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A Spring of Water
BY JOHN D. MORRIS, PH.D.
“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.” (John 4:13-14)
Water is necessary
for life, and no one can live for long without it.
Jesus, when talking to the Samaritan
woman at the well, used this simple and well-known fact to teach timeless
truth, both to her and to us.
The two occurrences of the word “drinketh”
in today’s verse are actually in two different forms.
The construction used in Greek
implies a continual, habitual drinking in the first case but a one-time action
in the second.
Likewise, while the
woman referred to a “well” (verse 12) (literally “a hole in the ground” ), Christ referred
to a “flowing well,” or “spring,” using a different word.
Furthermore, when
He said one who drinks from His spring shall “never thirst,” He said
so in a very emphatic way.
Not only is “thirst”
emphasized by the sentence structure, but it is compiled of two negatives
preceding the verb “thirst,” which is further strengthened by the word “forever,”
i.e., “shall not, shall not thirst, forever.”
One who drinks from the wells of the
world will thirst again, for sinful pleasures never satisfy.
But just a single
drink from the springs of “living water” (John 4:10; John 7:38) of which Christ
spoke eliminates spiritual thirst forever.
That one drink is a drink of eternal
life, and it becomes in the believer a veritable spring, inexhaustible in its
quantity and unsurpassed in its quality.
The water is a reference to the work
of the indwelling Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus to minister to His followers in
His absence.
One day we’ll be with Him, and then,
as well as now, He completely satisfies.
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