Core Christian Value
Thirst is real but quenching one’s thirst with water satisfies temporarily. To drink of the living water is to be filled with the righteousness of Jesus. Jesus in us sustains life forever.
How many times have you forgotten to water some living thing such as flowers or shrubs? The plants, unwatered, go into shock, wither and die. Water is essential to life for all living things including each of us. Have you ever experienced incredible thirst? The Bible uses the picture of thirst to teach us about living water.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to 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.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” JOHN 4:7-14 NKJV
First Jesus asked for water to drink and then He explained that if the Samaritan woman knew the gift of God, she would have asked to be filled with living water. What did Jesus mean by “living water”? If the living water from Jesus will cause us to “never thirst again”, what must the living water be? Jesus tells us that we shall be filled, permanently, if we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Our thirst is not only for the water that sustains life, temporarily, but for the living water, that sustains life forever. Listen to Jesus: “‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.'” “…Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” JOHN 6:35, MATTHEW 5:6 NKJV
What is it to be “filled with righteousness”? Isaiah explains:
“Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation …The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” ISAIAH 12:3, 58:11 NKJV
Jesus then makes it abundantly clear that He wants to satisfy your thirst for righteousness, forever.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. REVELATION 21:6 NKJV
Do you drink, only to find yourself thirsty again? What is the nature of “living water”? Does being filled with living water change things for you? What evidence is there that you are filled with living water?