John 4: You Shall Never Thirst

“There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.). Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:7-14

I had written before (here) that I do not believe it is possible for a Christian to lose his salvation. We do nothing to earn it; we do nothing to keep it. I mentioned the above passage in my other post but I wanted to explore it a little more.

Jesus said that whosoever drinks the water He gives will have eternal life and will NEVER thirst again. Here is the passage in its original language followed by my own translation:

ὃς δ’ ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα,

“But whosoever should drink of the water which I will give him will in no way thirst ever.”

Once again we see the use of the use of the emphatic, double negative οὐ μὴ (ou mē). As discussed before (here), the full force of the emphatic, double negative is difficult to express in English. We can get an idea when we consider some of the instances where it is used. Look at these verses where the term is translated as “in no wise” (KJV):

“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew 5:18

“And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” Matthew 10:42

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:3

You can see in these examples how Jesus is establishing permanency or making an absolute assurance that what He says will come to pass.

So, when we look back to John 4, Jesus is making this same claim of certainty. The water He gives becomes eternal life. The one who drinks of His water will NEVER thirst. There are no conditions, exceptions, or equivocations. If you have drunk of this water, you will never thirst again lest Jesus be a liar!