28 Seen, Known, and Loved

 

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Seen, Known, and Loved

Read the section verse refers to

Today's chapter is. John 4

In John 4 we meet a woman with a chaotic life. She had had five husbands, and the man she had now was not her husband. She came to the well alone in the middle of the day - probably to avoid the degrading looks of the others.

To her great surprise, Jesus began a conversation with her. Partly because she was a woman, partly because she was a Samaritan, and partly because she was a Jew, as Jesus did not speak to Samaritans. But Jesus did.

He began with a conversation, and despite the woman's many antics, Jesus arrived at what he had as his goal. The silence had to be broken, her life had to come to light with God. Jesus exposed her, not for the sake of exposure, but to save her and bring forgiveness into her life.

What is remarkable is her reaction. She runs back to the city and says,

“Come, see a man who told me all that I have ever done.”

What was once the guilt and shame in the woman’s life, what once weighed on her like a burden, so that she went out to draw water at a time when she had the least chance of meeting others, now becomes the testimony that she shares with the whole city. Not because her life had become perfect, but because she had met someone who knew the whole truth about her but did not turn away.

Many today fear that if God truly knew them, He would withdraw His love. “How can God love me when I have failed so much in the sexual area?” The Samaritan woman testifies to the opposite: “You are fully known, and you are fully loved.” This is the essence of the gospel.