Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of John
Chapter 4: In Spirit and Truth
Tired at a well in Samaria, Jesus asks a despised woman for a drink, and offers her something far greater in return: living water that becomes a spring welling up to everlasting life. As she wrestles with questions of worship, He reveals the heart of true worship: God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The outcast becomes a witness, and a Samaritan town believes. John 4 shows the Savior crossing every barrier to give living water and to seek true worshipers.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of John chapter 4. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Greek words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Jesus offers living water to a Samaritan woman and reveals the nature of true worship. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
A Well in Samaria
Jews avoided Samaria and its people, but Jesus deliberately passed through, and rested at Jacob's well, where He met a Samaritan woman at midday.
Living Water
Jesus offers the woman living water that would become a spring welling up to everlasting life, satisfying a thirst that no earthly well can reach.
True Worship
When the woman raises the old dispute over the right place to worship, Jesus lifts worship above places to spirit and truth, and reveals Himself as the Messiah.
Barriers Crossed
Jesus crosses barriers of race, gender, and reputation to bring living water and to seek worshipers. The outcast believes and becomes a witness to her town.
Living Water (John 4:13-14)
Jesus contrasts the water of the well with a water that satisfies forever.
A Fountain Springing Up
"When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh 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. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews."
Greek Study
To the Samaritan woman Jesus offers "living water" -- hydor zon, which in ordinary speech meant flowing, running water, but which He lifts to a spiritual meaning: water that becomes "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The verb "springing up" (hallomai) pictures a leaping, gushing fountain, not a stagnant cistern. Later John will identify this living water with the Spirit that believers would receive (John 7:38-39). Jacob's well gives water that leaves one thirsty again; Christ gives an inward, ever-flowing spring of the Spirit.
Explanation
Jesus crosses every barrier -- of race, gender, and reputation -- to speak with a Samaritan woman at a well, and turns her request for ordinary water into an offer of eternal life. Physical water only postpones thirst; the water He gives becomes an inner fountain that satisfies forever. As He gently exposes her broken life -- five husbands and a live-in partner -- He does not shame her but draws her toward the truth, until she perceives He is a prophet and then the Christ. The Saviour of the world seeks and finds a despised woman at noon, and makes her the first evangelist to her town.
Gospel Focus
Jesus uses the woman's daily task, drawing water, to point to a deeper thirst. Earthly wells must be returned to again and again; the water Jesus gives satisfies forever and "will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." This living water is the Spirit and the life Christ gives, an inner spring that wells up from within rather than a cistern we must keep refilling. Later Jesus makes it explicit: "He that believeth on me... out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit" (John 7:38-39). Every human heart thirsts, and the world offers wells that never truly satisfy. Only Christ gives water that quenches the soul's deepest thirst and becomes a perpetual spring of eternal life within.
Worship in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23-24)
Jesus lifts worship above sacred places to what God truly seeks.
Such the Father Seeks
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?"
Greek Study
Jesus states the nature of God in four words: "God is a Spirit" -- pneuma ho theos -- and therefore "they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Because God is Spirit, not confined to Gerizim or Jerusalem, true worship is not a matter of sacred location but of the heart engaged by the Spirit and grounded in truth. This is a foundational Oneness confession: the one God is Spirit, invisible and omnipresent, the same Spirit who was manifest in the flesh of the Son. Worship rises to Him not through a place but through spirit and truth.
Explanation
The Samaritan woman raises the old dispute -- which mountain is the right place to worship -- and Jesus answers that the hour has come when place no longer matters: "the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Because God is Spirit, He seeks worshippers whose worship is inward and real, not tied to temples of stone. The Father is "seeking" such worshippers -- worship is God's initiative before it is ours. In Christ the whole geography of religion is transcended, and access to God is opened to Samaritan and Jew alike through the Spirit.
Gospel Focus
The woman raised the old question of the right place to worship, this mountain or Jerusalem. Jesus lifts worship above geography: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." True worship is not first a matter of place, ritual, or outward form, but of the heart engaged with God by His Spirit and according to His truth. "In spirit" means from the inner person, alive to God, not mere external performance; "in truth" means according to the reality of who God is and what He has revealed, not error or pretense. Both are needed: spirit without truth is sincere error, and truth without spirit is dead formality. Astonishingly, "the Father is seeking such to worship Him", God Himself searches for true worshipers. Worship is not something we do to get God's attention; it is the response God is seeking from hearts made alive to Him.
To Do the Will of Him Who Sent Me (John 4:34)
While the disciples worry about lunch, Jesus reveals what truly sustains Him.
To Finish His Work
"Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee."
Greek Study
Jesus tells His puzzled disciples, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." The word broma (meat, food) is used metaphorically: obedience to the Father sustains and satisfies Him more than bread. And "finish" (teleioo) anticipates His cry from the cross, "It is finished" (tetelestai) -- the completing of the work He was sent to do. The Son's very nourishment is the Father's will; He lives by doing what He came to accomplish, all the way to its finishing at the cross.
Explanation
While the disciples fret about food, Jesus is fed by doing the Father's will, and He lifts their eyes to the harvest: "the fields... are white already to harvest." The Samaritan woman's town is already streaming toward Him, proof that the harvest is ripe wherever the word is received. He closes the chapter by healing a nobleman's son from a distance with a word -- a second Cana sign -- and the man "believed... and his whole house." The Saviour whose food is the Father's will is gathering a harvest that already reaches beyond Israel, a foretaste of the world He came to save.
Gospel Focus
The disciples urged Jesus to eat, but He had been fed by something deeper: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." Just as He told the tempter that man lives by every word from God's mouth, so here doing the Father's will nourished His very soul. There is a satisfaction in obedience and in seeing lives saved, the woman had just gone to bring her town to Christ, that surpasses physical hunger. This is a challenge to us: is doing God's will a duty we squeeze in, or the food that sustains us? Jesus found His deepest satisfaction in obeying and finishing the work the Father gave Him, work that would climax at the cross when He would cry, "It is finished" (John 19:30). To live for God's will and the salvation of others is the most nourishing life there is.
Chapter 4 in Review
John 4 shows Jesus crossing every barrier to bring living water and to seek true worshipers. Weary at Jacob's well, He asks a Samaritan woman, a despised outsider, for a drink, then offers her living water that becomes a spring welling up to everlasting life. When she raises the question of where to worship, He reveals that God is Spirit and seeks worshipers who worship in spirit and truth, and He unveils Himself as the Messiah. The woman becomes a witness, and her town believes, while Jesus tells His disciples that doing the Father's will is His true food.
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter overflows with life-giving truth. Christ alone gives the living water, the Spirit and eternal life, that satisfies the soul's deepest thirst. True worship is not about place or form but about the heart alive to God by His Spirit and grounded in His truth, and it is exactly what the Father is seeking. And the most nourishing life is one spent doing God's will and bringing others to Him. Jesus crossed every barrier to reach one outcast woman; He still seeks true worshipers, and still offers living water to all who will drink.
- Christ gives living water, the Spirit and eternal life, an inner spring that satisfies forever (John 7:38-39).
- True worship is in spirit and truth: the heart alive to God and grounded in His revealed truth.
- The Father Himself is seeking true worshipers; worship is the response He desires.
- Doing God's will is the food that truly sustains, more than physical bread.
Questions for Reflection
- What "wells" have you returned to that never truly satisfy? Have you drunk of the living water Christ gives?
- Is your worship "in spirit and truth," from a heart alive to God, or has it become outward form?
- Jesus was nourished by doing God's will. Is obedience a duty you squeeze in, or food that sustains you?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Greek terms are standard and can be checked in any lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The living water Christ gives: John 4:10-14; 7:38-39.
- Worship in spirit and truth: John 4:20-24.
- Jesus revealing Himself as the Messiah: John 4:25-26.
- Doing the Father's will as food: John 4:31-38; 6:38.
- The Samaritans believing through the woman's witness: John 4:39-42.