Cold Water or Living Water?

I had a friend who identified himself as a Christian, who told me with legitimate intensity that he didn’t understand the idea behind building wells in third world countries as a means of sharing the gospel. He liked the idea of building wells, but hated that Christians would build a well and “then just shove the gospel down people’s throats” as he put it.

To me, this is a grave misunderstanding of the gospel itself. Its glorious beauty. Its profound meaning. Its extraordinary purpose. Its eternal value. To think: a sinner’s undeserved, grace-soaked salvation from God’s wrath because of the death and resurrection of His only Son, Jesus of Nazareth. Building a well is of great value and importance, and should not be dismissed or discounted, but measured up against the immense importance of grace through faith in Christ Jesus, there is no comparison of value.

What we find in scripture is the idea that we should absolutely help those with physical needs, but also not fail to deliver the saving gospel of Jesus. Like in James 2:16, “and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” James points our here that our faith is shown by our deeds. They must take place is true faith exists.

In the same way, delivering water to those in need is great, but Jesus spoke of Himself as living water. John 4:13-14 says, “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”

When my friend told me how deeply angry he felt that Christians didn’t just build wells and peacefully step away without leveling the offense of the gospel, I thought of John 4 and the story of the woman at the well. I tried to keep up with this friend after he drifted into what is called Progressive Christianity, a dangerous and heretical Christian knockoff that denies scripture as the Word of God, but he has since distanced himself from me. I was grateful for the conversation though, as it pushed me to seek what on earth the Bible taught about it. What I found is that scripture clearly teaches both. We aren’t to neglect people’s physical needs for their spiritual needs, but what good is giving bread that will fill one’s belly for a day and not give them the bread of life?

Let’s not allow the gospel to just be implied rather than spoken. The quote by Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary", I believe, is wrong. The gospel REQUIRES words. Otherwise, what separates us from some other random nice person who built a well somewhere? We must be ready to preach the Word in season and out (2nd Timothy 4:2).

Let’s not fail to give cold water AND living water.