When Paul calls himself and his coworkers ambassadors for Christ, he is describing a commission to deliver God’s message of reconciliation. I want to understand that commission before applying his words to every Christian. We are called to make Christ known, but using His name does not give our opinions divine authority. Paul’s explanation tells us both what the message is and how those who carry it ought to live.
Paul’s Ministry and the New Creation
Paul wrote to the Corinthians as a minister whose character and authority had been challenged. Some people boasted in outward appearance rather than what was in the heart (2 Corinthians 5:12). His ministry did not offer the impressive appearance they admired. He had described being hard-pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down, yet sustained by God through those afflictions (2 Corinthians 4:8–9). He preached Christ Jesus the Lord and presented himself as their servant for Jesus’ sake (2 Corinthians 4:5).
Paul explained why he continued serving despite the cost. Christ’s love compelled him, because Christ died for all so that those who live would no longer live for themselves. They were to live for the One who died and rose again for them (2 Corinthians 5:14–15). His purpose was not to secure a comfortable position or build a following around himself. He belonged to Christ and wanted the Corinthians to understand their lives in light of what Christ had done.
He then writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). When I speak about regeneration, I mean that new birth. A person has received life through Christ rather than merely adopted a Christian label. Church attendance, baptism, improved habits, or an emotional experience cannot bring that life into existence. God gives it by grace as a sinner hears and believes the gospel.
Someone truly born again is forgiven and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He belongs to Christ, and his life should show a new direction. That does not mean he immediately understands every doctrine, ceases to face temptation, or never needs correction. It does mean that calling himself a Christian while defending a settled refusal to obey Christ is no adequate evidence of new life. Obedience grows from the life God gives; it does not purchase that life.
Paul goes on to say that God reconciled “us” to Himself through Jesus Christ and gave “us” the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). Reconciliation through Christ is the blessing every believer receives. In describing the ministry entrusted to him and his coworkers, however, Paul is explaining their particular commission. They were the messengers through whom God’s authoritative gospel was being proclaimed, and Paul writes as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
That is the setting in which he calls them “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). The apostles had a foundational role in giving the church its authoritative witness to Christ. No modern teacher can take their place, add to the completed Scriptures, or demand that a private message be received as new apostolic revelation. The church continues their witness by believing and proclaiming what they delivered. I can make Christ known wherever He has placed me, but I remain under that revealed Word.
The Message Is Reconciliation Through Christ
Reconciliation means being brought into peace where there was estrangement. Our estrangement from God is not a disagreement between equally innocent parties. We have sinned against our holy Creator, and our rebellion brings guilt, death, and judgment. Paul describes people as dead in trespasses and sins and by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1–3). A better opinion of ourselves cannot remove that guilt, and more information alone cannot make us right with God.
God took the initiative to provide peace. Paul says God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and entrusting the word of reconciliation to His messengers (2 Corinthians 5:19). To impute here means to reckon or charge to someone’s account. God has provided forgiveness through His Son, rather than leaving sinners to find a way to cancel their own guilt. He has not declared sin harmless or negotiated permission for us to continue rebelling.
The breadth of that provision is clear: Christ died for the whole world. God genuinely calls every person to repent and believe, so I can offer the gospel without making someone wonder whether Christ died for him. But the offer can be resisted and rejected. Paul therefore pleads, “Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). A provision made for the world does not mean that everyone is already saved or that every religion leads to God. People must come to the Savior God has provided.
Paul explains the basis of that appeal: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man, born of a virgin and completely sinless. He never needed forgiveness and did not deserve death. I understand Paul’s words about His being made sin for us as describing His sacrifice on our behalf, not a change that made Him sinful or morally corrupt.
Wicked men tortured and crucified Jesus, who willingly bore the punishment for our sins in His innocent body. He shed His blood and gave His life for us in obedience to the Father. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were united in the work of salvation. Christ’s offering was holy and willing throughout, and He completed His saving sacrifice through His blood and death before His burial.
On the third day Jesus rose bodily from the grave. Death had not defeated Him, and His completed sacrifice needs no supplement. He is the only Mediator between God and mankind, the One through whom we are reconciled to the Father. A human priest, a saint, a church ritual, or a spiritual experience cannot occupy His place or provide what He alone gives.
Through Christ, believers become the righteousness of God in Him. We do not become divine, and we have no grounds for self-righteousness. Our acceptance rests in Christ’s righteousness rather than our moral achievements. If I stand before God on that basis, I stand as someone who has received mercy. That should shape both the confidence with which I proclaim the gospel and the humility with which I speak to another sinner.
What an Ambassador Is and Is Not
An ambassador represents the ruler or government that sent him. He carries an authorized message rather than inventing policy or bargaining away instructions he dislikes. Paul’s description helps me see why Christian witness requires care. We have been given something definite to say about Christ, and we are responsible for delivering it faithfully.
We can explain the gospel in ordinary words, answer objections, and adapt an explanation to what a person understands. We cannot change who Jesus is, omit the reality of sin and judgment, or promise salvation without repentance and faith. Nor can we attract someone with a guarantee of wealth, health, or success that Christ has not made. Compassion calls us to make His actual invitation clear, rather than manipulate a person into responding to a different offer.
The same responsibility applies when our opinions become entangled with the message. I may have firm views about an election or a public policy, and Christians should take civic duties seriously. But attaching Christ’s name to my preferred platform does not turn it into His command. The church’s saving message remains reconciliation through His Son. Someone should not have to adopt my political preferences before I will explain the gospel to him.
Using the ambassador description also does not confer a church office. Qualified men bear the responsibility for authoritative teaching leadership in a local congregation; calling every believer a witness does not make every believer an elder. Each believer may confess Christ, pray, serve others, and help make disciples according to the gifts and responsibilities God has given.
A teacher’s responsibility to explain Scripture gives him no right to demand unquestioning loyalty to himself. If I use Christ’s name to gain status or control people, I am abusing the position of a servant. Every ministry must be tested by Scripture, and a teacher should welcome that examination. Our confidence belongs in the King and His message rather than the personality of the person explaining it.
The Whole Church Bears Witness With Its Life
Before ascending, Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe everything He commanded (Matthew 28:18–20). The church’s continuing mission includes both proclaiming the gospel and teaching those who believe to follow Him. Baptism follows salvation and identifies the believer with Christ; it does not cause the new birth. The study on discipleship considers this growth in learning and obeying His Word.
The members of Christ’s body carry out different responsibilities. Some preach publicly or travel as missionaries, while others support their work or teach and serve within their own communities. Paul’s comparison of the church to a body gives us no reason to despise a member because his work is less conspicuous (1 Corinthians 12:12–27). A person serving faithfully at home or in a workplace is not doing an inferior kind of Christian service simply because fewer people see it.
Our conduct gives people a setting in which to hear what we say about Christ. If I am dependable at work, tell the truth when a mistake will cost me, and treat a difficult colleague with patience, people can see something of the obedience I profess. The same is true of sexual purity, generosity, forgiveness, and care for someone weak. These actions cannot replace explaining the gospel, but dishonesty or cruelty would contradict the message I claim to bring.
Paul connected his message with his manner of life. He said that he and his coworkers sought to give no offense so their ministry would not be blamed (2 Corinthians 6:3). He did not mean that nobody ever objected to their preaching. The following verses describe afflictions, imprisonment, patience, kindness, and sincere love (2 Corinthians 6:3–10). He would endure opposition while refusing to give people a legitimate reason to discredit his conduct.
Jesus likewise told His disciples to let their light shine so that people would see their good works and glorify their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Their good works were meant to honor the Father, and I need to remember that when I want people to applaud me. Helping a neighbor, welcoming a stranger, patiently teaching children, and supporting faithful workers can honor God without becoming a performance arranged around my reputation.
Christians still sin, and protecting a respectable appearance is no excuse to conceal wrongdoing. If I have lied, I need to correct the lie with the people who heard it. If I have mistreated someone, I should confess it and seek reconciliation where possible. Repentance does not make the original harm disappear, but it acknowledges the truth and seeks to put right what can be repaired. We should receive God’s forgiveness rather than maintain a dishonest image of ourselves.
Faithful witness also requires sound doctrine. Denying Christ’s deity, His shed blood, His bodily resurrection, or the need for personal faith would deprive people of the gospel itself. Love does not require us to accept every spiritual claim as true. We can identify false teaching firmly while remembering that we, too, needed mercy. The study on evangelism examines how to make that saving message known, rather than merely win approval for Christianity.
None of this requires withdrawing from unbelieving people. Jesus prayed that the Father would keep His disciples from the evil one rather than remove them from the world (John 17:15–18). We still live among relatives and neighbors, work alongside colleagues, and raise children who need to hear the truth. We can maintain those relationships and fulfill our ordinary responsibilities without allowing the world’s rebellion to set our moral direction.
Faithfulness May Be Costly
Paul’s ministry gives us no basis for promising that faithful witness will always bring admiration or prosperity. He endured beatings, imprisonment, slander, opposition, and the burden of concern for the churches. His hope in the risen Christ and the coming resurrection sustained him through suffering (2 Corinthians 4:13–18). His hardships did not prove he lacked faith, and a Christian who suffers rejection today should not automatically be blamed for trusting God too little.
We do, however, need to examine why opposition has come. If I ridicule someone’s question, speak carelessly about him, or provoke a quarrel over politics, I should not call the consequences persecution for Christ. Those actions need correction. At other times a person may reject the gospel precisely because it confronts sin and calls him to repent. We must be willing to face that rejection without giving ourselves permission to respond cruelly.
Peter tells believers to be ready to explain the reason for their hope with gentleness and reverence, keeping a good conscience (1 Peter 3:15–16). If I am trying to embarrass the person asking, I have abandoned the manner Peter commands. We can answer clearly and firmly while treating the other person with respect. We are to overcome evil with good and leave judgment to God.
I do not want the church to hide the gospel to preserve its comfort, but seeking a confrontation so we can look courageous is misguided too. We should speak when obedience calls for it, pray for strength, and accept the cost of telling the truth. Our aim is to honor Christ and help people understand His message, rather than produce an impressive display of our own boldness.
Citizens of Heaven Speak for Their King
Paul says our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). My highest allegiance therefore belongs to Him. That does not cancel my obligations to earthly neighbors or make public life unimportant. It does locate my final hope in Christ and His kingdom, where changes in human government cannot overturn it.
Jesus will return bodily. I understand Scripture to teach that He will gather His church before the Tribulation and later return to deliver Israel and reign for a literal thousand years. Christians do not have to manufacture that kingdom through political power or cultural pressure. We announce the King who will establish perfect righteousness in His time, and we can serve steadily while we wait for Him.
Meanwhile, we pray for rulers and seek peace. We obey lawful commands, but must refuse a demand that would require disobedience to God. Every ruler remains accountable to Him. Our confidence in Christ should help us carry out present responsibilities without making our hope depend on the fortunes of human institutions.
Prayer for rulers is part of a wider dependence on God as we live among people who need Christ. Paul gave the Colossians practical instructions for that life of witness. They were to pray that God would open a door for the Word and enable him to make the mystery of Christ clear, the truth God had now revealed through His Son. They were also to walk wisely toward people outside the church and let their speech be gracious, seasoned with salt, so they would know how to answer each person (Colossians 4:2–6). The study on prayer examines our dependence on God as we make those requests.
We can begin by asking for opportunities and the courage to speak faithfully. When a conversation comes, listen to what the person actually believes. Someone confused about who Jesus is needs that question answered, while someone trusting his own goodness needs to understand why moral effort cannot remove guilt. We can open Scripture, explain sin and judgment honestly, and point to Christ’s mercy without forcing every conversation through the same script.
Neither clever wording nor pressure can produce the new birth. The Holy Spirit convicts people through the truth and gives life as they believe the gospel. We depend on Him, but that dependence is no excuse for silence. God uses His people to speak His Word; our task is to deliver it faithfully, pray, and keep serving without claiming control over another person’s response.
My Final Thoughts
I cannot claim the apostles’ unique authority for myself or rewrite their message to gain approval. I can tell people what they proclaimed: God has provided reconciliation through the crucified and risen Christ, and sinners must come to Him in repentance and faith. Those of us who have received that mercy should speak with humility and live in a way that agrees with our words. The King we represent is worthy of our allegiance now, and He will return.
When Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink, she immediately questioned why a Jewish man would ask her for water. Before their conversation ended, Jesus had spoken about her marriages, corrected her understanding of worship, and told her that He was the Messiah. I appreciate how patiently He answered her without evading anything she needed to hear. He knew her life and still offered her everlasting life.
John 4 lets us follow that conversation through to its result. The woman went back to her city, people came out to hear Jesus, and many believed. A meeting beside a well became an occasion for Samaritans to confess the Jewish Messiah as the Savior of the world.
The preceding chapter introduces Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was both a ruler and a teacher of Israel. He needed the new birth despite his religious standing. Now a Samaritan woman would hear about living water. Their circumstances differed greatly, but each needed life that neither position nor inherited beliefs could provide. Jesus spoke to them differently while directing both to the life He alone gives.
Jesus Meets the Woman at Jacob’s Well
Jesus was traveling from Judea toward Galilee, with Samaria between them. The road through Samaria was a natural route, although travelers could choose another. John’s statement that Jesus needed to go that way also fits the Gospel’s repeated emphasis on the work the Father sent Him to do. As He traveled, He was carrying out that mission among people whose community had long been at odds with His own.
The division between those communities had developed over centuries. After the kingdom divided following Solomon’s reign, Samaria eventually became the capital of northern Israel. Assyria later conquered the northern kingdom, deported many inhabitants, and brought settlers from other lands. In 2 Kings 17, those settlers learned about the LORD while continuing to serve other gods. The resulting worship mixed acknowledgment of Him with idolatry. In later centuries, the Samaritans claimed Israelite ancestry, received the five books of Moses in their own textual tradition, and worshiped on Mount Gerizim.
The Jews rejected the Samaritan sanctuary and the community’s competing claims, recognizing Jerusalem as the place God had chosen for the temple. Political conflict, including the Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus’s destruction of the Samaritan sanctuary, deepened the resentment. Disputes about ancestry, worship, and purity affected ordinary dealings between people, including whether a Jew would ask to drink from a Samaritan’s vessel. The woman’s surprise came out of that troubled relationship.
Jesus, weary from the journey, sat beside Jacob’s well near Sychar while His disciples were in the city buying food. John places the meeting at the sixth hour, about noon under ordinary Jewish reckoning. The eternal Word had become flesh without ceasing to be God. His fatigue and thirst belonged to His real human life, and His request for water expressed a genuine need.
It is often said that the woman came at noon because she was despised and wanted to avoid the other women. That is possible, but John does not explain why she came then or describe the usual water-drawing schedule in Sychar. He does not say her community had excluded her. Her later invitation brought people out to meet Jesus, which should make us cautious about claiming that her neighbors would have nothing to do with her.
Jesus Offers 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."
John 4:7-10
Jesus did not begin by insulting her people or demanding that she settle the dispute between Samaria and Jerusalem. He asked for a drink, then answered her surprise with an offer. If she knew God’s gift and recognized the One speaking to her, she would ask Him for living water. Her first question concerned His willingness to receive something from her; His answer concerned what He was willing to give her.
In ordinary speech, living water meant fresh, flowing water, such as water from a spring, and she initially understood Jesus in that physical sense. The well was deep, and He had nothing to draw with. She reminded Him that Jacob had provided the well and had used it himself, as had his sons and livestock. Where would Jesus get better water? Was He claiming to be greater than Jacob? Those were reasonable questions given what she understood so far, and He continued explaining.
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 4:13-14
Drinking from Jacob’s well satisfied her bodily thirst for a time, but she would always need to return for more. Jesus offered life that would endure within the person who received it. The wording translated springing up suggests water welling or leaping upward, a continuing, active supply. She still wanted relief from thirst and the work of drawing water, while His promise concerned everlasting life. That promise does not remove a believer’s need for food and water or exempt us from grief and temptation. Hardship does not bring the life He gives to an end.
Jesus’ language also recalls Israel’s Scriptures. In Jeremiah 2:13, the LORD rebuked His people for forsaking Him, the fountain of living waters, and making broken cisterns that could hold no water. Ezekiel described a river from the temple bringing life wherever it went, and Zechariah later spoke of living waters flowing from Jerusalem. Those passages have their own settings and prophetic details, which we should preserve, but they connect the supply of life with God. Jesus was claiming authority to give life the woman could never draw from Jacob’s well.
John makes the connection with the Spirit explicit in chapter 7. Jesus called thirsty people to come to Him and drink through faith, and John explained that He was speaking about the Holy Spirit whom believers would receive after Jesus was glorified. That later explanation helps us understand the enduring life described in John 4 and the Spirit’s personal presence and work within those who believe.
Everlasting life begins when a person believes in the Son and reaches its fullness in bodily resurrection life with Him. Believers who die are consciously with Christ while awaiting that resurrection. We do not possess immortality independently of God; He gives life through Christ. Everyone truly born again receives the Holy Spirit, who indwells and seals the believer. We are eternally secure because Christ’s work is sufficient, so our assurance rests on what He has done rather than on a feeling that comes and goes.
A Christian label cannot take the place of the new birth. Christ gives real life, and that life begins to change how a person lives. Obedience neither earns this gift nor keeps us saved, and believers do not become sinlessly perfect. But someone who claims to have received His life while treating sin as harmless is disregarding the change He brings. Jesus’ next words to the woman show that His generous offer did not keep Him from addressing her conduct.
Jesus Brings the Woman Into Truth
The woman asked for the water, still thinking about the relief it would bring to her daily work. Jesus then told her to call her husband.
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "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."
John 4:16-18
Her answer was true as far as it went, and Jesus acknowledged that before revealing what she had not told Him. He knew about her five husbands and about the man who was not her husband. Their brief conversation had supplied no ordinary way for a stranger to learn those details. His knowledge confronted her with the truth about her life and gave her reason to recognize that God had sent Him.
I want to be as precise about her life as Jesus was. John does not explain how the five marriages ended. Some may have ended in death; others may have involved divorce, abandonment, or wrongdoing by either spouse. Five marriages do not give us grounds to accuse her of five acts of unfaithfulness. Jesus did identify her present relationship with a man who was not her husband, but John does not say whether they shared a house or whether the man was married to someone else. We can acknowledge the sin Jesus was exposing without inventing the rest of her biography.
Jesus addressed her while the disciples were away. He neither ridiculed her nor exposed her past to a crowd of accusers, but told her what she needed to face and continued answering her. I see no excuse here for cruelty disguised as bold teaching. We can be frank about sin without turning someone’s shame into an occasion to impress an audience.
His kindness did not conceal the wrongdoing. Jesus knew whom He was offering the water to, and He did not withdraw His offer when He named her present relationship. She could not deceive Him or suppose He had offered life because He misunderstood her past. She needed to face the truth, but admitting it would not buy the water He had offered as God’s gift.
True Worship in Spirit and Truth
Recognizing Jesus as a prophet, the woman asked where people should worship. Some readers take her question as an attempt to escape an uncomfortable subject. That is possible, but she may also have sincerely wanted a prophet to settle the central religious dispute between her people and the Jews. Both concerns could have been present. John gives us her question without explaining her private motive, and Jesus answered it at length.
The Samaritans regarded Mount Gerizim as the chosen sanctuary and read the books of Moses in a tradition that supported that claim. The Jews worshiped at Jerusalem, whose temple belonged to the history of God’s covenant with David and the revelation recorded in the Prophets. In answering her, Jesus corrected Samaritan error and explained the change His own coming would bring:
Jesus said to her, "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 Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
John 4:21-24
Jesus did not say that sincere belief made the two claims equally sound. God had given Israel His law, covenants, and prophetic promises, and the Messiah came from the Jewish people as David’s promised Son. In saying, “Salvation is of the Jews,” Jesus identified the people through whom God had revealed His saving purpose and brought the Savior into the world. He was explaining God’s work in history, not granting permission for ethnic contempt.
The setting makes that plain. A Jewish Messiah was explaining salvation to a Samaritan woman and offering her life. We cannot detach Jesus from Israel’s Scriptures and promises, but neither can we use His Jewish identity to restrict His invitation to one people. The Samaritans themselves would soon confess how far His saving mission extended.
Jesus also announced that worship would no longer depend on a journey to either disputed mountain. Jerusalem’s temple was still standing, but the Messiah had arrived to bring access to the Father through Himself. His words anticipated His death, bodily resurrection, ascension, and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Yet He could also say “now is” because He was already there, speaking to her as the One through whom that fulfillment would come.
God’s nature explains why no sanctuary can contain Him and why possession of a holy place cannot give its worshipers control over Him. He is Spirit, not a material being confined within a building, and no physical image can adequately represent Him. Nor is He an impersonal force: the Father knows, loves, wills, and seeks worshipers. The Holy Spirit is likewise personal and fully divine. One eternal God exists in three distinct, coequal, coeternal Persons, and the Son became truly human without ceasing to share the divine nature.
The Greek verb translated worship, proskyneo, often describes bowing in reverence. In this passage, Jesus directs that reverence to the Father in keeping with who He is. The nature of the God we worship governs how we should honor Him.
Worship in spirit involves the inward person and is enabled by God’s Spirit. Outward actions cannot take the place of a heart turned toward the Father. Worship in truth agrees with His revelation and centers on Christ, who is the truth. I can sincerely hold a false belief, just as I can repeat sound doctrine while refusing to obey the God I describe. Jesus calls for our inward response to agree with what God has revealed. Whether a service is quiet or expressive, I am still accountable for honoring Him with a willing heart and believing what He has made known.
Jesus Reveals Himself as Messiah
The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
John 4:25-26
Samaritan expectation drew especially on Moses and the promise of a coming prophet who would speak God’s words. The woman expected the Messiah to explain what she did not yet understand. Jesus answered by telling her plainly that the One she expected was already speaking to her.
At the beginning of their conversation, Jesus had said she needed to recognize who was asking for a drink. Now she had His answer. The promised Christ Himself was offering her life. He had shown that He knew her past and present, had answered her questions about God, and had given her reason to trust Him.
The Woman’s Testimony and the Samaritan Harvest
The disciples returned at this point and were surprised to find Jesus speaking with a woman, though none openly challenged Him. The woman then left her waterpot and went into the city.
The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
John 4:28-30
Her leaving the jar may suggest an urgency to speak to her neighbors, but John does not call it a symbol of abandoning her old life. What she asked them to consider was Jesus’ knowledge of things she had not told Him. Could He be the Christ? She took what she had learned to the people of her city and invited them to come and see for themselves.
As people began leaving the city to meet Jesus, the disciples urged Him to eat. He spoke of food they did not know about, and they wondered whether someone else had brought Him a meal. He was teaching them through an ordinary physical need, as He had done with the woman through water. His answer brought their attention to the work the Father had sent Him to complete:
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."
John 4:34-38
The disciples had gone into the city to buy food, and now Jesus was directing them to people ready to receive eternal life. The approaching Samaritans likely supplied the visible setting for His command to lift their eyes. John does not tell us what response the disciples had expected from these people, but they needed to recognize the opportunity before them. Hostility between communities must not decide whom Christ’s servants are willing to approach.
Jesus also explained that others had labored before the disciples entered the work. He described one person sowing and another reaping, with both rejoicing in the harvest. The disciples would share in a result they had not brought about alone. What happened next in Sychar showed them the harvest He was describing:
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they 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."
John 4:39-42
Many Samaritans believed because of the woman’s testimony, and many more believed as they heard Jesus during His two days with them. John gives her witness genuine value, while showing how it brought them to Christ’s own words. Their conviction now rested on what they themselves had heard from Him.
That is what I want my teaching and witness to accomplish. This woman had only just met Jesus and still had much to learn, but she could truthfully tell her neighbors what had happened and direct them to Him. We do not help people by embellishing our testimony or making ourselves appear flawless. We help them by speaking honestly and bringing them to Christ’s word.
If I speak to someone who has heard years of faithful teaching from another believer, I may be entering work already begun. I may also explain the gospel without being present when that person later believes. I cannot take all the credit for someone coming to faith or belittle a worker who does not see the eventual response. Jesus allows His servants to share in a harvest none of us could produce independently of Him.
The Samaritans’ confession reached beyond Sychar, Samaria, and Israel. Jesus is the Savior of the world. The Messiah came through the Jewish people, but His saving provision extends to every person.
The Savior they confessed was the eternal Son, truly God and truly man, born of a virgin and without sin. When He later went to the cross, He willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men inflicted real bodily torture and crucified Him, and He shed His blood and died. His saving sacrifice through His blood and death was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit acted in unity in our redemption.
Christ died for every person, so the invitation to repent and believe is genuine for everyone. People can resist His grace and reject Him; calling Him the Savior of the world does not mean everyone will be saved regardless of their response. Everyone who repents and believes receives everlasting life by grace, apart from works.
The gospel would continue to spread into Samaria in Acts 8, when Samaritans received the message about Christ and the apostles witnessed the Holy Spirit’s work among them. Long before that, Jesus’ welcome to the people of Sychar had taught His disciples to recognize people ready to hear Him across a deeply felt religious division.
Jesus’ treatment of this woman should make me examine whom I dismiss as unlikely to hear the gospel. His invitation is for women and men alike, whatever their ancestry or reputation. Broken relationships and religious confusion do not place someone beyond its reach. He answered her questions, corrected her worship, and confronted her present conduct while continuing to offer life. If I will speak only to people whose background resembles mine, I am overlooking the people He taught His disciples to recognize as ready for harvest.
I also need to explain honestly what receiving Christ involves. Jesus did not leave the woman thinking that every form of worship was equally true or that her relationship needed no correction. He gave her room to listen and ask questions while telling her the truth. I want that same patience in my witness, with the humility of a servant who knows that God gives the increase. Our purpose is to help people hear Christ and believe.
My Final Thoughts
What stays with me in John 4 is that Jesus knew the woman’s life before she understood who He was. He patiently answered her questions and told her the truth until she could recognize the Messiah offering her living water. Her neighbors then heard Him themselves and confessed Him as the Savior of the world. I want to bring people to that same Christ, trusting His word to expose what needs to change and make His offer of life clear.
Comparing myself with someone else cannot establish that I am right before God. I may find a person whose conduct is worse than mine without answering for my own dishonesty, resentment, or refusal to do what is right. God judges by His holy character and truthful commands. To understand sin, we need to hear what He calls wrong, recognize how far it reaches into the heart, and understand the mercy He offers through Jesus Christ.
What Scripture Means by Sin
Sin includes lawlessness, rebellion, unbelief, and refusal to do good we know we should do. It can appear in an outward act, a cherished desire, a deceitful word, or a neglected duty. 1 John describes it as lawlessness because the sinner violates God’s rightful authority. Calling that conduct a mistake may describe a bad decision, but it can also conceal the guilt involved. A deliberate lie is not an innocent failure to communicate clearly.
The biblical terms help us understand that responsibility. The Hebrew chata’ can describe sin or failure and is often explained as “missing the mark.” That image must not suggest an innocent arrow blown off course. Avon can refer to iniquity or perversity, as well as guilt or its consequences. Pesha emphasizes transgression or rebellion against rightful authority. The sinner has done more than perform a task poorly.
In the New Testament, anomia describes lawlessness. Parabasis refers to transgression, crossing a known command or boundary, while paraptoma can describe a trespass or offense. These terms overlap, but they direct attention to different features of wrongdoing: failure to meet God’s standard, defiance of His command, and guilt for an actual offense. None allows me to reduce sin to an unfortunate limitation for which no one is responsible.
To hold people responsible, we also need to distinguish guilt from conditions that are not themselves personal sin. Jesus was tempted and remained sinless, so temptation cannot automatically establish guilt. Children are born into a fallen, mortal human condition, but that is not the same as inheriting Adam’s personal guilt. Scripture also recognizes degrees of blame and harm, though even a lesser sin leaves the accountable person guilty. Without these distinctions, we can accuse people indiscriminately instead of addressing their actual wrongdoing.
Sin, Adam, and Personal Guilt
Genesis 3 begins with people who had received God’s generous provision and a clear prohibition. The serpent questioned God’s word, denied the warning of death, and presented the forbidden fruit as an opportunity God was withholding from them. Eve evaluated the tree apart from His command, and Adam joined her in disobedience. They acted as though they could decide good and evil independently of their Creator.
Their response afterward exposes how readily rebellion becomes evasion. They hid, and when God questioned them, Adam pointed to the woman God had given him while Eve pointed to the serpent. Both had participated, yet each directed attention elsewhere. The attempt to explain who influenced a choice did not remove responsibility for making it.
God’s judgment brought painful consequences into human life: the ground was cursed, and their lives would include pain and conflict. Yet His words of judgment also held a promise. He foretold conflict between the serpent and the woman’s Seed that would end in the crushing of the serpent’s head. The God who had sought them while they hid then clothed them before excluding them from the Tree of Life. They would eventually die. The whole gospel was not explained in that promise, but it began the expectation of a Deliverer who would defeat the deceiver.
Romans 5 says sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. Adam’s descendants are born mortal and weak, inclined toward sin, in a world already damaged by rebellion. I distinguish that inherited condition from charging an infant with Adam’s own offense. Romans 5:12 says death spread to all because all sinned, and Ezekiel states individual accountability plainly.
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Ezekiel 18:20
Ezekiel addressed Israelites who blamed their fathers while avoiding responsibility for their own conduct. A parent’s wrongdoing can certainly cause a child to suffer; the passage does not deny those consequences. It denies the transfer of moral guilt. An innocent child is not charged with the father’s act, and an accountable son cannot use his father’s conduct to excuse his own.
Scripture recognizes a time before a child knows to refuse evil and choose good. Children inherit a fallen nature and mortality, but they are not condemned for someone else’s sin. Apart from the sinless Christ, every person who reaches moral accountability chooses sin personally. I cannot blame Adam for a lie I choose to tell, hatred I cultivate, or unbelief I defend. Those choices are mine.
This also means grieving parents need not imagine that an infant who dies is condemned for inherited guilt. God judges righteously according to real moral accountability. His judgment does not confuse being born into a ruined world with personally choosing its rebellion.
Romans 5 contrasts what Adam brought with what Christ provides. Through Adam, sin and death entered human life; through Christ, justification and life are genuinely offered to the whole world. That does not mean everyone is automatically saved. People may resist God’s grace, and the gift is received by faith. The obedient Son has provided the life sinners could never produce for themselves.
The Law, the Heart, and Temptation
God’s law exposes wrongdoing, but later obedience cannot erase it. A command can show that I lied; keeping it tomorrow will not make yesterday’s lie truthful. Scripture uses law in several related ways: for the Mosaic covenant, for a particular command, and for God’s revealed moral standard more broadly. Gentile nations were not placed under Israel’s national covenant code. Yet Romans holds them accountable for suppressing known truth and violating the moral witness available to them.
Conscience is part of that witness. Romans 2 describes Gentiles showing the law’s work in their hearts as their thoughts accuse or excuse them. Still, conscience can become misinformed or seared through persistent wrongdoing. Feeling comfortable about a choice does not establish that God approves it. Scripture must correct our judgment, including motives we have found convenient to overlook.
James 2:10 says that a person who keeps the law but stumbles at one point is guilty of all. He has violated the authority of the same Lawgiver. James does not mean that every offense produces identical damage or that committing one sin means a person has literally performed every other sinful act. One breach makes him a lawbreaker; the rest of his obedience cannot make that breach disappear.
Jesus also exposes sin before it becomes publicly visible. In Matthew 5, He addresses unjust anger, contempt, and looking with lust. In Matthew 15, He explains that evil thoughts come from the heart, as do murder, adultery, and sexual immorality. He also names theft, false witness, and blasphemy. In Scripture, the heart includes thoughts, desires, loyalties, and the will. Coveting may remain hidden from the neighbor whose property we want, but it is already known to God.
That inward guilt does not make hatred and murder interchangeable in human justice. Murder inflicts an additional, irreversible injury. Jesus holds us accountable for our hearts without erasing the difference between the harms we cause. Circumstances can pressure us and expose weakness, but they do not make every choice inevitable. God requires truth within us as well as conduct that protects the people around us.
We must be equally careful not to call every temptation an inward act of sin. Hebrews describes Jesus as genuinely tempted yet without sin. An outside invitation or an unwanted thought does not, by its arrival alone, establish consent. James 1 describes a person being drawn and enticed, then desire conceiving and giving birth to sin. The heart welcomes what God forbids, perhaps cherishing it or planning how to pursue it before any outward act occurs.
Some desires involved in temptation are proper in themselves. Hunger, rest, companionship, safety, and justice can all be legitimate concerns. Temptation may urge us to obtain them through disobedience. Jesus was hungry in the wilderness, but He refused Satan’s invitation to act outside the Father’s will. Having a need does not authorize every proposed way of meeting it.
I do not need to panic because temptation has come, but I should not make room for it to grow. God provides a way of escape, and taking it often involves an ordinary decision: leaving a place, closing a screen, ending a conversation, or asking someone trustworthy for help. If coveting is driving a purchase, I can refuse it. If anger is feeding plans for retaliation, I need to stop rehearsing those plans. We should take the way out before we begin defending a decision to sin.
Doing what God forbids is often called a sin of commission. Theft, adultery, idolatry, and false witness are examples. A sin of omission is neglecting a duty, as James 4:17 explains when it calls failure to do known good sinful. Avoiding a public scandal cannot excuse neglecting a family responsibility, withholding forgiveness, or refusing help we know we ought to give. Silence before injustice may also make us accountable. Obedience includes doing the good God requires as well as refusing the evil He forbids.
The Mosaic offerings made provision for unintentional sins, so ignorance did not make every wrong act harmless. Yet Scripture distinguishes those failures from presumptuous, knowing defiance. Knowledge can increase responsibility. A person may also choose not to inquire because learning the truth would require change. Once Scripture exposes wrongdoing, our former ignorance gives us no reason to continue it.
Institutions can encourage sin by concealing it, rewarding participation, or presenting a corrupt practice as a professional obligation. Approval from a group does not make the practice righteous. Each person remains accountable for what he chooses. Human authority cannot give us permission to violate God’s commands.
Jesus recognized greater guilt in His answer to Pilate. When Pilate claimed authority to crucify or release Him, Jesus replied that he could have no authority against Him unless it had been given from above. He then said that the one who delivered Him to Pilate had the greater sin. I understand this as referring to the Jewish leader acting with greater revealed knowledge. Jesus was not declaring Pilate innocent. Elsewhere, He describes servants receiving different judgments according to what they knew. We should acknowledge degrees of responsibility without treating lesser guilt as innocence.
Those differences also affect how we respond to harm. Coveting is sin, but stealing a family’s savings adds an injury requiring restitution and potentially legal judgment. A careless false statement differs from a deliberate campaign to destroy someone’s reputation. Courts, churches, and families should examine the facts rather than exaggerate a small fault to control someone or minimize grave abuse by saying everyone is equally at fault.
When David confessed his sin against God in Psalm 51, he was not denying what he had done to Bathsheba and Uriah or the suffering of their families and Israel. Adultery betrays a spouse while disobeying God; theft robs a neighbor while rejecting His command. Sin violates God’s law and damages relationships, because His commands govern both our relationship with Him and our treatment of the people He made.
Repentance may therefore require more than private prayer. Stolen property should be returned, a public lie may need public correction, and an injured person deserves truthful acknowledgment. God’s forgiveness does not remove every earthly consequence or make damaged trust recover immediately. Asking someone to ignore the injury can become another attempt to avoid responsibility.
Recognizing degrees of sin does not require accepting the loss of salvation taught in some religious classifications. The Roman Catholic Catechism, paragraphs 1854-1863, distinguishes mortal and venial sin. It defines mortal sin by grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent, and teaches that it causes loss of the state of grace. Venial sin does not cause that loss. Restoration after mortal sin ordinarily involves repentance and the sacrament of reconciliation. I disagree with this teaching about losing and recovering saving grace. Scripture recognizes differing degrees of sin while teaching that the genuinely born-again believer remains indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Serious sin can shatter fellowship, bring the Father’s discipline, and cause earthly ruin or loss of reward. It does not undo the new birth.
The Power and Consequences of Sin
Romans 6 describes sin as a ruling power, and Jesus says that the person who commits sin is its slave. Repeated disobedience can begin dictating a person’s schedule, spending, and relationships. What looked like freedom becomes something he hides and serves. Human effort may restrain behavior or exchange one habit for another, but only the Son frees us at the deepest level. In the new birth we belong to a new Master, and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Paul contrasts what sin earns with what God gives freely. Eternal life is His gift in Christ. Physical death reflects humanity’s fallen condition, while a person’s own sin brings guilt before final judgment. Sin damages life now too, injuring other people, disrupting fellowship, and deadening the conscience. For those who finally reject Christ, the outcome is the second death; endless life is not something humans possess by nature.
The second death must be understood in connection with resurrection. Revelation 20 describes the dead standing before God, the books opened, and each person judged according to his works. Death and Hades are then cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death. This is a definite judgment after resurrection, not a vague description of distance from God.
I understand every person to begin with his name written in the Book of Life. Those who finally reject the Messiah have their names blotted out, while believers remain recorded there. The other books record deeds and sins; believers have their sins blotted out through Christ’s blood. Blotting out a name and blotting out sins are different acts. Forgiveness removes the sins that would otherwise testify against us.
Lost humans finally face the irreversible destruction of body and soul, rather than eternal conscious torment. Eternal life is God’s gift to those in Christ. Revelation 20:10 specifically names the devil, the beast, and the false prophet as suffering endless torment. I do not transfer that description to the final destiny Scripture calls the second death for lost human beings.
The question of forgiveness becomes especially urgent in Jesus’ warning about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In Mark 3, scribes from Jerusalem attributed His deliverance of people from demons to Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. Jesus answered that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand: Satan’s rule would not be strengthened by overthrowing his own power. They were calling the Holy Spirit’s clear testimony through Christ the work of an unclean spirit. His warning that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness addressed that informed, hardened rejection.
An unwanted phrase, intrusive thought, or moment of frightened doubt is not the settled rejection those leaders displayed. Someone seeking mercy should not confuse his distress with their determination to discredit Christ. The Spirit convicts the world of sin and testifies to the Savior. Persistently rejecting that witness to the end leaves no other provision for forgiveness, because there is no other Savior. Refusing Christ finally means refusing the only mercy that can save us.
1 John 5 also speaks of sin leading to death without supplying a complete system of categories. It may concern severe judgment in this life, as other New Testament cases show. I would not claim more precision than John supplies or use the passage to deny eternal security. His warning is serious, but it does not authorize us to explain every death as judgment for a particular sin.
The same letter addresses believers’ continuing need for cleansing. Anyone claiming to have no sin deceives himself; anyone claiming never to have sinned makes God a liar. Yet John also says those born of God do not practice sin. He distinguishes the acts a believer must confess from settled lawlessness that defines a person’s life. Regeneration, genuine new birth, makes a real break with sin’s dominion. Growth takes time and remains imperfect, but a Christian label by itself cannot establish that someone has received new life.
A believer can fall seriously, grieve the Holy Spirit, damage fellowship, and come under the Father’s discipline. That gives him every reason to repent. It does not reverse the new birth of someone Christ has saved. Assurance rests in Christ’s preserving power, while someone content to defend lawlessness has no sound reason to treat a superficial profession as proof of salvation.
Repentance and the Hope of the Gospel
Confession means agreeing with God about sin instead of softening it or assigning the blame elsewhere. Repentance is a real turn of heart toward Him, joined with faith in Jesus Christ. Neither purchases forgiveness. We come admitting our need for mercy, rather than presenting our sorrow as payment.
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Proverbs 28:13
Remorse by itself may disappear when the consequences ease. Pharaoh confessed under pressure and hardened himself again when the pressure passed. Judas admitted betrayal and returned the money, but went on to take his own life. Those admissions show that acknowledging guilt, by itself, is not the same as turning to Christ for mercy. Godly sorrow leads us toward the Lord and toward changed conduct.
Zacchaeus illustrates that change. He received Jesus and pledged to give to the poor and repay anyone he had defrauded. His money did not purchase salvation. The pledge expressed a heart turning in a new direction. That willingness to face wrongdoing should continue in a believer’s life. We confess without needing to be saved again. 1 John 1:9 concerns walking in the light and cleansing in fellowship. A secure child can tell the truth, accept correction, and repair harm where possible.
Romans explains why neither remorse nor improvement can justify us. Chapter 1 exposes Gentile suppression of truth, chapter 2 confronts people judging others while practicing sin, and chapter 3 leaves no group outside accountability. Possessing the law does not give a Jew an exemption, and lacking that written law does not make a Gentile innocent.
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Romans 3:20
Justification is God’s verdict granting righteous standing before Him. Later obedience cannot erase a guilty record or earn that verdict. Romans 3:21 turns to the righteousness God supplies apart from works of the law, through faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. Sinners are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Him. Faith receives the Savior; it is not a more impressive kind of work that puts God in our debt.
Romans 3:25 describes Christ as a hilasterion by His blood through faith. The term is used for the mercy seat, where atoning blood was presented. That is an image of God’s mercy through sacrifice, rather than of the Father venting anger upon His Son. Jesus is the spotless Lamb who willingly offered Himself, both sin offering and High Priest. When 2 Corinthians 5:21 says He was made sin for us, it does not mean He became morally evil. I understand Paul to mean that the sinless One became our sin offering, so believers could receive righteous standing in Him.
The eternal Son became fully man through the virgin birth without ceasing to be God. He lived without sin and willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, and He shed His innocent blood and died. His saving sacrifice was complete before His body was buried and He rose bodily on the third day. The Father and Son were united in redemption. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus, nor did He send Him to hell to suffer further punishment.
Christ entrusted His spirit to the Father and promised the believing thief that they would be together in Paradise. He did not suffer the second death or endless separation. His blood and physical death atone for sin, and His bodily resurrection defeats death. Our hope rests in what He accomplished, not in the intensity of our feelings or our ability to build a moral defense of ourselves.
His offering is for the whole world, and God genuinely calls every sinner to repent and believe. People can resist His invitation, but everyone who comes to Christ in faith receives forgiveness, justification, and eternal life as a gift. That person is born again, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and eternally secure through Christ’s finished work and preserving power.
Ephesians 2 places good works after salvation by grace through faith. They grow from the new life God gives; they neither purchase salvation nor keep us saved, so there is no room for boasting. Titus 2 describes that same grace teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Grace provides forgiveness without renaming evil as good. Romans 6 firmly rejects the suggestion that we should continue in sin so grace may abound. Because we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection, we should present ourselves to God as alive from the dead. Sin has no rightful claim to be our master.
Walking in the Light
I need God’s judgment of my conduct more than a favorable comparison with someone else. His light reaches hidden motives and neglected duties as well as outward acts. When He exposes sin, I should confess it, turn from it, and repair the harm where possible. I do so depending on the Savior’s forgiveness and the Spirit’s help, rather than trying to earn a righteous standing I can receive only through faith.
God does not delight in human destruction, and Christ died for the world. The genuineness of His invitation is a reason to respond, not to assume we can postpone repentance indefinitely. We need not keep defending a record that cannot justify us. The Savior offers mercy while there is opportunity to receive it.
My Final Thoughts
Sin cannot be explained away as ordinary weakness or an innocent mistake. Every accountable person needs the mercy found in Jesus Christ, whose blood provides forgiveness and whose resurrection defeats death. I want to bring my conduct into His light without excusing what He condemns or accusing someone beyond what the facts establish. The grace that saves us also teaches us to obey, so we can confess honestly and depend on the Lord who alone can forgive and change us.
Andrew is usually identified as Peter’s brother, but he was the man who first brought Peter to Jesus. I think that is easy to overlook when we remember how prominent Peter later became. The Gospels preserve fewer of Andrew’s words, yet they record him helping people approach Christ and continuing to learn from the Lord Himself.
Andrew in the Ministry of Jesus
John names Bethsaida as Andrew’s hometown and connects him with two other men who would follow Jesus.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
John 1:44
Andrew worked as a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, with nets to maintain and no guarantee of a good catch. Jesus’ later call would require him to leave this familiar livelihood. The Gospels introduce us to a working fisherman, rather than presenting scholarly credentials or a religious office as his qualification for following Christ.
His name, Andreas, is Greek and means manly. Philip also had a Greek name, although both men belonged to the Jewish world in which Jesus ministered. That fits the wider cultural setting, but the meaning of Andrew’s name does not tell us how courageous he was. We learn about his response to Christ from what the Gospels record him doing.
Being Peter’s brother did not make him a second-rate disciple. In John 1, that family relationship gave him someone to approach as soon as he had news about Jesus. Before considering what he told Peter, though, we need to see how he came to know the Lord.
Andrew Encounters Jesus
Andrew was already a disciple of John the Baptist when he first followed Jesus. John had been preparing people to receive the Messiah, and he directed Andrew and another disciple toward Him.
Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
John 1:35-37
The men followed because they heard John’s testimony. His ministry had prepared them for Christ, so leaving to follow Jesus fulfilled its purpose. A faithful teacher should want people to know the Lord, rather than cultivate a dependence that keeps them attached to the teacher.
The Baptist had already proclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” In calling Jesus the Lamb, John was identifying the One who would deal with human sin. Andrew needed more than an interesting teacher; he needed God’s appointed sacrifice for his sins.
Jesus noticed the two men following Him and turned to speak to them.
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day.
John 1:38-39
John does not preserve their conversation, but he does tell us that they accepted Jesus’ invitation and stayed with Him that day. Andrew began as a learner, with no need to invent a message or establish a following of his own.
The Greek verb meno means to remain, stay, or abide. Here it describes the men staying with Jesus for the day.
After that initial time with Jesus, Andrew went to find Simon.
One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.
John 1:40-42
By Messiah, Andrew meant the Anointed One God had promised to Israel. Messiah comes from Hebrew, while Christ is the Greek title with the same meaning, not Jesus’ surname. Andrew had recognized the promised Deliverer, though Jesus would spend His ministry teaching the disciples what that deliverance required.
Andrew told his brother and brought him to Jesus. Christ then gave Simon a new name, and over the following years He would teach and correct him. He would also restore Peter after his denial. Andrew helped his brother come to Christ, but he could not make Peter into the man the Lord intended him to become.
Andrew’s first recorded steps involved receiving the truth before explaining it to his brother. Later, in John 15, Jesus uses the same verb meno to speak of His disciples abiding in Him. He compares their dependence on Him to a branch that cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. That later teaching explains our continuing need for Him beyond an initial encounter.
If I fill my time with plans for ministry while neglecting what Jesus says, I should not assume that being busy has made me useful. I need to read His Word, believe it, and allow it to correct how I think and live. We cannot teach people to follow Christ while treating our own need to listen to Him as an inconvenience.
Speaking about Christ with relatives can be uncomfortable because they know our faults and may bring them up. Yet that same familiarity may give them a reason to listen that they would not give a stranger. Andrew went to the brother he already knew. I should not disregard someone within my reach because I imagine useful service must begin somewhere more impressive.
I can explain what Scripture says and urge a relative to trust Christ, but I cannot force faith by manipulating the conversation or pressing for an emotional response. Not every relative will respond as Peter did. We should tell the truth patiently, without turning someone else’s need for the Savior into a demonstration of our ability to win an argument.
The call beside the Sea of Galilee in Matthew and Mark came after Andrew’s first encounter with Jesus. John’s account begins before the Baptist’s imprisonment, while Matthew records Jesus calling the brothers from their nets after John was imprisoned (John 3:24; Matthew 4:12). When Andrew left his work to follow, he was responding to Someone he had already recognized as the Messiah.
And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
Matthew 4:18-20
Jesus promised, “I will make you fishers of men.” He would train the men He called for the work He intended them to do. Andrew knew his trade, but he still had much to learn from Christ about helping people know and follow Him.
Andrew and Peter left immediately. For Andrew, this meant stepping away from familiar work and the livelihood it provided because Jesus had called him to follow. Their particular commission does not make ordinary employment unspiritual. It does challenge me to stop using a comfortable routine as an excuse when Christ’s will is already clear.
Jesus later chose Andrew from the wider company of disciples to be one of the Twelve. Luke records that He spent the night in prayer before making that choice.
And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother.
Luke 6:13-14
An apostle is someone sent with a commission. Andrew had not appointed himself or gained that authority by attracting a large following. Christ chose and trained him to bear witness to His ministry and bodily resurrection. The Twelve held a foundational place in the church’s witness, so I should respect Andrew’s calling even though the Gospels preserve fewer of his words than Peter’s.
Christ remains the church’s Builder and Head, and the apostles’ authoritative testimony about Him comes to us through Scripture. Honoring Andrew means taking that testimony seriously, rather than making him a rival to the Lord he served.
In John 6, Jesus asked Philip where bread could be bought for a large crowd. Philip’s reply concerned how much it would cost, while Andrew pointed out a boy who had some food.
One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”
John 6:8-9
Andrew pointed out the food without claiming to have solved the problem. His question acknowledges the shortfall: he could not see how that provision would feed thousands of people.
Jesus already knew what He would do (John 6:6), though the disciples could not see how to provide for the crowd. He took the food, gave thanks, and passed it to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. Everyone had enough to eat. The disciples then gathered twelve baskets of leftovers at His instruction, so that nothing would be lost. Neither Andrew nor the boy had supplied the power that produced that abundance.
I do not need to exaggerate my knowledge or resources in order to trust Christ. If someone asks a Bible question I cannot answer, I should admit it and study rather than bluff. I may need to prepare more carefully, but I should not let what I don’t know become a permanent excuse for refusing to help. The miracle was Christ’s decision, so I should not turn it into a promise that every small offering I make will produce a spectacular result.
Near the end of Jesus’ public ministry, some Greeks who had come to worship at the feast approached Philip with a simple request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.
John 12:20-22
John records Philip consulting Andrew and the two of them delivering the request to Jesus. He does not describe a subsequent meeting with the Greeks. The answer he does record concerns Jesus’ approaching death and the fruit that would come from it.
Jesus spoke of a grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die before producing much grain. His saving work would reach beyond Israel, just as the Baptist’s proclamation about the world’s sin had announced. Jesus had also spoken about other sheep outside the fold in John 10:16. The nations were never an afterthought in God’s purpose.
The Messiah Andrew had recognized is God’s eternal Son, fully God and fully man. He was sinless and willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, but the Father did not punish or abandon Him. His shed blood and death accomplished our redemption before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father and Son remained united in that saving work.
Andrew’s first recorded witness had concerned his own brother; now he was helping carry a request from beyond that family and national circle. Israel’s Messiah is the Savior offered to the world. We call people to repent and trust Him, because neither Andrew nor any other servant can accomplish what Christ has done for sinners.
People do not need to be impressed by my cleverness before they can learn about Jesus. If I make a conversation revolve around my knowledge or insist on having the last word, I can become an unnecessary obstacle. My responsibility is to explain the Savior truthfully and help the person understand what Scripture says about Him.
Andrew Learns and Waits
Andrew was still learning from Jesus in those final days before the cross. Mark names him among the four disciples who privately asked about the temple’s destruction and coming events.
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?”
Mark 13:3-4
Andrew had brought Peter to Jesus, but his own place among the apostles did not remove his need for instruction. Mark 13 parallels Matthew 24 in recording the Olivet Discourse, Jesus’ teaching on the Mount of Olives. His answer includes the nearer judgment on Jerusalem as well as persecution, great distress, and the future appearing of the Son of Man.
A Christian who says little in public still needs to know what he believes and why. We need to read Christ’s answer instead of avoiding it because prophecy requires work. At the same time, I must not invent a date for His return or name a modern figure as the subject of a prophecy without biblical grounds. Careful comparison with the rest of Scripture helps us understand what He actually taught.
After Jesus’ death, bodily resurrection, and ascension, Andrew is with the apostles and other believers in Jerusalem, waiting for the promised Holy Spirit.
And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.
Acts 1:13-14
The risen Lord had commanded them to wait for the Father’s promise. Remaining together in prayer was therefore part of their obedience. Andrew had left his nets and helped with practical requests during Jesus’ ministry; now serving Him required waiting with His people for what He had promised.
Luke does not record Andrew’s individual prayer, but he does name him among those continuing together in prayer. We should not treat that as inferior service because it lacks the visibility of a sermon or a miracle. They were depending on God and doing what Christ had told them to do while they awaited the Spirit, whose coming at Pentecost would empower their public witness.
What Scripture Does Not Say
The New Testament does not give an account of Andrew’s later travels or death. Those details come from church traditions that must be evaluated as historical claims. For example, Eusebius records a tradition connecting Andrew with Scythia in Church History 3.1. Other accounts describe his martyrdom. Such reports may preserve historical memory, but they do not have the authority of the inspired accounts.
I receive Scripture as God’s inspired and inerrant Word, sufficient as our final authority. We can weigh historical evidence without treating every tradition as false or elevating it into doctrine. But I should not tell an uncertain account of Andrew’s death with the same confidence as John’s account of him bringing Peter to Jesus.
What God has preserved already gives us substantial reasons to respect Andrew’s calling and service. We do not need an embellished biography to make his discipleship worth studying.
My Final Thoughts
When I think about Andrew, I have to consider whether I would willingly serve if no one gave me credit for it. The Gospels give us good reason to respect him, but they keep directing us to Jesus. I want to care more about someone coming to know the Lord than about that person remembering how I helped.
When I call someone to repentance, I am not asking him to make himself worthy of Christ’s forgiveness. I am asking him to admit his sin and return to the God he has refused to obey. Regret can be part of that response, but feeling terrible about what happened is not the same as turning to the Lord. Scripture explains both why that return is necessary and why a guilty person can come with hope.
Return to Me
Joel preached to Judah after locusts had devastated the fields and vineyards. The ruined harvest threatened their food supply, and Joel 1 describes grain and drink offerings cut off from the Lord’s house. As the prophet warned of the coming day of the Lord, God called the people to return to Him:
“Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.
Joel 2:12-13
The invitation was “Turn to Me.” The people could have wanted their crops restored while remaining unwilling to obey the Lord. He called them to face the rebellion that had drawn their hearts away from Him. Returning to Him would mean giving up that rebellion, even before they knew whether their fields would recover.
A man may stop cheating because he is afraid of losing his job, while wishing he could find a safer way to get away with it. His outward restraint may prevent further harm, but it does not mean he has returned to God. Repentance requires him to stop defending the conduct and acknowledge the Lord’s judgment of it. Wanting a better reputation or fewer repercussions is not enough.
Joel adds “with all your heart.” In biblical usage, the heart includes our thinking and will as well as our desires. God calls the whole person back to Him. I cannot answer that call by improving what other people see while insisting that a private part of my life must remain beyond His authority.
Tearing one’s garments could express grief or fear and sometimes accompanied repentance. Joel told the people to rend their hearts because a gesture could be imitated without the inward response. God knew whether the person beneath the torn clothing was genuinely returning to Him.
Joel’s call to fast, weep, and mourn makes it clear that he was not forbidding visible grief. Sorrow over sin can be deeply felt and honestly expressed. Yet tears and humble language can also persuade an audience while concealing a refusal to change. We therefore need to consider whether the person is returning to God, rather than treating an emotional display as proof.
Public wrongdoing may require public confession, and private sin needs to be acknowledged honestly before God. Neither requires a person to make a spectacle of his despair. Admitting guilt does not mean concluding that mercy is beyond reach. Joel gives the sinner a reason to return by describing the character of the God who is calling him.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in kindness. Joel was recalling what God had already revealed about Himself to Moses:
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.”
Exodus 34:6
God did not become merciful because His people finally repented well enough. His mercy was already the reason He called them back. We are not trying to persuade a reluctant God to care about us; we are responding to the mercy He has made known.
That does not mean He overlooks guilt. Exodus 34 also says that He will by no means clear the guilty. His justice requires us to admit that our conduct deserves judgment, rather than ask for forgiveness while insisting there was nothing to forgive.
When Joel says that God relents from doing harm, he is speaking about threatened judgment. The Lord has not discovered that His warning was mistaken. He genuinely calls people to turn and may withhold the judgment He warned of when they humble themselves. Joel’s next verse leaves the requested relief in God’s hands. His mercy gives them reason to return without giving them control over how He must respond.
What Repentance Means
The Hebrew verb shuv means to turn back or return. It expresses the prophets’ repeated call, “Return.” Their hearers had turned away from God and needed to come back to Him. Acquiring more religious information would not answer that call if they still intended to disregard what He said.
In the New Testament, metanoia, commonly translated repentance, involves a change of mind. Its biblical use concerns our response to God and sin. Instead of justifying my rebellion, I agree with His judgment of it and turn toward Him. Recognizing who Jesus is also requires me to reconsider my claim to govern my life independently of Him.
This does not produce instant maturity. A new believer still has much to learn, and an experienced Christian may need a sharp reprimand. We should not confuse struggling against sin with insisting on the right to practice it. If Scripture exposes wrongdoing, repentance requires me to receive that correction instead of devising a reason God’s command should not apply to me.
Repentance and Faith
Paul described what he had preached to Jews and Greeks in these terms:
testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 20:21
In repentance, I stop defending my rebellion and turn toward God. In faith, I entrust myself to Jesus Christ for the salvation I cannot provide. I cannot honestly ask Him to save me while insisting He has no authority over me. Neither can I save myself by admitting my guilt without turning to Him.
Jesus also joined the commands to repent and believe when He announced the kingdom of God:
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.
Mark 1:15
We should not teach repentance as a way to purchase salvation. Yet removing it from the gospel can leave someone claiming faith in Jesus while openly refusing His authority. Paul describes salvation as God’s gift and then explains the good works that follow it:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
Salvation is God’s gift, received through faith. If I repay money I wrongfully took, I am returning what already belonged to another person. I have not given God something that obliges Him to forgive me. Tears cannot make that payment either. Verse 10 goes on to describe believers as created in Christ Jesus for good works. Their obedience follows from the new life they have received; it does not buy that life.
Paul’s correction of the Corinthian church helps us see how sorrow can lead to that changed conduct. His letter grieved them, and at first he regretted sending it. When Titus brought news that they were eager to address the wrong, Paul rejoiced because their sorrow had led to repentance. He explained the difference between sorrow that leads us to God and sorrow that ends in death:
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2 Corinthians 7:10
Godly sorrow acknowledges sin against the Lord and leads a person toward Him. Worldly sorrow can be intense because of what the wrongdoing has cost. Someone may be devastated at the prospect of losing a relationship or a good reputation while still insisting that his conduct was justified. The pain is real, but it has not brought him to agree with God about the sin.
Judas felt remorse after betraying Jesus and tried to return the money. Matthew records his response when he saw that Jesus had been condemned:
Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.
Matthew 27:3
Judas admitted that he had betrayed innocent blood. Matthew then records his despair and death, without describing a return to Christ for mercy. Acknowledging the wrong and giving up the money did not, by themselves, amount to a return to God.
I cannot measure repentance by the strength of someone’s emotion. I need to consider whether the person is returning to the Lord, including how he responds to the wrong he has confessed. Feeling ashamed may awaken someone to his need, but shame cannot provide the mercy he needs from Christ.
John the Baptist likewise directed attention to the conduct that should follow repentance:
Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.
Matthew 3:8
John was addressing Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism, warning them against relying on their descent from Abraham. The fruit he called for would show that their response to God was real; it would not purchase forgiveness. Zacchaeus gives us a later example of how that response could change a person’s dealings with others.
Zacchaeus was a wealthy chief tax collector in Jericho. His work was associated with Roman authority and opportunities to exploit people. He joyfully received Jesus when the Lord chose to stay at his house, although the crowd complained about Jesus becoming a sinner’s guest. What Zacchaeus then said addressed his wealth and his treatment of other people:
Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
Luke 19:8
Jesus then announced that salvation had come to that house. Zacchaeus was prepared to share his wealth with the poor and put right any fraud for which he was responsible. Those commitments showed that receiving Jesus had affected his conduct, although they could not purchase salvation.
Restitution should address the actual harm wherever that is possible and lawful. If I spread a false accusation, I should be willing to retract it before the people who heard it. Saying I feel terrible does not remove that accusation from their minds. Where harm cannot be undone, I can still stop defending it and accept the repercussions.
Nor can restitution become a way to regain control of the person who was harmed. An apology does not entitle someone to demand renewed contact or immediate forgiveness. I cannot use my confession to pressure another person into trusting me again. Repentance accepts appropriate boundaries and consequences while seeking to put right what can be repaired.
We should expect repentance to affect the very conduct a person had been defending. But grace does not wait until he can present a flawless record. Christians still need instruction and correction as they learn to obey the Lord who has saved them.
Pharaoh’s confession in Exodus gives us a contrast to Zacchaeus’s response. During the seventh plague, hail devastated Egypt while Goshen was spared. The king summoned Moses and Aaron, and his confession named both his own sin and God’s righteousness:
And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.”
Exodus 9:27
Pharaoh asked Moses to pray for the thunder and hail to stop, promising to release Israel. Moses warned him that neither he nor his servants yet feared the Lord. When Moses prayed and the storm ended, Pharaoh sinned again and hardened his heart. He still refused to let Israel go, despite the promise he had just made.
If I will admit wrongdoing only while the consequences threaten my comfort, then return to it once the pressure eases, I am following that same pattern. I need to consider whether I ever agreed with God about the sin or was only looking for a way to escape its consequences. Proverbs brings confession and forsaking together:
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Proverbs 28:13
Covering sin does not always require an outright denial. I may admit what has been discovered while concealing the part no one has proved. I can describe a calculated lie as a misunderstanding or blame the person I deceived for putting me under pressure. A joke or a spiritual explanation can also deflect attention from the wrong. These are ways of continuing to defend it while appearing to acknowledge it.
Repentance in the Christian Life
Repentance continues after new birth because Christians can still sin and need correction. Coming to God for forgiveness does not mean being born again each time. John puts confession within his teaching about walking in the light and fellowship with God:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Being God’s child does not give me permission to walk deliberately in darkness while claiming fellowship with Him. Confession acknowledges the wrong before God, and repentance turns from it. I cannot replace either with an argument that a believer’s sin is no longer serious.
Following Jesus includes obeying Him when I would prefer to do what is comfortable or advantageous to me. He was plain about what following Him involves:
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Luke 9:23
On another occasion, He used the example of a builder calculating the cost of a tower to teach people to consider what discipleship would require:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.
Luke 14:28
Jesus was not asking people to determine whether they had enough moral strength to save themselves. He was requiring them to consider what they would have to give up to follow Him. I cannot receive Him as Lord while reserving the right to disobey whenever obedience threatens something I want to keep.
Continuing repentance need not leave us permanently gloomy. Because I trust Christ’s mercy, I can admit wrongdoing without spending my life protecting an appearance of innocence. I can receive correction, seek to repair the harm, and learn to obey without pretending that my effort is what earns forgiveness.
Christ gives eternal life to His sheep, and no one can snatch them from His hand. Those who have genuinely been born again are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, eternally secure in the Savior. He keeps them despite their failures as they learn to obey Him. Their obedience is evidence of new life, but it neither earns nor keeps salvation.
That does not make every profession of faith genuine. Strong emotion, church membership, and baptism cannot produce new birth. In 1 John 2:19, John describes people who left the apostolic fellowship and denied the truth about the Son, explaining that they had never truly belonged to Christ. Regeneration is genuine new birth, and a Christian label cannot take the place of the new life that should become evident in our conduct.
A troubled believer does not need to make his repentance impressive enough to persuade Christ to keep him. If he is bringing his sin to Christ, we should direct him to the Savior’s promise rather than tell him to produce a more convincing display of grief. Someone who is defending his sin needs a different response. We cannot assure him that his profession of faith makes his refusal to turn irrelevant.
Calvinism distinguishes a gospel call heard by many people from a saving call it regards as irresistible and given only to the elect. I reject that distinction because I believe God’s invitation gives every sinner a real opportunity to respond. I also reject the Arminian teaching that a truly born-again believer can lose salvation. People can resist God’s appeal, while those who truly repent and believe are made new and kept by Him.
Peter explained God’s patience while answering scoffers who treated the apparent delay of Christ’s return as proof that His promise would fail. The Lord does not measure time as we do, and His delay did not mean He had forgotten His word. It gave sinners time to repent before the coming judgment:
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
That does not mean everyone will eventually be saved. People can resist and finally reject the truth. It does mean that God’s patience is an opportunity to return to Him, rather than a reason to assume that His warning has become empty. We should respond to His mercy while He gives us time.
The invitation rests on Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man. He lived without sin and voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Wicked men mocked, beat, and crucified Him according to God’s foreknown saving purpose, but the Father neither punished nor abandoned His Son. Father and Son acted in unity, and Christ’s shed blood and death completed His saving sacrifice before His burial and bodily resurrection. Forgiveness is possible because Christ redeemed us with His blood, rather than because God has decided that sin does not deserve judgment.
If God is pressing on your conscience, you do not need to make yourself presentable before coming to Christ or punish yourself into peace. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and He receives those who come to Him in faith. Admit the sin and turn from it, trusting the Savior whose grace you cannot earn. You do not have to defend the wrongdoing or pretend it never happened to come to Him for mercy.
My Final Thoughts
I do not want to explain repentance in a way that leaves a guilty sinner afraid to come to Christ. Nor do I want to assure someone that grace gives him the right to keep rebelling. God calls us to return to Him, and He has provided the Savior we need. I can admit my sin without excusing it or trying to pay for it myself. Trusting Christ’s mercy gives me reason to begin obeying Him.
