What does “everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again” mean (John 4:13)?

In John 4:13, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.” The words this water refer to Jacob’s well, which is mentioned in the previous verse. The well provided fresh water for Jacob and “his sons and his livestock” (verse 12) and was still serving a source of water in Jesus’ day. Jacob’s well, however, only provided temporary relief for physical thirst. This is why Jesus told the woman that everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

In route to Galilee, Jesus passed through Samaria (John 4:3). The apostle John says that Jesus “had to” pass this way (verse 4). Jesus had to pass this way because it was the Father’s will. Indeed, everything Jesus does, including His conversation with a Samaritan woman, is out of loving obedience to the Father’s will: “My food . . . is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (verse 34; cf. John 5:19).

As Jesus sat beside Jacob’s well, a Samaritan woman came to draw water (John 5:7). Wearied from His journey to Galilee, Jesus asked the woman for a drink of water. The woman is shocked because, as John tells us, “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (verse 9, ESV). In response, Jesus says, “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 living water” (verse 10, ESV). The gift of God is “living water,” but the woman assumes that Jesus is talking about water from Jacob’s well. She is focused on physical realities, much like Nicodemus, who had a hard time understanding Jesus’ imperative to be born again (see John 3:3–5). In speaking to both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, Jesus wanted to elevate their understanding above physical things to spiritual things.

Since the woman interprets Jesus’ words in a literal way (John 4:11–12), Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again” (verse 13). Natural water may provide immediate relief for thirst, but it cannot quench our desire for eternal life and spiritual satisfaction. Jesus is the only person who can provide water that “will become . . . a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (verse 14). The living water Jesus offers is available to anyone who has faith in His death and resurrection.

One cannot help but think of Old Testament uses of a water metaphor. In Isaiah 55:1, for example, God says, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (ESV). Likewise, in Jeremiah 2:13, God says, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (ESV).

In John 4:13, Jesus presents Himself as the source of living water, a direct reference to the Holy Spirit (see John 7:37–39) who would be given to all believers. The gift of the Spirit is part of the fulfillment of God’s promise of a new covenant where His law would be written on our hearts instead of stone tablets (see Jeremiah 31:31–34). Have you received the true satisfaction of the gift of the Holy Spirit?