John 3–4

You Must Be Born Again

3Now there was a man of the Pharisees named ^hNicodemus, ⁱa ruler of the Jews. ²This man came to Jesus^{1 j}by night and said to him, ^k“Rabbi, ^lwe know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do ^munless God is with him.” ³Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is ⁿborn ^oagain² he cannot ^psee the kingdom of God.” ⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born ^qof water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ^6rThat which is born of the flesh is ^sflesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.^{3 7t}Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You⁴ must be born ^uagain.’ ^8vThe wind⁵ blows ^wwhere it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus said to him, ^x“How can these things be?” ¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel ^yand yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹Truly, truly, I say to you, ^zwe speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but ^zyou⁶ do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ^13aNo one has ^bascended into heaven except ^che who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.^{7 14}And ^das Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man ^ebe lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes ^fin him ^gmay have eternal life.⁸

For God So Loved the World

¹⁶“For ^hGod so loved ⁱthe world,^{9 j}that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not ^kperish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For ^lGod did not send his Son into the world ^mto condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ⁿWhoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not ^obelieved in the name of the only Son of God. ^19pAnd this is the judgment: ^qthe light has come into the world, and ^rpeople loved the darkness rather than the light because ^stheir works were evil. ^20tFor everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, ^ulest his works should be exposed. ²¹But whoever ^vdoes what is true ^wcomes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John the Baptist Exalts Christ

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and ^xwas baptizing. ²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized ²⁴(for ^yJohn had not yet been put in prison).

²⁵Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over ^zpurification. ²⁶And they came to John and said to him, ^a“Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, ^bto whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and ^call are going to him.” ²⁷John answered, ^d“A person cannot receive even one thing ^eunless it is given him ^ffrom heaven. ²⁸You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ^g‘I am not the Christ, but ^hI have been sent before him.’ ²⁹ⁱThe one who has the bride is the bridegroom. ^jThe friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, ^krejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. ^30lHe must increase, but I must decrease.”¹⁰

^31mHe who comes from above ⁿis above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and ^ospeaks in an earthly way. ^pHe who comes from heaven ⁿis above all. ^32qHe bears witness to what he has seen and heard, ^ryet no one receives his testimony. ³³Whoever receives his testimony ^ssets his seal to this, ^tthat God is true. ³⁴For he whom ^uGod has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit ^vwithout measure. ^35wThe Father loves the Son and ^xhas given all things into his hand. ^36yWhoever believes in the Son has eternal life; ^zwhoever does not obey the Son shall not ^asee life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ^bbaptizing more disciples than John ²(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³he left Judea and departed ^cagain for Galilee. ^4dAnd he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ^ethat Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, ^fwearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.¹

⁷A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ^f“Give me a drink.” ⁸(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (^gFor Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you ^hliving water.” ¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²ⁱAre you greater than our father Jacob? ^jHe gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but ^kwhoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^lwill never be thirsty again.² The water that I will give him will become ^min him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, ⁿgive me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, ^ocall your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that ^pyou are ^qa prophet. ^20rOur fathers worshiped on ^sthis mountain, but you say that ^tin Jerusalem is ^uthe place where people ought to worship.” ²¹Jesus said to her, ^v“Woman, believe me, ^wthe hour is coming when ^xneither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ^22yYou worship what you do not know; ^zwe worship what we know, for ^zsalvation is ^afrom the Jews. ²³But ^bthe hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^cin spirit and ^dtruth, for the Father ^eis seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that ^fMessiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ^ghe will tell us all things.” ²⁶Jesus said to her, ^h“I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷Just then ⁱhis disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man ^jwho told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^k“Rabbi, eat.” ³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³So the disciples said to one another, ^l“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴Jesus said to them, ^m“My food is ⁿto do the will of him who sent me and ^oto accomplish his work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^pthe fields are white for harvest. ³⁶Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^qsower and ^rreaper ^smay rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, ^t‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap ^uthat for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^vand you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹Many Samaritans ^wfrom that town believed in him ^xbecause of ^ythe woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹And many more believed ^zbecause of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ^aand we know that this is indeed ^bthe Savior ^cof the world.”

⁴³After ^dthe two days he departed for Galilee. ⁴⁴(For Jesus himself had testified ^ethat a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) ⁴⁵So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, ^fhaving seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For ^gthey too had gone to the feast.

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴⁶So he came again to ^hCana in Galilee, ⁱwhere he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus ^jhad come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸So Jesus said to him, ^k“Unless you³ see signs and wonders you will not believe.” ⁴⁹The official said to him, “Sir, come down ^lbefore my child dies.” ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. ⁵¹As he was going down, his servants⁴ met him and told him that his son was recovering. ⁵²So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour⁵ the fever left him.” ⁵³The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, ^mand all his household. ⁵⁴ⁿThis was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.