When the Lord Jesus was on earth, one day He intended to go from Jerusalem to Galilee. John 4:4 says that “He had to pass through Samaria.” I have studied the map and found out that from any point of view, there was no need for the Lord to pass through Samaria. There were many ways to get from Jerusalem to Galilee. But the Lord said that He “had to.” The reason for this is that He had the burden to visit that detested, immoral, yet God-chosen woman living in Samaria. She had had five husbands already. In this passage we see the wisdom of the Lord. He came to visit her in a different way than He visited Zaccheus in Jericho. There He stayed at the house of Zaccheus and saved him. But here the Lord Jesus did not do this. He came rather after midday and waited for the woman by the well where she drew water. This was the most suitable place. He could talk to the woman in the bright daylight. From this we see the full wisdom of our Lord Jesus.
About the sixth hour, the Samaritan woman came to draw water. The Lord said to her, “Give Me a drink” (John 4:7). The Samaritan woman answered, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask me for a drink...?” (v. 9). After the Lord answered her, she asked some more questions. In the course of the conversation, the woman knew that the Lord Jesus was different, that He had the living water with Him. She began to ask of the Lord, “Sir, give me this water so I will not thirst” (v. 15). If we were to have answered that woman, we would have said, “Confess your sins and then you can drink the living water.” But the Lord Jesus was not as foolish as we are. He answered in a wise way, “Go, call your husband and come here” (v. 16).
The Lord wanted her to get her husband before He would give to her the living water. The woman was most afraid of being asked concerning this matter. Immediately she said, “I don’t have a husband” (v. 17). This is to lie by telling the truth. The Lord Jesus did not deny her words. He only said, “You have well said, I don’t have a husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you said truly” (vv. 17-18). The woman did not confess her sins. But the Lord Jesus pointed out in detail all her sins. The woman was very surprised. She was also very clever. Immediately she turned the subject from the drinking of living water to religious worship. She said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship” (vv. 19-20). She was very clever. She turned from the five husbands to the matter of worship of God, from being a sinner to being a religionist. This shows that many zealous worshippers of God are also sinners and evildoers behind the scenes. The Lord Jesus then opened her heart and said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father” (v. 21). The Lord wanted to show her that the age had changed. The Old Testament was over, and the New Testament had come.
The Lord Jesus continued speaking to her, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and reality; for the Father seeks such to worship Him” (v. 23). The Old Testament worship depended upon a physical place. But the New Testament worship does not depend upon anything physical. Neither does it depend upon any place. Rather, it depends upon the human spirit.
If we worship God only according to a place, there is still the possibility of committing sins. But if we worship God according to our spirit, we cannot sin. This is because the major part of the spirit is the conscience, and the conscience will not allow us to sin. For example, a thief may have stolen from the bank last night. Yet today, on Sunday, he may still go to attend church services in the morning. This is because his concept is that of a physical place. He is worshipping God in a chapel. But if he turns to his spirit to worship God, he cannot rob the bank anymore, for his conscience will not allow him to do this. This is also why we have to change from the old way to the new. It is not merely a matter of method but a story of inward nature.
In the Old Testament, people worshipped God in one place. As long as the place was right, there could be worship. But in the New Testament it is not a question of place but a question of the human spirit. The spirit is the true part and the central part of a person. This organ has to be right. Furthermore, our spirit lies within our heart. If our spirit is right, our heart will be right. Today, in the new way, our preaching of the gospel, our meeting in the homes and in the small groups, and even our prophesying in the district meetings are not changes in outward methods. Rather, the need for outward changes comes because of the change in inward nature. If our meetings and gospel preaching are all by one man speaking while all listen, we are not according to God’s New Testament economy, and not all the saints will be able to be priests of the gospel. If we do not change the old way and take the new way, our meetings and service will all be outward. They will not be in the spirit. Everything will be a matter of method. Nothing will be in reality. Hence, everything of the new way is not a matter of place, form, method, or procedure, but a matter of reality in the spirit.