If You Only Knew

Do we feel sin, hate it, and flee from it? Do we love Christ, and rest solely on Him for salvation?  The woman from Samaria did.  What can we learn from her story in John 4? 

Christ will always deal with the careless sinner with mingled tact and humility.

• Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.  Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink."

Christ is always ready to give mercy to careless sinners.

• Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."

The priceless excellence of Christ's gifts cannot compare with the things of this world.

• Jesus replied, "Anyone who drinks of this water will soon become thirsty again.  But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.  It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."

The conviction of sin is an absolute necessity before a soul can be converted to God.  Until men and women are brought to feel their sinfulness and need, no real good is ever done to their souls.

• "Please, sir," the woman said, "give me this water!  Then I'll never be thirsty again, and I won't have to come here to get water."  "Go and get your husband," Jesus told her.  "I don't have a husband," the woman replied.  Jesus said, "You're right!  You don't have a husband - for you have had five husbands and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now.  You certainly spoke the truth!"

Any religion which only consists of formality is utterly useless.

• "Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem...But the time is coming - indeed it's here now - when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth."

Christ is graciously willing to reveal Himself to the chief of sinners.  

• The woman said, "I know the Messiah is coming - the one who is called Christ.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us."  Then Jesus told her, "I AM the Messiah."

How shocking in the eyes of man are Christ's dealings with souls. 

• Just then his disciples came back.  They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, "What do you want with her?" or "Why are you talking to her?"

How absorbing is the influence of grace when it first comes into a believer's heart.

• The woman left her water jar beside the well... 

How zealous a truly converted person is in doing good to others.  In the day of her conversion, the Samaritan woman became a missionary!

• ...and ran back to the village, telling everyone, "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did!  Could he possibly be the Messiah?  So the people came streaming from the village to see him."

What are WE ourselves?  

• Do we feel the supreme importance of spiritual things and the comparative nothingness of the things of the world? 
• Do we ever talk to others about God and Christ and eternity and the soul and heaven and hell?
• What is the value of our faith?
• Where is the reality of our Christianity?

Let us not awake too late, and find that we are lost forever, a wonder to angels and devils, and above all, a wonder to ourselves, because of our own obstinate blindness and foolishness.

Adapted Excerpt from J.C. Ryle's The Gospel of John