Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 4:39-42)

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In John 4:39-42, we have the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth times the idea of “believing” occurs in John’s Gospel. It says: "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world" (KJV). A cluster of three occurrences, like the five-time occurrence in John 3:14-21. So, let’s look at faith as it is described in this text! But first, the context!

So, what’s the context of John 4:39-42? It starts back in verse 25 of chapter 4. After Christ has just revealed to the Samaritan woman how His coming will bring a change in how worship to God will be conducted, she responds by saying that she knows Messiah (or, Christ) comes and, when He comes, He will tell them all things. Christ’s response to her is to tell her this: “I that speak unto thee am he” (KJV). In other words, Jesus tells her that He Himself is the Messiah, or Christ, whom she just brought up. As He is speaking this to the woman, Christ’s disciples arrive, wondering why He is talking to the woman, yet they don’t ask Him what He is looking for or why He is talking with her. The woman then leaves her waterpot and heads into her city, telling the men to come with her to see a Man who told her all the things that she ever did, asking them if this Man is not the Christ. Then, they all go out of the city to come to Jesus. Meanwhile, His disciples implore their Master to eat, to which He responds that He has food to eat that they aren’t aware of. This causes the disciples to ask themselves if any of them have brought Him anything to eat. Jesus corrects their misconception by elaborating that His food is to do the will of the One who sent Him and finish this One’s [i.e., His Father's] work. He then asks them if they don’t say that there are still four months until harvest comes, before telling them to look and lift up their eyes to look upon the fields, because they are already white to harvest. He goes on by stating that the one who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life, so that both the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. Jesus then says that, in this, the saying is true, namely that the saying that one sows and another reaps. He clarifies by telling them that He sent them to reap where they did not labor, and that other men have labored, but they have entered into these men’s labors. After the Lord says all this, the text tells us that many of the Samaritans of this city believe on Him because of the saying of the woman, who testified that He told her all that she ever did. So, the Samaritans beseech Jesus to stay with them when they come to Him, and so He abides there two days. Many more then believe because of His own word, and they tell the woman that now they believe, not because of her saying, but because they had heard from Him themselves, and they know that this is truly the Christ, the Savior of the world. This is the context of our passage!

So, with the context in mind, what can this passage teach us about what faith, or believing, is? Well, the first occurrence of the idea of faith is in verse 39, where we’re told that many of the Samaritans believe in Jesus because of what the woman who was at the well told them. In sum, she told them about Jesus and, consequently, they received her testimony as true, similar to what we have learned about faith in previous passages of this Gospel [1]. Here, we have a basis for faith, or a reason why they believe: the woman’s testimony about Christ. Then, in verse 41, we see that many more of the Samaritans believe Jesus because of His own word, or on the basis of what He Himself says. Then, in verse 42, they tell the woman how the basis for their trust in Christ has shifted, from her testimony about Jesus to Jesus’s own testimony about Himself. It is this superior ground for faith that leads them to say that they KNOW that Jesus is the Christ (remember this Gospel’s thesis statement in John 20:30-31?), the Savior of the world. So, I’m going to state some observations here to conclude this post. One, to believe that Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah, is to believe that He is the Savior of the world. Second, faith always has a basis, or, to put it another way, there is always a reason one believes someone or something [2]. We see this in how the Samaritans believed in Jesus at first because of the woman’s testimony to His character. However, later, the faith of these Samaritans became founded on Jesus Himself, for it was founded on His own Word. Third, since man is both sinful and finite, faith MUST be founded on God Himself (that is, what God’s Word says) if it is to have a true and sure foundation, NOT on the word of man [3]. This reminds us of what Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21), says in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5: he preached the Gospel in demonstration of the Holy Spirit and of power, not with enticing words of human wisdom, so that the Corinthian Christians’ faith would be in the power of God instead of the wisdom of man. These are some things we can learn about faith from John 4:39-42!

[1] This insight about faith as receiving a testimony, or conviction that a testimony is true, is an insight I've learned from the pastor mentioned in the introductory post to this series on this blog covering faith in John's Gospel.

[2] What I'm getting at here may be inspired by Pastor Ryan Fullerton in this sermon, where he, if I remember rightly, talks about how Abraham trusted what God said because it wasn't just anyone who promised him, but GOD who promised him: https://immanuelky.org/podcasts/sermons/2017-10-29-what-is-saving-faith

[3] This insight I credit to Pastor Bob Snyder: https://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakeronly=true&currsection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Bob_Snyder