One day when Jesus was walking along the hot, dusty roads of Samaria He arrived at the well that Jacob had dug many centuries earlier. The water in the well was still clear and cold and it was used by the people in the nearby city as their main water supply.

Jesus sat at the well waiting on His disciples to bring Him food. A woman from the city came to fill her waterpot. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."

The woman replied, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?"

Historically the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans . They considered them as an inferior race of people with mixed ancestry from Israel and the heathen nations who did not worship God.

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."

The woman responded, "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 livestock?"

Jesus replied, "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."

The woman did not understand that Jesus was speaking about the living water of eternal life that people receive from God when they believe upon the name and sacrifice of Jesus Christ who would give His life for the sins of mankind. She responded, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

Jesus said, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

She answered, "I have no husband."

Jesus said, "You have well said, 'I have no husband', for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."

Astonished, the woman exclaimed, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."

Jesus refused to engage in futile religious controversy with the woman and remained on the crucial issues of forgiveness of sins and salvation.

"Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

"God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

The woman replied, "I know that Messiah is coming (Who is called Christ); when He comes, He will tell us all things."

Jesus said, "I who speak to you am He."

At this time Jesus' disciples came, and were astonished that He talked with a woman.

The woman left her waterpot and ran into the city, saying to the men of the city, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"

The people then came from the city to hear Jesus preach, and many believed on Jesus Christ as the Messiah because of the testimony of the woman about the things that Jesus had said. Others in the city believed on Jesus as Messiah because of the things He preached to them during the subsequent two days of His stay in the Samaritan city. These said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."

Reference to Jesus Christ as Savior of the world appears in many verses in the Holy Bible, especially in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life."

Jesus referred again to the water of life in St. John 7:37-39, "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'

KEY CONCEPTS

1. Belief in Jesus Christ as our sacrifice for sin brings us salvation, which is referred to as living water, meaning that we shall never see eternal death or permanent separation from the LORD God if we have our faith placed in Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God.

2. It is futile to become bogged down in religious arguments that are not specifically relevant to salvation. The primary point of salvation is the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who allowed His life to be taken so that we may have a perfect substitute Who died in our place for our sins.

3. If we have compassion on our fellow humans we shall do our best to tell them about the great gift of salvation which is available to everyone in the world who believes in the name of Jesus Christ as Savior.