John 4:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see how, little by little, He stirred her love into longing by saying: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water"?

For the grace of the Spirit makes the soul always active toward the good and always setting ascents in its heart (Ps 8:3, 6).

Paul drank such water, living and always in motion, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Phil 3:13-14).

Notice how directly and simply He now calls Himself God, though the woman proves unable to understand it. Persuading her to revere "the gift of God," He presents Himself as its Giver.

"If," He says, "you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you, you would have asked Him." To whom does it belong to give the things of God, if not to Him who is God by nature?

The question is whether this water, which is the Holy Spirit, is called the gift of God. As we have already established that this water is the Holy Spirit, so elsewhere in the same Gospel we find that it is called the gift of God.

For the same Lord, speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, said to her, “Give Me a drink.” When she answered that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, Jesus answered her.

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ perhaps you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (Jn 4:10).

And the woman says, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then will You get living water?” (Jn 4:11). And so on.

Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water flowing into eternal life” (Jn 4:13-14).

Therefore, since this water, as the Evangelist said, is the Holy Spirit, without doubt the Spirit is the gift of God. The Lord speaks of this here.

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ perhaps you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (Jn 4:10).

For what He says there, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38), He says elsewhere in another form: “It will become in him a spring of water flowing into eternal life” (Jn 4:14).

In ordinary speech, living water is water that flows from a spring. Water collected from rain in hollows or reservoirs is not called living water.

Even if it flows from a spring and then stagnates, gathered in some place, it is not called living water. This is not because the spring has dried up, but because its movement has been interrupted.

For example, if a road blocks a stream, it is no longer called living water. Only water drawn while flowing is called living water. Such was the water from this spring.

Finally, hear Who asked for drink. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

He asked for drink and promised to give drink. He is in need and ready to receive, and at the same time He is rich and ready to satisfy. “If you knew,” He says, “the gift of God.”

The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But for now He carries on a hidden conversation with the woman and gradually enters her heart. Perhaps He is already instructing her.

For what could be sweeter and more gracious than this exhortation? “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

So far He speaks in a way she does not understand. In ordinary speech, living water means water that flows from a spring.

Water collected through channels into containers and reservoirs is not called living water. Even if it flows from a spring and is gathered somewhere, it is not called living water if it is not replenished from the place where it flowed.

If its own course is interrupted, as though the path from the spring were blocked, it will not be called living water. That water is called living which is drawn while it does not cease to flow.

Such was the water in that spring. Why, then, did He promise what He Himself asked for?

He called it living because it is eternal and ever-continuing, for the life of water consists in its flowing and movement.

Chrysostom says that by living water Jesus Christ means the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is called by different names because of His different operations.

Here He is called water, and elsewhere fire. He is called water because, like water falling from heaven, He gives life to all things and sustains them.

Though of one form, He acts in many ways: warming, burning, illuminating, and cleansing. So also does the divine Spirit.

What a great gift this already is, and what great grace. Yet what of the gift by which He makes them so beloved?

He not only receives what they give, but Himself makes them participants in His divine gifts. Why do I say gifts?

When He even gives Himself and makes the faithful vessels able to contain His Godhead, since they cannot have any other spring leaping up into eternal life except that which He promised beforehand.

What mind can grasp this? What word can express the excellence of this gift?

The Evangelist John himself showed what this water means. When he mentioned that our Lord said, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (Jn 7:38), he also interpreted the living water there.

He said, "This He spoke of the Spirit, whom those believing in His name were to receive" (Jn 7:39).

Since all the Prophets and the Law were only until John, and Christ is the end of the Law (Mt 11:13; Rom 10:4), the Law was a tutor toward Christ.

But when faith came, we are no longer under a tutor (Gal 3:24-25). Therefore the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: If you knew what a gift My coming is, you would know that it abolished those ordinances of the Old Law.

You would know that a new law is given equally to Jews, Samaritans, and the nations throughout the whole world.

If you knew that I, who ask you, "Give Me a drink," am the incarnate Son of God and Savior of the world, then you would ask from Me living water.

That is, you would ask the life-giving grace of the All-Holy Spirit, and you would receive it from Me.

The Lord spoke allegorically to the woman so that, if He had suddenly said, "I am the Christ and Messiah," she would not be scandalized and think Him a proud and boastful man.

When she heard and could not understand the force of His words, she answered Him in this way:

The Jews called flowing spring water "living water," in contrast to stagnant water in pits or cisterns, for example, where rainwater flowed and which dried up if there was no rain for a long time.

See Gen 26:19 and compare Lev 14:5. The expression "living water" served as a figurative designation for the inexhaustible abundance of spiritual blessings (Ps 35:10; Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13).

What living water means here is explained further in Jn 4:14.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.57; Martial 2.90; Hesiod, Works 59. But the Lord is not speaking of this water.

His water is that which satisfies those who thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6) and gives life unto eternity (Rev 7:17; Rev 21:6).

The prophets spoke of it in Joel 3:18; Zech 14:8; Ezek 47:1.

Everything toward the east is called the eastern sea, and everything toward the west the western sea. These have indeed been filled with the saving teaching of the Gospel.

Zechariah must have had in mind the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea. It remains open whether Eusebius put something more into the idea of the boundaries of the world.

He taught the same when He said: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst forever" (Jn 4:14).

In them too the prophecy was fulfilled when, on the day of the coming of our Lord, living waters flowed out from Jerusalem (Zech 14:8).

The fruitful living word of Jerusalem, yes, of Jerusalem itself, spread through all the earth, even to its very ends.

The Lord and Savior Himself speaks of this water to the Samaritan woman. He continues to teach what blessings await the one who drinks from the living spiritual spring.

Those who drink from it cast off the multitude of evil spirits that possessed them. They confess the one Lord and King.

They also confess that the Lord, once known only to the Hebrews, becomes King of all nations who believe in Him throughout the whole earth. His name will be glorified everywhere.

Who can stand firm when he sees this being fulfilled? To be called a Christian means to have a bond with the name of Christ, for Christ is truly Lord.

This name has penetrated every place, every city, every land, and every people, wherever they may be: in the desert and at the end of the earth, as was foretold in the prophecy.