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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - John 4:31 - 4:38
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh_4:31-38
31Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" 34Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."
Joh_4:32 This is another allusion to the dualism of heaven vs. earth, the spiritual vs. the physical. Jesus was on an evangelistic, revelatory mission. People were/are priority!
Joh_4:34 "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work" John 17 is a clear expression of Jesus' understanding of what the Father wanted him to do (cf. Mar_10:45; Luk_19:10; Joh_6:29).
The contrast between Jesus sent from above, from the very presence of God, the Father, as His mission to reveal the Father and do the work of the Father. This is the vertical dualism so characteristic of John (above versus below, spirit versus flesh).
There are two different terms used of Jesus being sent.
1. pempô (Joh_4:34; Joh_5:23-24; Joh_5:30; Joh_5:37; Joh_6:38-40; Joh_6:44; Joh_7:16; Joh_7:18; Joh_7:28; Joh_7:33; Joh_8:16; Joh_8:18; Joh_8:26; Joh_8:29; Joh_9:4; Joh_12:44-45; Joh_12:49; Joh_14:24; Joh_15:21; Joh_16:5)
2. apostellô (Joh_3:17; Joh_3:24; Joh_5:36; Joh_5:38; Joh_6:29; Joh_6:57; Joh_7:29; Joh_8:42; Joh_10:36; Joh_11:42; Joh_17:3; Joh_17:18; Joh_17:21; Joh_17:23; Joh_17:25; Joh_20:21)
These are synonymous as Joh_20:21 shows. It also shows that believers are also sent into a lost world as representatives of the Father for the purpose of redemption (cf. 2Co_5:13-21).
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Joh_4:35 "'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'" This is a metaphorical phrase showing that the opportunity for spiritual response was now! People were saved by faith in Him during Jesus' life, not only after the resurrection.
Joh_4:36-38 "One sows, another reaps" These verses are referring to the ministry of the prophets or possibly John the Baptist. This is used in 1Co_3:6-8 for the relationship between Paul's ministry and Apollos' ministry.