Today’s Samaritan Woman


dreamstime_s_113342340.jpg

>
The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.

— John 4:14

In John 4:3-42, the story of the Samaritan woman at the well is an intriguing one. Upon entering a Samaritan village called Sychar (present day Nablus), the disciples went to buy food while Jesus, tired from the journey, sat at Jacob’s well. At noon, the woman came for water. Jesus did something that was a cultural taboo by speaking in public to a Samaritan woman—an outcast to Jews. Jesus asked her for a drink. She was understandably surprised. The conversation then turned to a discussion of living water versus well water. Although the woman did not fully understand this living water, she wanted it. When Jesus told her to go get her husband, we learned that she has had five, and the man she was currently living with was not her husband. Then she asked Jesus where to worship.

Jesus said that it did not matter where, but it was how God was worshiped—in spirit and truth. The woman said she believed in the coming Messiah who would reveal all things. Jesus said, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

In the Gospel of John, the Samaritan woman was the first person to whom Jesus revealed Himself as Messiah. She told her people about Jesus and brought them to Him, so they could see and hear for themselves.

Several things about this story can bring us encouragement as we see the Samaritan woman’s testimony being repeated in many Middle Eastern women’s lives today.

·      It is not a coincidence that the Samaritan woman met Jesus in a one-on-one encounter, which changed the course of her life forever. After boldly asking Jesus several questions, she perceived Him as the Messiah, the Christ. Today, many Middle Eastern women have had encounters with the “Man in White”—this same Messiah—and have had the course of their lives dramatically changed for the better.

·      Similar to the Samaritan woman, these Middle Eastern apostolic women are not silent. They are not held in obscurity to the typical Middle Easterner’s private world of women. They have a voice, move around in predominately male public places, and ask direct and pointed questions. 

·      The Samaritan woman convinced others in her village to come and see a Man who had told her all the things she had ever done. And these villagers became believers too. Today’s Middle Eastern women are disciples and disciple makers, seeking out and initiating interactions and conversations, but allowing Jesus to introduce Himself as they disciple others in the faith.

Miraculously, these Middle Eastern, Spirit-led women are leaders in the underground church. They are fearless and obedient to do what the Bible commands. They have accepted Mark 8:34-36 to not cling to their own lives even when faced with rape, torture, and death.

>
Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

Instead, these courageous and bold Middle Eastern women, like the Samaritan woman, make every conversation and every day count for the Kingdom of God.


On our Stories page, please read testimonies of women—former Muslims—who have come to Christ.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Get updates and learn from the best

We believe the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are inspired by God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct. (2 Timothy 3:15-17, 1 Peter 1:21)

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent who has revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Luke 3:22)

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us, in His present rule as Head of the Church, and in His personal return in power and glory. (Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:31)

We believe in the creation of mankind in God’s image, and the fall of man, resulting in universal guilt and total depravity; and the necessity, therefore, of redemption and restoration; that all men and women are lost spiritually and face the judgment of God, that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and that repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for regeneration by the Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:17)

We believe salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God, according to the hope of eternal life. (Luke 24:47, John 3:3)

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; the saved unto the resurrection of eternal life in the presence of our Lord, and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation and eternal punishment. (Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43-48)

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ and that all true believers are members of His body, the Church, which has the duty to preach the Gospel to every person. (Ephesians 1:22-23, Ephesians 2:22)

We believe that we must dedicate ourselves to prayer, to the service of our Lord, to His authority over our lives, and to the ministry of teaching, preaching, the prophetic, the apostolic, and evangelism. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

We believe in upholding the ordinances of the church of water baptism and holy communion.

The ordinance of baptism by immersion is commanded by the Scriptures. All who repent and believe in Christ as Savior and Lord are to be baptized. Thus, they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life. (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:16, Acts 10:47,48, Romans 6:4)

The Lord’s Supper, consisting of the elements—bread and the fruit of the vine—, is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4), a memorial of His suffering and death (1 Corinthians 11:26), and a prophecy of His second coming (1 Corinthians 11:26), and is enjoined on all believers “till He comes!”