Over the years of my being a Christian, I have heard some people say that they think the account of how Jesus evangelized the Samaritan woman is a good passage for us to learn how we are to evangelize people. To examine that perspective, I would encourage those who hold that view to think carefully about three aspects of what Jesus did when He evangelized her.
First, He explicitly made it an issue that something about how she was living was not what it should have been:
John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
Second, He made it an issue that her worship was not what it should have been:
John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Third, after the woman’s encounter with Jesus, she testified to His dealing with her in a remarkable way:
John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
A later statement about people that she evangelized shows that this was a key point in His evangelistic ministry to her:
John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
If you think that the account of His evangelizing the Samaritan woman is an excellent example of how we should evangelize people, are you prepared to do what He did when He evangelized her by directly confronting them about what is wrong in both their lives and their worship? Moreover, are you able to tell them all that they have ever done?
See also Evangelize Jesus and the Resurrection!
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