Lessons From John 4



Lessons From John 4

This is perhaps one of the most telling stories about worship that the New Testament has to offer. The more one learns about the culture of the Samaritans and the culture of the Jews, the more this story seems to tell us.

Today’s article will help you understand the lesson which Christ was sharing with the Samaritan woman. Hopefully, we can learn not to do things as the Samaritans and Jews, but rather to do them as Christ came to his ultimate conclusion … “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).”

The Samaritans

To understand Christ’s message, one must first understand the background of the one listening. The woman was a Samaritan.

Samaritans were not loved in the least bit by the Jews. Jews loathed the Samaritans because they viewed them as being “half-breeds.“ They were once Jews, but they married with the Gentiles of the land during and after the Babylonian captivity. This brought about great resentment. (Notice Ezra 10.) The fact that Christ spoke to her alone would have been startling. Then, for him to speak in the manner he did would have spoke volumes. Let’s see why.

The Old Law spoke of loving your neighbor. Christ even said that half the law resided on this one commandment. (The rest on loving God with all that you are.) Yet, in Matt. 5:43 Jesus pointed out a tradition among the Jews. “You have heard it said…” This implies, the following statement was a common statement. “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” This was the practice of the Jews. Anyone could see the hypocrisy in this statement. The Samaritans did.

The Samaritans were known for passion, compassion, and zeal. Although their worship was in vain, they put forth a lot of effort to please God. You could call them “sincerely deceived.”

It is little wonder why Christ chose to use them in the parable concerning whose neighbor we are (Parable of the Good Samaritan).

With all this said, let is be known that the Samaritans were a spiritual people. Their err was the authority they used. They worshipped in a place not authorized. They followed man made teachings.

Christ’s message to her was, the Jews have the right Law. He then tells her that their attitude was one thing God wanted.

The Jews

To understand Christ’s message, you have to understand the background of the Jews. Although, Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman, he was giving a lesson to her about the Jews as well.

Jews were the keepers of the Law. They were God’s chosen people. This made them special among those of the world. God had hoped that they would be a kingdom of priests as they would teach others about God. There is no doubt that what we have in the Old Testament is what the Jews had during the days of Christ, after the return from Babylonian captivity, there was not a time which the book of the law was lost.

Among the Jews were spiritual leaders. They were broken into three main sects. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Zealots (of whom we read little of the in NT). They were the ones the rest of the nation looked to as far as matters of the law and proper daily walk.

Sadly, those sects failed in their jobs. Although they “knew the law” they really missed the point of the Law.

Since the Gospels deal mostly with the Pharisees, so will we. We rarely read of a Pharisee that was living as God would have them. What was missing?

For starters, they were adding traditions to the law. They wanted so much that no one broke the law they built “hedges” around the law to keep people from breaking it. In time, those “hedges” became law. A very common one, that I still hear Christians today state as if it were part of the Mosaic Law, is “A Sabbath Day‘s Journey.” One will never find that phrase any where in the Old Testament. It was created as an “interpretation” to the Law. They in essence were not much different than the Samaritans. A lack of respect for authority encouraged them to add to God’s law.

Another problem with the Pharisee’s was that although they paid attention to the minor details of the Law, they missed the weightier matters of the Law (Matt. 23:23). It profits you nothing if you have all truth and miss judgment, mercy, and faith.

Finally, we can also see the Pharisees were more interested in judgment than justice. When they caught a woman in the act of adultery, where was the man (John 8)? They wanted to punish someone more than they wanted to do it right!

So, when Christ said “in Spirit and in Truth” He was telling the Samaritan woman that the right law was just as important as the right Spirit. The Jews too were only half right.

Today’s Samaritans

and Jews

Today the Samaritans are the denominational world and the Churches of Christ are the Jews. Sound harsh? Listen closely. Many “church of Christ” people frown on the denominational world. We say that they are not worshipping as they should. They are tainted by the activates of the world, just like the Samaritans. Yet, at the same time, we often miss the weightier matters of the law.

Why do these churches grow? Yes, one can see them use worldly things; basketball, live music, free food, etc. Do you know their motivation? LOVE!!!! They love their fellow man so much they desire to help them financially and spiritually. Albeit they do it wrong, they are still doing it!!!

What are we doing? Too often I see us, refute their error amongst ourselves. Too often I hear, “No one is listening.” To often I hear excuses. Do you want the church to grow? Find scriptural ways to show the community you love them.

-WTK

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