The Poplar Standard

SCRIPTURE: John 4:5-26; Romans 8:12-17, 31-39.

DEVOTIONAL READING: Psalm 103.

Our Relationship to God

Lesson for January 18, 1948

The Scripture lesson for Sunday is John 4:5-26 and Romans 8:12-17 and 31-39, with the 103rd Psalm as the devotional reading.

The passage in John presents the dramatic story of Jesus meeting with the woman from Sychar at Jacob's well, and of her discovery of the Water of Life. There is no more convincing evidence anywhere in the Bible of Jesus as the one and only approach to God. He is the Door through which one must pass into the Kingdom, whether bond or free, rich or poor, ignorant or learned, high or low.

"I am the truth and the life and the way."

Jesus Teaches About God

In this great story we see Jesus, wearied from the day's arduous tasks, sitting on the curb of Jacob's well, resting. The disciples had gone across the valley to the village to buy food. The woman comes to draw water from the historic well. She did not notice Jesus until he spoke to her. He is never too busy, never too weary, to seek to bring all men to a knowledge of God's love.

He asked for a drink of water. That was his way of making contact with her. She drew back, wondering why a Jew would speak to a woman in public. But Jesus got past the immediate wall which she threw up between herself and him, and soon was teaching her the way of everlasting life, to which she responded with gratitude.

How We Worship God

Read John 4:5-26 and see how Jesus led the woman of Sychar to understand true worship. Strangely enough, she knew a good deal about Jewish rites and ceremonies, but she had never known the basic truth that God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Included in the record of how Jesus taught the woman to worship was the necessity of confessing her sin, having five husbands, and living at the moment with still another man. We cannot worship God if there is unconfessed sin in our hearts.

We often miss the joy of true worship because we fail to confess our sins. God looketh upon the heart. If there is sin in our hearts, it must be forgiven.

Our Need of God

"If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die." Romans 8:13. Here is a solemn truth that many seem to forget - apart from God we are dead. The young person who undertakes to live without eating food will soon discover that his body is wasting away and his mind is broken and dissipated. Just so with the spirit of man. We are spiritual creatures, made in the image of God. If we live by the flesh, we die spiritually.

In the preceding chapters in Romans, Paul has shown how sin worketh death. He sets forth the penalties that result from carnal thinking and behavior. But in the 16th verse he comes on to say: "It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God, or children of God," Romans 8:16.

Strong in the Lord

Our age has made much of might - might that expresses itself in speed. We think in terms of atomic power. This lesson would help us to understand that we may be strong in the Lord. All power is with him. "All power hath been given me in heaven and on earth," said Jesus.

And this leads us to the climax of Sunday's lesson, when Paul declares: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," Romans 8:38, 39.

Satan had the woman of Sychar completely in his power until the grace of God lifted her feet upon the Rock of Ages. She could then stand in the midst of the people of Sychar and declare that she had met One who had released her from the bondage of sin. That is what will happen in every heart that comes to God through Jesus Christ.

(Copyright by the International Council of Religious Education on behalf of 40 Protestant denominations. Released by WNU Features.)