John 5

John 5:1

And as Moses - And even this single witness will soon be taken from you; yea, and in a most ignominious manner. Numbers 21:8,9.

John 5:2

That whosoever - He must be lifted up, that hereby he may purchase salvation for all believers: all those who look to him by faith recover spiritual health, even as all that looked at that serpent recovered bodily health.

John 5:3

Yea, and this was the very design of God’s love in sending him into the world. Whosoever believeth on him - With that faith which worketh by love, and hold fast the beginning of his confidence steadfast to the end. God so loved the world - That is, all men under heaven; even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally perish. Otherwise not to believe would be no sin to them. For what should they believe? Ought they to believe that Christ was given for them? Then he was given for them. He gave his only Son - Truly and seriously. And the Son of God gave himself, Galatians 4:4, truly and seriously.

John 5:4

God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world - Although many accuse him of it.

John 5:5

He that believeth on him is not condemned - Is acquitted, is justified before God. The name of the only - begotten Son of God - The name of a person is often put for the person himself. But perhaps it is farther intimated in that expression, that the person spoken of is great and magnificent. And therefore it is generally used to express either God the Father or the Son.

John 5:6

This is the condemnation - That is, the cause of it. So God is clear.

John 5:8

He that practiseth the truth (that is, true religion) cometh to the light - So even Nicodemus, afterward did. Are wrought in God - That is, in the light, power, and love of God.

John 5:9

Jesus went - From the capital city, Jerusalem, into the land of Judea - That is, into the country. There he baptized - Not himself; but his disciples by his order, John 4:2.

John 5:10

John also was baptizing - He did not repel them that offered, but he more willingly referred them to Jesus.

John 5:12

The Jews - Those men of Judea, who now went to be baptized by Jesus; and John’s disciples, who were mostly of Galilee: about purifying - That is, baptism. They disputed, which they should be baptized by.

John 5:14

A man can receive nothing - Neither he nor I. Neither could he do this, unless God had sent him: nor can I receive the title of Christ, or any honour comparable to that which he hath received from heaven. They seem to have spoken with jealousy and resentment; John answers with sweet composure of spirit.

John 5:16

He that hath the bride is the bridegroom - He whom the bride follows. But all men now come to Jesus. Hence it is plain he is the bridegroom. The friend who heareth him - Talk with the bride; rejoiceth greatly - So far from envying or resenting it.

John 5:17

He must increase, but I must decrease - So they who are now, like John, burning and shining lights, must (if not suddenly eclipsed) like him gradually decrease, while others are increasing about them; as they in their turns grew up, amidst the decays of the former generation. Let us know how to set, as well as how to rise; and let it comfort our declining days to trace, in those who are likely to succeed us in our work, the openings of yet greater usefulness.

John 5:18

It is not improbable, that what is added, to the end of the chapter, are the words of the evangelist, not the Baptist. He that is of the earth - A mere man; of earthly original, has a spirit and speech answerable to it.

John 5:19

No man - None comparatively, exceeding few; receiveth his testimony - With true faith.

John 5:20

Hath set to his seal - It was customary among the Jews for the witness to set his seal to the testimony he had given. That God is true - Whose words the Messiah speaks.

John 5:21

God giveth not him the Spirit by measure - As he did to the prophets, but immeasurably. Hence he speaketh the words of God in the most perfect manner.

John 5:23

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life - He hath it already. For he loves God. And love is the essence of heaven. He that obeyeth not - A consequence of not believing.

John 5:25

The Lord knew - Though none informed him of it.

John 5:27

He left Judea - To shun the effects of their resentment.

John 5:28

And he must needs go through Samaria - The road lying directly through it.

John 5:29

Sychar - Formerly called Sichem or Shechem. Jacob gave - On his death bed, Genesis 48:22.

John 5:30

Jesus sat down - Weary as he was. It was the sixth hour - Noon; the heat of the day.

John 5:31

Give me to drink - In this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge which the apostles were so long in attaining.

John 5:32

For his disciples were gone - Else he needed not have asked her.

John 5:33

How dost thou - Her open simplicity appears from her very first words. The Jews have no dealings - None by way of friendship. They would receive no kind of favour from them.

John 5:34

If thou hadst known the gift - The living water; and who it is - He who alone is able to give it: thou wouldst have asked of him - On those words the stress lies. Water - In like manner he draws the allegory from bread, John 6:27, and from light, 8:12; the first, the most simple, necessary, common, and salutary things in nature. Living water - The Spirit and its fruits. But she might the more easily mistake his meaning, because living water was a common phrase among the Jews for spring water.

John 5:36

Our father Jacob - So they fancied he was; whereas they were, in truth, a mixture of many nations, placed there by the king of Assyria, in the room of the Israelites whom he had carried away captive, 2 Kings 17:24. Who gave us the well - In Joseph their supposed forefather: and drank thereof - So even he had no better water than this.

John 5:38

Will never thirst - Will never (provided he continue to drink thereof) be miserable, dissatisfied, without refreshment. If ever that thirst returns, it will be the fault of the man, not the water. But the water that I shall give him - The spirit of faith working by love, shall become in him - An inward living principle, a fountain - Not barely a well, which is soon exhausted, springing up into everlasting life - Which is a confluence, or rather an ocean of streams arising from this fountain.

John 5:39

That I thirst not - She takes him still in a gross sense.

John 5:40

Jesus saith to her - He now clears the way that he might give her a better kind of water than she asked for. Go, call thy husband - He strikes directly at her bosom sin.

John 5:41

Thou hast well said - We may observe in all our Lord’s discourses the utmost weightiness, and yet the utmost courtesy.

John 5:42

Thou hast had five husbands - Whether they were all dead or not, her own conscience now awakened would tell her.

John 5:43

Sir, I perceive - So soon was her heart touched.

John 5:44

The instant she perceived this, she proposes what she thought the most important of all questions. This mountain - Pointing to Mount Gerizim. Sanballat, by the permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon Mount Gerizim, for Manasseh, who for marrying Sanballat’s daughter had been expelled from the priesthood and from Jerusalem, Nehemiah 13:28. This was the place where the Samaritans used to worship in opposition to Jerusalem. And it was so near Sychar, that a man’s voice might be heard from the one to the other. Our fathers worshipped - This plainly refers to Abraham and Jacob (from whom the Samaritans pretended to deduce their genealogy) who erected altars in this place: Genesis 12:6,7, and Genesis 33:18,20.

And possibly to the whole congregation, who were directed when they came into the land of Canaan to put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, Deuteronomy 11:29. Ye Jews say, In Jerusalem is the place - Namely, the temple.

John 5:45

Believe me - Our Lord uses this expression in this manner but once; and that to a Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say unto you. The hour cometh when ye - Both Samaritans and Jews, shall worship neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem - As preferable to any other place. True worship shall be no longer confined to any one place or nation.

John 5:46

Ye worship ye know not what - Ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but of the very object of worship. Indeed, they feared the Lord after a fashion; but at the same time served their own gods, 2 Kings 17:33. Salvation is from the Jews - So spake all the prophets, that the Saviour should arise out of the Jewish nation: and that from thence the knowledge of him should spread to all nations under heaven.

John 5:47

The true worshippers shall worship the Father - Not here or there only, but at all times and in all places.