Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 NIV)
Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink as a way of initiating a conversation with her. And during the conversation, he steered it from the water in the well to living water. Water that he would be able to provide. Naturally, this woman was interested and pursued the conversation, even if somewhat doubtfully.
Jesus went on to describe this water in these two verses. Unlike the water from the well that would soon have you thirsty for more, the living water that Jesus can give satisfies the thirst forever. In fact, that water will be a spring within them that wells up to eternal life. Clearly, Jesus is not talking about physical water. So what is this water?
Later, in John 7:37-39, Jesus again called on people to come to him for this living water, water that will flow from within them. John then identified this living water with the Holy Spirit that would be given to us. The Holy Spirit within us is like a spring of living water welling up to eternal life. It satisfies our soul’s thirst for God and meaning in life. Unlike anything else that can be found in this world.
Jesus still holds out his offer of living water to all who would come and drink from it. Rather than turn to the cheap imitations that this world offers, imitations that can never satisfy, drink deeply from his living water, the Holy Spirit, and never thirst again.
