The Upper Room Daily Reflections in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Saturday, 18 March 2017 "Spiritual Companions"

The Upper Room Daily Reflections in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Saturday, 18 March 2017 "Spiritual Companions"
Today’s Reflection:
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE of having a spiritual friend to talk with?
A spiritual companion is someone you look up to, someone whom you trust. Generally, you judge this person to be farther down the road than you. This companionship would provide an opportunity to state your experience of God to someone; it would assist you to clarify the next steps of your journey with God.
Normally, a spiritual guide will ask questions more than find answers. Finding a mature friend who is willing to talk with you will take time, so don’t be discouraged when he or she doesn’t immediately appear. Part of the selection is the adventure of prayerfully considering different persons and talking with them about your desire for guidance.
Having a friend like this will help you avoid pitfalls; it will spare you times of loneliness; it will give you a sense of accountability. The search for a spiritual friend is worth beginning immediately.[Ben Campbell Johnson and Paul H. Lang, Time Away]
From page 101 of Time Away: A Guide for Personal Retreat by Ben Campbell Johnson and Paul H. Lang. Copyright © 2010 by the authors. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
Do you have a spiritual companion? If so, describe that relationship. If not, what opportunities do you see in having one?
Today’s Scripture:
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”[John 4:10, NRSV]
This Week: pray for Sunday school teachers.
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The Upper Room Daily Reflections in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Friday, 17 March 2017 "The Millennium Resolution"

Today’s Reflection:

LET THERE BE
respect for the earth
peace for its people
love in our lives
delight in the good
forgiveness for past wrongs
and from now on a new start.[Sam Hamilton-Poore, Earth Gospel]
From page 123 of Earth Gospel: A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation by Sam Hamilton-Poore. Copyright © 2008 by Sam Hamilton-Poore. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
What would you add to this millennium resolution?
Today’s Scripture:
But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.[Romans 5:8, NRSV]
This Week: pray for Sunday school teachers.
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The Upper Room Daily Reflections in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Thursday, 16 March 2017 "Treasured Stories"


Today’s Reflection:

AMONG MANY NATIVE people groups, tribal stories are shared within the tribal circle. If a story is to be shared outside the tribal circle, then permission is asked of those who keep the traditions. We do not profit from the things that belong to our people. There are many stories that are told only in religious settings. These are not told out of those settings.
Over the years, I have heard many wonderful stories. Some are tribal, and some are personal. Some are true, and would be wonderful to tell or write. Some, if written, would sell large numbers of books. When I have encountered these wonderful stories, I have encouraged those to whom they belonged to tell them or write them or to enlist the help of others in the process. I have encouraged them sometimes over a period of years. Other than that, I have treasured the memory of those stories, but I have never repeated them.
Personal stories, like songs, belong to individuals. Sometimes a song or story is given as a gift, and one becomes the bearer of the song or story. At the time of death, a family may give a story belonging to the deceased to another, who continues the story by telling it. There is a joke among Native people that we may “talk about” each other, but we never tell each other’s stories.[Ray Buckley, Dancing with Words]
From pages 3–44 of Dancing with Words: Storytelling as Legacy, Culture, and Faith by Ray Buckley. Copyright © 2003 Discipleship Resources. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
What story do you have to tell? Tell it to a friend, or write it for yourself.
Today’s Scripture:
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.[Romans 5:1-2, NRSV]
This Week: pray for Sunday school teachers.
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The Upper Room Daily Reflections in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Wednesday, 15 March 2017 "God of Surprises"



Today’s Reflection:

Surprise!
Read 1 Kings 19:1-13
1 Kings 19:1 Ach’av told Izevel everything Eliyahu had done and how he had put all the prophets to the sword. 2 Then Izevel sent a messenger to say to Eliyahu, “May the gods do terrible things to me and worse ones besides if by this time tomorrow I haven’t taken your life, just as you took theirs!” 3 On seeing that, he got up and fled for his life.
When he arrived in Be’er-Sheva, in Y’hudah, he left his servant there; 4 but he himself went a day farther into the desert, until he came to a broom tree. He sat down under it and prayed for his own death. “Enough!” he said. “Now, Adonai, take my life. I’m no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and went to sleep. Suddenly, an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on the hot stones and a jug of water. He ate and drank, then lay down again. 7 The angel came again, a second time, touched him and said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” 8 He got up, ate and drank, and, on the strength of that meal, traveled forty days and nights until he reached Horev the mountain of God.
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. Then the word of Adonai came to him; he said to him, “What are you doing here, Eliyahu?” 10 He answered, “I have been very zealous for Adonai the God of armies, because the people of Isra’el have abandoned your covenant, broken down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. Now I’m the only one left, and they’re coming after me to kill me too.” 11 He said, “Go outside, and stand on the mountain before Adonai”; and right then and there, Adonai went past. A mighty blast of wind tore the mountains apart and broke the rocks in pieces before Adonai, but Adonai was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake, but Adonai was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, fire broke out; but Adonai was not in the fire. And after the fire came a quiet, subdued voice. 13 When Eliyahu heard it, he covered his face with his cloak, stepped out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Then a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Eliyahu?”
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Poor Elijah! Queen Jezebel swears vengeance against him so the prophet hightails it to the wilderness in hopes he might die in peace, the last of God’s prophets.
Two things interrupt his pity party. First, an angel disturbs his suicidal slumber with two meals and word of a journey. The second interruption occurs after Elijah settles into a cave on Mount Horeb after a journey of 40 days. Horeb is another name for Sinai, the mountain where Moses received the commandments.
And the 40 days? Israel’s wilderness sojourn following the Sinai experience lasted 40 years. So with all that Exodus tradition washing over him, Elijah hears a voice that promises an appearance by God.
Naturally, the expectation will be of God’s coming in wind and earthquake and fire. Weren’t those the accompaniments of God’s first Sinai revealing? (See Exodus 19:16-18.) And isn’t God the same yesterday, today, and forever?
Apparently not.
Wind blows, earthquake shakes, fire rages – but no God. Instead, God chooses a new entrance: “a sound of sheer silence” or in the more familiar King James rendering, “a still small voice.” In that surprising self-disclosure, God goes on to disabuse Elijah of his mistaken notion that he alone remains a faithful prophet. God sets Elijah back on his prophetic path.
So what sort of invocation does this narrative provide, particularly in the season of Lent? It announces that the God in whose name we gather is a God who may surprise us and shatter our presumptions about life in general and about God in particular.
We cannot shut God up in neat boxes of theology or liturgy that we trot out for pious show and put away when gospel truths like cross-bearing become inconvenient. …
This story testifies to the God who refuses to be locked in to any one tradition or liturgical style. The God who surprises Elijah on Horeb is the God who retains the freedom to be God in God’s own image. May we open our lives and faith to the God still capable of holy and redemptive surprise.[John Indermark, Worship in Light of the Cross]
From pages 39–40 of Worship in Light of the Cross: Meditations for Lent by John Indermark. Copyright © 2016 by John Indermark. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
As you have grown in faith, how has God surprised you?
Today’s Scripture:
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice![Psalm 95:7, NRSV]
This Week: pray for Sunday school teachers.
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The Upper Room Daily Reflections in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Tuesday, 14 March 2017 "Live Fully with Love and Grace"



Today’s Reflection:

GRANDPA TOM married Grandma Hazel on October 26, 1929. The stock market crashed on October 29. Grandpa always said that the crash didn’t matter much to them – they had spent all their money getting married three days before. But it did mean that times were hard as they began their marriage.
They lived with Grandpa’s dad, raised chickens, and farmed as they could in the midst of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Grandpa traveled to find whatever work he could find, serving as a carpenter and laborer on construction crews. In 1939 he worked 23 weeks and made $700.
Grandpa’s life was filled with hard times: from his family’s immigration to America to his poverty in Oklahoma to the dashed dreams of his vocation because of discrimination. He lived a life of love and grace, remaining positive in the face of disappointment.
After Grandma died, he continued to live at home. In his 90s, he took in his younger sister, Eileen, when she could no longer live alone, and they shared his house until she passed away. He lived until the age of 98 and died at home.
Grandpa trusted in God’s presence in the midst of struggles. He accepted the hardships of life without sinking into despair. When a tornado blew away the chicken house, he rebuilt it. When the KKK made sure he didn’t get a teaching job, he worked the carpenter trade he had learned from his father. When Grandma died of a heart attack, he kept living: planting, harvesting, greeting at church, attending football games, telling stories, loving his family.
Grandpa lived fully, with love and grace, until he died. That is the hope I have for my life: That I will face the challenges that come my way and live fully, trusting God in love and in grace.[Beth Richardson – Beth A. Richardson, Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me]
From page 80 of Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me: Celtic Blessings by Beth A. Richardson. Copyright © 2016 by Beth A. Richardson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
Think about the challenges in your life. Do they look different when you remember God’s grace and love for you?
Today’s Scripture:
O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation![Psalm 95:1, NRSV]
This Week: pray for Sunday school teachers. 
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The Upper Room Daily Reflections in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Monday, 13 March 2017 "Jesus the Messiah"



Today’s Reflection:

C. S. LEWIS had no patiences with those who call Jesus a “teacher,” who say they do not believe Jesus was God among us, but that he was kind of like Socrates – a sage, a wisdom person. …
In Mere Christianity, Lewis says either Jesus is who he says he is, or he is a lunatic. If Jesus believes he is the Messiah and is not, then he’s insane – much like the guy in the straitjacket who thinks he’s Napoleon – and we had better not trust a thing he says. If, however, he is the Son of God, the Messiah, we had best pay attention to what he says and right now, hard as it can be.
It is Jesus’ identity that gives his teaching credibility, Lewis said, and not the other way around. Only if his teaching has divine, which is to say eternal, grounding and authority does the teaching make any sense. The world as it is, warring and acquisitive, neither recognizes nor rewards such aphorisms as “The meek shall inherit the earth,” or “The more you give away, the more you have.” Cross-bearing is quite the opposite of cross-burning, and sacrificial love quite the contrary of preemptive acts of self-preservation. And yet that is what Jesus calls us to: selflessness, sacrifice, deference.[Thomas R. Steagald, Shadows, Darkness, and Dawn]
From pages 55-56 of Shadows, Darkness, and Dawn: A Lenten Journey with Jesus by Thomas R. Steagald. Copyright © 2010 by Thomas R. Steagald. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
What does it mean to you to say that Jesus is the Messiah?
Today’s Scripture:
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.[Exodus 17:6, NRSV]
This Week: pray for Sunday school teachers.
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Did You Know?
In need of prayer? The Upper Room Living Prayer Center is a 7-day-a-week intercessory prayer ministry staffed by trained volunteers. Call 1-800-251-2468 or visit The Living Prayer Centerwebsite.
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This week we remember: Patrick of Ireland (March 17).

Patrick of Ireland

March 17
British-born Patrick was captured by Irish pirates when he was sixteen and taken to Ireland as a slave. During this difficult time of his life when he was forced to herd livestock in the mountains, the youth drew strength from his Christian faith. When he was able to escape six years later he somehow found his way home to England. The young Patrick, much-changed by his years as a captive, decided to study for the priesthood.
In a series of dreams, Patrick heard Irish voices imploring him to return to Ireland. For the next thirty years he wandered around Ireland. In his ministry as an Irish bishop Patrick established a large network of churches and monasteries, trained Irish clergy, and baptized countless people as Christians.
Did he really drive all snakes from Ireland? Or explain the concept of the Trinity with a shamrock? We'll never be able to separate truth from legend, but the evidence of what he actually accomplished is in the centuries of a strong Irish Catholic Church that endures today. He died around 461.
If Patrick of Ireland had taken the Spiritual Types Test, he probably would have been a Prophet. Patrick of Ireland is remembered on March 17.
Image by Andreas F. Borchert from Goleen Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, and St. Patrick North Wall Fourth Window Saint Patrick Detail.

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Lectionary Readings:
Sunday, 19 March 2017
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
Scripture Text: Exodus 17:1 (vii) The whole community of the people of Isra’el left the Seen Desert, traveling in stages, as Adonai had ordered, and camped at Refidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moshe, demanding, “Give us water to drink!” But Moshe replied, “Why pick a fight with me? Why are you testing Adonai?” 3 However, the people were thirsty for water there and grumbled against Moshe, “For what did you bring us up from Egypt? To kill us, our children and our livestock with thirst?”

4 Moshe cried out to Adonai, “What am I to do with these people? They’re ready to stone me!” 5 Adonai answered Moshe, “Go on ahead of the people, and bring with you the leaders of Isra’el. Take your staff in your hand, the one you used to strike the river; and go. 6 I will stand in front of you there on the rock in Horev. You are to strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so the people can drink.” Moshe did this in the sight of the leaders of Isra’el. 7 The place was named Massah [testing] and M’rivah [quarreling] because of the quarreling of the people of Isra’el and because they tested Adonai by asking, “Is Adonai with us or not?”

Psalm 95:1 Come, let’s sing to Adonai!

Let’s shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!

2 Let’s come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let’s shout for joy to him with songs of praise.

3 For Adonai is a great God,

a great king greater than all gods.

4 He holds the depths of the earth in his hands;

the mountain peaks too belong to him.

5 The sea is his — he made it —

and his hands shaped the dry land.

6 Come, let’s bow down and worship;

let’s kneel before Adonai who made us.

7 For he is our God, and we are the people

in his pasture, the sheep in his care.

If only today you would listen to his voice:

8 “Don’t harden your hearts, as you did at M’rivah,

as you did on that day at Massah in the desert,

9 when your fathers put me to the test;

they challenged me, even though they saw my work.

10 For forty years I loathed that generation;

I said, ‘This is a people whose hearts go astray,

they don’t understand how I do things.’

11 Therefore I swore in my anger

that they would not enter my rest.”

Romans 5:1 So, since we have come to be considered righteous by God because of our trust, let us continue to have shalom with God through our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. 2 Also through him and on the ground of our trust, we have gained access to this grace in which we stand; so let us boast about the hope of experiencing God’s glory. 3 But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope; 5 and this hope does not let us down, because God’s love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, the Messiah died on behalf of ungodly people. 7 Now it is a rare event when someone gives up his life even for the sake of somebody righteous, although possibly for a truly good person one might have the courage to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in that the Messiah died on our behalf while we were still sinners. 9 Therefore, since we have now come to be considered righteous by means of his bloody sacrificial death, how much more will we be delivered through him from the anger of God’s judgment! 10 For if we were reconciled with God through his Son’s death when we were enemies, how much more will we be delivered by his life, now that we are reconciled! 11 And not only will we be delivered in the future, but we are boasting about God right now, because he has acted through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, through whom we have already received that reconciliation.

John 4:5 He came to a town in Shomron called Sh’khem, near the field Ya‘akov had given to his son Yosef. 6 Ya‘akov’s Well was there; so Yeshua, exhausted from his travel, sat down by the well; it was about noon. 7 A woman from Shomron came to draw some water; and Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” 8 (His talmidim had gone into town to buy food.) 9 The woman from Shomron said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for water from me, a woman of Shomron?” (For Jews don’t associate with people from Shomron.) 10 Yeshua answered her, “If you knew God’s gift, that is, who it is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink of water,’ then you would have asked him; and he would have given you living water.”

11 She said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep; so where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Ya‘akov, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it, and so did his sons and his cattle.” 13 Yeshua answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty again! On the contrary, the water I give him will become a spring of water inside him, welling up into eternal life!”

15 “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so that I won’t have to be thirsty and keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 She answered, “I don’t have a husband.” Yeshua said to her, “You’re right, you don’t have a husband! 18 You’ve had five husbands in the past, and you’re not married to the man you’re living with now! You’ve spoken the truth!”

19 “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet,” the woman replied. 20 “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you people say that the place where one has to worship is in Yerushalayim.” 21 Yeshua said, “Lady, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim. 22 You people don’t know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews. 23 But the time is coming — indeed, it’s here now — when the true worshippers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the Father wants worshipping him. 24 God is spirit; and worshippers must worship him spiritually and truly.”

25 The woman replied, “I know that Mashiach is coming” (that is, “the one who has been anointed”). “When he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26 Yeshua said to her, “I, the person speaking to you, am he.”

27 Just then, his talmidim arrived. They were amazed that he was talking with a woman; but none of them said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water-jar, went back to the town and said to the people there, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could it be that this is the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and began coming toward him.

31 Meanwhile, the talmidim were urging Yeshua, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he answered, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33 At this, the talmidim asked one another, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 Yeshua said to them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants and to bring his work to completion. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest’? Well, what I say to you is: open your eyes and look at the fields! They’re already ripe for harvest! 36 The one who reaps receives his wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the reaper and the sower may be glad together — 37 for in this matter, the proverb, ‘One sows and another reaps,’ holds true. 38 I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have done the hard labor, and you have benefited from their work.”

39 Many people from that town in Shomron put their trust in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all the things I did.” 40 So when these people from Shomron came to him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed two days, 41 and many more came to trust because of what he said. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer trust because of what you said, because we have heard for ourselves. We know indeed that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

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John Wesley's Notes-Commentary: Exodus 17:1-7

Verse 1

[1] And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

They journeyed according to the commandment of the Lord, led by the pillar of cloud and fire, and yet they came to a place where there was no water for them to drink - We may be in the way of our duty, and yet meet with troubles, which Providence brings us into for the trial of our faith.

Verse 5

[5] And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

Go on before the people — Though they spake of stoning him. He must take his rod with him, not to summon some plague to chastise them, but to fetch water for their supply. O the wonderful patience and forbearance of God towards provoking sinners! He maintains those that are at war with him, and reaches out the hand of his bounty to those that lift up the heel against him. If God had only shewed Moses a fountain of water in the wilderness, as he did to Hagar, not far from hence, Genesis 21:19, that had been a great favour; but that he might shew his power as well as his pity, and make it a miracle of mercy, he gave them water out of a rock. He directed Moses whither to go, appointed him to take of the elders of Israel with him, to be witnesses of what was done, ordered him to smite the rock, which he did, and immediately water came out of it in great abundance, which ran throughout the camp in streams and rivers, Psalms 78:15,16, and followed them wherever they went in that wilderness: God shewed his care of his people in giving them water when they wanted it; his own power in fetching it out of a rock, and put an honour upon Moses in appointing the water to flow out upon his smiting of the rock. This fair water that came out of the rock is called honey and oil, Deuteronomy 32:13, because the people's thirst made it doubly pleasant; coming when they were in extreme want. It is probable that the people digged canals for the conveyance of it, and pools for the reception of it. Let this direct us to live in a dependance, 1. Upon God's providence even in the greatest straits and difficulties; 2. And upon Christ's grace; that rock was Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:4. The graces and comforts of the Spirit are compared to rivers of living waters, John 7:38,39; 4:14. These flow from Christ. And nothing will supply the needs and satisfy the desires of a soul but water out of this rock. A new name was upon this occasion given to the place, preserving the remembrance of their murmuring, Massah - Temptation, because they tempted God, Meribah - Strife, because they chide with Moses.

Psalm 95

Read all of Psalm 95)

Verse 3

[3] For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

God's — Above all that are called God's angels, earthly potentates, and especially the false gods of the Heathen.

Verse 4

[4] In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

Hand — Under his government.

Strength — The strongest or highest mountains.

Verse 7

[7] For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

Pasture — Whom he feeds and keeps in his own pasture, or in the land which he hath appropriated to himself.

The sheep — Which are under his special care.

Today — Forthwith or presently.

Verse 8

[8] Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Harden not — By obstinate unbelief.

Provocation — In that bold and wicked contest with God in the wilderness.

Temptation — In the day in which you tempted me.

Verse 9

[9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

Works — Both of mercy, and of justice.

Verse 10

[10] Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

Do err — Their hearts are insincere and bent to backsliding.

Not known — After all my teaching and discoveries of myself to them; they did not know, nor consider, those great things which I had wrought for them.

Verse 11

[11] Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

My rest — Into the promised land, which is called the rest, Deuteronomy 12:9.

Romans 5:1-11

(Read all of Romans 5)

Verse 1

[1] Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Being justified by faith — This is the sum of the preceding chapters.

We have peace with God — Being enemies to God no longer, Romans 5:10; neither fearing his wrath, Romans 5:9. We have peace, hope, love, and power over sin, the sum of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters. These are the fruits of justifying faith: where these are not, that faith is not.

Verse 2

[2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Into this grace — This state of favour.

Verse 3

[3] And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

We glory in tribulations also — Which we are so far from esteeming a mark of God's displeasure, that we receive them as tokens of his fatherly love, whereby we are prepared for a more exalted happiness. The Jews objected to the persecuted state of the Christians as inconsistent with the people of the Messiah. It is therefore with great propriety that the apostle so often mentions the blessings arising from this very thing.

Verse 4

[4] And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

And patience works more experience of the sincerity of our grace, and of God's power and faithfulness.

Verse 5

[5] And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Hope shameth us not — That is, gives us the highest glorying. We glory in this our hope, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts - The divine conviction of God's love to us, and that love to God which is both the earnest and the beginning of heaven.

By the Holy Ghost — The efficient cause of all these present blessings, and the earnest of those to come.

Verse 6

[6] For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

How can we now doubt of God's love? For when we were without strength - Either to think, will, or do anything good.

In due time — Neither too soon nor too late; but in that very point of time which the wisdom of God knew to be more proper than any other.

Christ died for the ungodly — Not only to set them a pattern, or to procure them power to follow it. It does not appear that this expression, of dying for any one, has any other signification than that of rescuing the life of another by laying down our own.

Verse 7

[7] For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

A just man — One who gives to all what is strictly their due The good man - One who is eminently holy; full of love, of compassion, kindness, mildness, of every heavenly and amiable temper.

Perhaps-one-would-even-dare to die — Every word increases the strangeness of the thing, and declares even this to be something great and unusual.

Verse 8

[8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

But God recommendeth — A most elegant expression. Those are wont to be recommended to us, who were before either unknown to, or alienated from, us.

While we were sinners — So far from being good, that we were not even just.

Verse 9

[9] Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

By his blood — By his bloodshedding.

We shall be saved from wrath through him — That is, from all the effects of the wrath of God. But is there then wrath in God? Is not wrath a human passion? And how can this human passion be in God? We may answer this by another question: Is not love a human passion? And how can this human passion be in God? But to answer directly: wrath in man, and so love in man, is a human passion. But wrath in God is not a human passion; nor is love, as it is in God. Therefore the inspired writers ascribe both the one and the other to God only in an analogical sense.

Verse 10

[10] For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

If — As sure as; so the word frequently signifies; particularly in this and the eighth chapter.

We shalt be saved — Sanctified and glorified.

Through his life — Who "ever liveth to make intercession for us."

Verse 11

[11] And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

And not only so, but we also glory — The whole sentence, from the third to the eleventh verse, may be taken together thus: We not only "rejoice in hope of the glory of God," but also in the midst of tribulations we glory in God himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.

John 4:5-42

Verse 5

[5] Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Sychar — Formerly called Sichem or Shechem.

Jacob gave — On his death bed, Genesis 48:22.

Verse 6

[6] Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

Jesus sat down — Weary as he was.

It was the sixth hour — Noon; the heat of the day.

Verse 7

[7] There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

Give me to drink — In this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge which the apostles were so long in attaining.

Verse 8

[8] (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

For his disciples were gone — Else he needed not have asked her.

Verse 9

[9] Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

How dost thou — Her open simplicity appears from her very first words.

The Jews have no dealings — None by way of friendship. They would receive no kind of favour from them.

Verse 10

[10] Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

If thou hadst known the gift — The living water; and who it is - He who alone is able to give it: thou wouldst have asked of him - On those words the stress lies.

Water — In like manner he draws the allegory from bread, John 6:27, and from light, 8:12; the first, the most simple, necessary, common, and salutary things in nature.

Living water — The Spirit and its fruits. But she might the more easily mistake his meaning, because living water was a common phrase among the Jews for spring water.

Verse 12

[12] Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

Our father Jacob — So they fancied he was; whereas they were, in truth, a mixture of many nations, placed there by the king of Assyria, in the room of the Israelites whom he had carried away captive, 2 Kings 17:24.

Who gave us the well — In Joseph their supposed forefather: and drank thereof - So even he had no better water than this.

Verse 14

[14] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Will never thirst — Will never (provided he continue to drink thereof) be miserable, dissatisfied, without refreshment. If ever that thirst returns, it will be the fault of the man, not the water.

But the water that I shall give him — The spirit of faith working by love, shall become in him - An inward living principle, a fountain - Not barely a well, which is soon exhausted, springing up into everlasting life - Which is a confluence, or rather an ocean of streams arising from this fountain.

Verse 15

[15] The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

That I thirst not — She takes him still in a gross sense.

Verse 16

[16] Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

Jesus saith to her — He now clears the way that he might give her a better kind of water than she asked for.

Go, call thy husband — He strikes directly at her bosom sin.

Verse 17

[17] The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

Thou hast well said — We may observe in all our Lord's discourses the utmost weightiness, and yet the utmost courtesy.

Verse 18

[18] For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

Thou hast had five husbands — Whether they were all dead or not, her own conscience now awakened would tell her.

Verse 19

[19] The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Sir, I perceive — So soon was her heart touched.

Verse 20

[20] Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

The instant she perceived this, she proposes what she thought the most important of all questions.

This mountain — Pointing to Mount Gerizim. Sanballat, by the permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon Mount Gerizim, for Manasseh, who for marrying Sanballat's daughter had been expelled from the priesthood and from Jerusalem, Nehemiah 13:28. This was the place where the Samaritans used to worship in opposition to Jerusalem. And it was so near Sychar, that a man's voice might be heard from the one to the other.

Our fathers worshipped — This plainly refers to Abraham and Jacob (from whom the Samaritans pretended to deduce their genealogy) who erected altars in this place: Genesis 12:6,7, and Genesis 33:18,20. And possibly to the whole congregation, who were directed when they came into the land of Canaan to put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, Deuteronomy 11:29.

Ye Jews say, In Jerusalem is the place — Namely, the temple.

Verse 21

[21] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Believe me — Our Lord uses this expression in this manner but once; and that to a Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say unto you.

The hour cometh when ye — Both Samaritans and Jews, shall worship neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem - As preferable to any other place. True worship shall be no longer confined to any one place or nation.

Verse 22

[22] Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

Ye worship ye know not what — Ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but of the very object of worship. Indeed, they feared the Lord after a fashion; but at the same time served their own gods, 2 Kings 17:33.

Salvation is from the Jews — So spake all the prophets, that the Saviour should arise out of the Jewish nation: and that from thence the knowledge of him should spread to all nations under heaven.

Verse 23

[23] But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

The true worshippers shall worship the Father — Not here or there only, but at all times and in all places.

Verse 24

[24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God is a Spirit — Not only remote from the body, and all the properties of it, but likewise full of all spiritual perfections, power, wisdom, love, holiness. And our worship should be suitable to his nature. We should worship him with the truly spiritual worship of faith, love, and holiness, animating all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions.

Verse 25

[25] The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

The woman saith — With joy for what she had already learned, and desire of fuller instruction.

Verse 26

[26] Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

Jesus saith — Hasting to satisfy her desire before his disciples came.

l am He — Our Lord did not speak this so plainly to the Jews who were so full of the Messiah's temporal kingdom. If he had, many would doubtless have taken up arms in his favour, and others have accused him to the Roman governor. Yet he did in effect declare the thing, though he denied the particular title. For in a multitude of places he represented himself, both as the Son of man, and as the Son of God: both which expressions were generally understood by the Jews as peculiarly applicable to the Messiah.

Verse 27

[27] And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?

His disciples marvelled that he talked with a woman — Which the Jewish rabbis reckoned scandalous for a man of distinction to do. They marvelled likewise at his talking with a woman of that nation, which was so peculiarly hateful to the Jews.

Yet none said — To the woman, What seekest thou? - Or to Christ, Why talkest thou with her?

Verse 28

[28] The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,

The woman left her water pot — Forgetting smaller things.

Verse 29

[29] Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

A man who told me all things that ever I did — Our Lord had told her but a few things. But his words awakened her conscience, which soon told her all the rest.

Is not this the Christ? — She does not doubt of it herself, but incites them to make the inquiry.

Verse 31

[31] In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.

In the meantime — Before the people came.

Verse 34

[34] Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

My meat — That which satisfies the strongest appetite of my soul.

Verse 35

[35] Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

The fields are white already — As if he had said, The spiritual harvest is ripe already. The Samaritans, ripe for the Gospel, covered the ground round about them.

Verse 36

[36] And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

He that reapeth — Whoever saves souls, receiveth wages - A peculiar blessing to himself, and gathereth fruit - Many souls: that he that soweth - Christ the great sower of the seed, and he that reapeth may rejoice together - In heaven.

Verse 37

[37] And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.

That saying — A common proverb; One soweth - The prophets and Christ; another reapeth - The apostles and succeeding ministers.

Verse 38

[38] I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

I — he Lord of the whole harvest, have sent you - He had employed them already in baptizing, John 4:2.

Verse 42

[42] And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

We know that this is the Saviour of the world — And not of the Jews only.

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