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Living Water (John 4:10-12)
Now Jesus says something provocative, something designed to provoke a response, a religious conversation.
“10 Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’
11 ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?’” (4:10-12)
Jesus’ reply draws the woman’s attention to two things: (1) his gift, and (2) his person.
“Gift” in verse 10 is dōrea, “that which is given or transferred freely by one person to another, gift, bounty,” a word that stresses the freeness of a gift.[166]
Jesus mentions “living water.” This phrase normally referred to flowing water from a river or stream, as opposed to standing water from a pond or well. But Jesus uses the word ambiguously (as is common in John’s Gospel), giving the word a deeper meaning, water that imparts life, and, as we see in verse 14, a gift that imparts eternal life.
Though the woman probably didn’t know it (because the Samaritans only recognized the authority of the Pentateuch, not the Prophets), Jesus is calling upon a Biblical metaphor. Yahweh refers to himself as “the spring of living water” (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13), his people will drink from his “river of delights,” and he offers the “fountain of life” (Psalm 36:8-9). As we’ll see, Jesus uses the metaphor of living water to refer to the gift of the Spirit in 7:37-39. And the metaphor appears as a symbol of eternal life in Revelation (7:17; 22:1, 17). The phrase “gift (dōrea) of the Holy Spirit” appears in Acts 2:38 and 10:45. “Heavenly gift (dōrea) is found in Hebrews 6:4.
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (4:10)
Jesus is obviously speaking metaphorically, but the woman seems to take it literally, perhaps of the underground spring that fed the well deep below where they were. She points out that he doesn’t have any way to draw water from the well, and that somehow Jesus is exalting himself over the patriarch Jacob who dug the well.
A Spring of Water Welling up to Eternal Life (4:13-15)
Jesus ignores her lack of understanding, but continues to explain the gift he is talking about. He compares literal water with spiritual water.
“13 Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
15 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’” (4:13-15)
The woman still doesn’t seem to understand.
Jesus makes two claims for those who drink this Living Water.
They will never thirst.
They will have eternal life.
We will never thirst in the sense that we will always be in touch with God through the Spirit, in the flow of God’s eternal supply. We will have eternal life because the Holy Spirit who “seals” us (as Paul would say), preserves us until the coming of Christ. And that eternal life begins when we receive the Holy Spirit — everything becomes new. The expression in verse 14b is of a “spring welling up to eternal life.” “Welling up” (NIV, ESV), “gushing up” (NRSV), “springing up” (KJV) is hallomai, literally, “to make a quick leaping movement, leap, spring up,” here used figuratively of the quick movement of inanimate things, “to spring up from a source,” of water, “well up, bubble up.”[167]
It is clear that Jesus is speaking here of the gift of the Holy Spirit, as he does in a variety of ways elsewhere in John:
“Baptize with the Holy Spirit.” (1:33b)
“Born of the Spirit.” (3:8b)
“In him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (4:14)
“Streams of living water will flow from within him.” (7:38)
“Another Counselor (paraklētos) to be with you forever.” (14:16)
“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.” (14:26)
“The Counselor ... whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth.” (15:26; 16:7)
“Receive the Holy Spirit.” (20:22)
Of all the Gospels, John has the most developed teaching — by far — concerning the difference the Holy Spirit makes in the life of a believer.
The Spirit in us is an active, powerful, life-giving spring flowing with amazing “water pressure,” and — if we will follow his leading — will enable and propel us to do things far beyond our ability. And this Spirit, birth of this Spirit, moves us from the temporal to the eternal plane. Our “eternal life” begins when we are born by this Spirit!
