The Most Loving Act You Will Ever Perform

The 4^th chapter of John tells us the familiar story of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well. It looks at the dysfunction that occurs any time we fail to trust entirely in God.

The woman was stunned when Jesus asked her for a drink. After all, he shouldn’t even have been speaking to her. As a woman in the Jewish culture of the day, she ranked no higher than property. Worse, she was a Samaritan, a race despised by the Jews. She was also an adulteress who’d been married five times and was even now living in sin.

Those were three strikes against her, and yet still Jesus spoke to her. Better than that, he offered her a new kind of water than that which came from the well.

“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,” he told her, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” This water, Jesus said, would become “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14)

What a life-giving response! The woman wasn’t just shocked that Jesus treated her as a fellow human, but also at his offer of a much deeper relationship.

Jesus didn’t stand by the well to judge the woman, but to heal her.

His heart of compassion poured out to her as it does today toward us. He offers living water to broken marriages, broken families, and broken lives just as he did for the woman of Samaria.

From her scandalous lifestyle, Jesus understood that she was desperately trying to get her needs met through relationships with men. She thought lovers could fill the emptiness in her life.

Her mistake left a trail of divorce and disappointment. Her failed attempts at relationships did not quench that thirst.

Why? Because only God can meet our deepest needs.

The Samaritan woman’s dilemma is a common one even today. Many of us, Christians included, seek satisfaction from the tangible people and things around us, rather than finding our fulfillment in God.

Jesus tried to move her focus away from the world and onto the eternal. He wanted her to understand the limits of human provision—that she would still be thirsty even after drinking the well water.

Our Lord reminds us of the same thing. When our primary dependence is on God, not only does He fill the inner void in our lives with His love and presence, but He also uses us to bless others. The “fountain of water springing up” describes the overflow of God’s blessings out of our lives and into the lives of others.

That’s why I want you to understand this: the most loving act you will ever perform for yourself and your family is to seek and serve Jesus Christ.

He will transform you from the inside out. He will prepare you to love as you’ve never loved before. He will change your marriage, your family, and every aspect of your life.