In chapter 3, we meet Nicodemus, a member of the Pharisees and more than that a member of the 70-member ruling group called the Sanhedrin. This group was continually attacking Jesus, every step of the way. But Jesus warmly accepted him as he approached Him. We tend to label and marginalize, but Jesus chose not to attack him or his group. Though Nicodemus asked something completely unrelated, Jesus managed to direct the conversation onto what Nicodemus needed, to be born again, by repenting and accepting His free offer of personal salvation. In chapter 3, Nicodemus initiates the conversation. In chapter 4, we come to an entirely different character along with a completely different approach. After 722 BC, when the Assyrians conquered the 10 northern tribes called Israel, they then assimilated the remaining Israelites with the surrounding pagans through intermarriage. The result 700 years later were the Samaritans who were hated by the people of Judah or the Jewish people. So despised were they that the Jewish people would avoid the direct route from Jerusalem to Galilee through Samaria. Yet Jesus not only purposely took the route, but he purposely initiated a conversation with the woman at the Well. She was an outcast, that was why she was drawing water at the sixth hour (12 noon), when the rest of society would go to the well in the cool of the morning. Once again Jesus never attacks this woman in an accusatory manner but lovingly allows the conversation to develop into a message of personal salvation. Though she challenges Jesus and His credentials in 4:12, Jesus never gets defensive or loses focus on what needs to be said. Jesus then gives her the ability to break down her walls of defense and repent in 4:16-17. He does that lovingly, not with an air of superiority, though He truly is superior to all mankind. His purpose was to have her seek personal salvation. How often we try to convert people to a particular denomination rather than just come to Jesus. Notice what the woman does, the moment her eyes are opened, she runs to the city and shares the gospel truth with anyone and everyone (John 4:28-29)

Jesus said in John 4:34-35, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work...Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for the harvest!" Our opportunities are innumerable. They are in our houses, at work, on vacation, in the store, etc. The question is are we looking for these opportunities and appointments. We read in John 3:17, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Jesus didn't condemn the world, so why should we set arbitrary barriers to salvation. We are all in the same playing field, we are all sinners. The only difference is that some of us are saved by grace, others are not. So may we never limit our outreach by habit (drug addicts, alcoholics), by lifestyle (homosexual, fornication), religious affiliation (Jewish, Muslim, Hindu,etc), income level (homeless, affluent). To God they are all in the same potential harvest, it is not for us to choose winners and losers beforehand. When we approach others, as Paul states in Ephesians 4:15, may we all speak the truth in love. We see a great mindset in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, by Paul, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews;...to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. ..". Paul didn't adopt a formula, he allowed himself to adjust to the individual. May we all take time to meditate on these two great chapters in John 3-4, and using Jesus as our example reach out to the unsaved world without restrictions or barriers.