Jn.4:13,14 – Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
What is it about sin that draws us in and then ensnares us so we find it impossible to get free of sin’s clutches. This bondage comes in innumerable forms, each one different and appealing to different people. It doesn’t make much difference which sinful pleasure was your sin de jour, there are plenty that can attract us, trap us, and keep us locked in its miserable claws. It could be alcohol, drugs, pornography, immoral behavior, or even a lust for possessions that controls your life. These things all have one thing in common, the promise of pleasure. That’s exactly what Jesus was getting at in today’s promise given to the woman at the well in Samaria. Her poor life had been dominated by looking for the right guy. Five marriages and a live-in lover had her bound even more in sin; Jesus offered her a way out of her dilemma. Actually it’s the only way out of any of these snares of sin. What is the answer, Jesus called it Living Water. He was talking about a relationship with the Living God. Here is how Augustine describes being set free from these snares of sin.
“How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose and was now glad to reject! You drove them from me, You who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, You who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, You who outshine all light yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, You who surpass all honor though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves. At last my mind was free from the gnawing anxieties of ambition and gain, from wallowing in filth and scratching the itching sore of lust. I began to talk to you freely, O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.”
Augustine’s pleasure of choice was an immoral relationship he had kept for fourteen years. His encounter with God changed all of that for him. He proclaimed that the Lord was “sweeter than all pleasure”. That’s the answer, knowing Christ is more pleasurable than the pleasure found in any sin. So its that supernatural affect of God’s grace that fills our hearts with joy and breaks the shackles of sin at the same time.