ Continue Reading ]
The true worshippers shall worship the Father — Not here or there only, but at all times and in all places.... [ Continue Reading ]
God is a Spirit — Not only remote from the body, and all the properties of it, but likewise full of all spiritual perfections, power, wisdom, love, holiness. And our worship should be suitable to his nature. We should worship him with the truly spiritual worship of faith, love, and holiness, animati... [ Continue Reading ]
The woman saith — With joy for what she had already learned, and desire of fuller instruction.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus saith — Hasting to satisfy her desire before his disciples came. l am He — Our Lord did not speak this so plainly to the Jews who were so full of the Messiah's temporal kingdom. If he had, many would doubtless have taken up arms in his favour, and others have accused him to the Roman governor.... [ Continue Reading ]
His disciples marvelled that he talked with a woman — Which the Jewish rabbis reckoned scandalous for a man of distinction to do. They marvelled likewise at his talking with a woman of that nation, which was so peculiarly hateful to the Jews. Yet none said — To the woman, What seekest thou? — Or to... [ Continue Reading ]
The woman left her water pot — Forgetting smaller things.... [ Continue Reading ]
A man who told me all things that ever I did — Our Lord had told her but a few things. But his words awakened her conscience, which soon told her all the rest. Is not this the Christ? — She does not doubt of it herself, but incites them to make the inquiry.... [ Continue Reading ]
In the meantime — Before the people came.... [ Continue Reading ]
My meat — That which satisfies the strongest appetite of my soul.... [ Continue Reading ]
The fields are white already — As if he had said, The spiritual harvest is ripe already. The Samaritans, ripe for the Gospel, covered the ground round about them.... [ Continue Reading ]
He that reapeth — Whoever saves souls, receiveth wages — A peculiar blessing to himself, and gathereth fruit — Many souls: that he that soweth — Christ the great sower of the seed, and he that reapeth may rejoice together — In heaven.... [ Continue Reading ]
That saying — A common proverb; One soweth — The prophets and Christ; another reapeth — The apostles and succeeding ministers.... [ Continue Reading ]
I — he Lord of the whole harvest, have sent you — He had employed them already in baptizing, John 4:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
We know that this is the Saviour of the world — And not of the Jews only.... [ Continue Reading ]
He went into Galilee — That is, into the country of Galilee: but not to Nazareth. It was at that town only that he had no honour. Therefore he went to other towns.... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 13:57.... [ Continue Reading ]
To come down — For Cana stood much higher than Capernaum.... [ Continue Reading ]
Unless ye see signs and wonders — Although the Samaritans believed without them.... [ Continue Reading ]
He asked the hour when he amended — The more exactly the works of God are considered, the more faith is increased.... [ Continue Reading ]