You Must Be Born Again

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 ^fThis man came to Jesus^{1 g}by night and said to him, “Rabbi, ^hwe know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these ⁱsigns that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is ^jborn again² he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born ^kof water and the Spirit, he cannot ^lenter the kingdom of God. 6 ^mThat which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.³ 7 ⁿDo not marvel that I said to you, ‘You⁴ must be born again.’ 8 The wind⁵ blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, ^owe speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you^{6 p}do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 ^qNo one has ascended into heaven except he who descended ^rfrom heaven, ^sthe Son of Man.⁷ 14 And ^tas Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be ^ulifted up, 15 that ^vwhoever believes in him may have eternal life.⁸

For God So Loved the World

16 “For God so loved the world,^{9 w}that he gave his only ^xSon, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not ^ysend his Son into the world ^zto condemn the world, but ^ain order that the world might be saved through him. 18 ^bWhoever believes in him is not condemned, but ^cwhoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed ^din the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the ^elight has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the ^flight and does not come to the light, ^glest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John the Baptist Exalts Christ

22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was ^hbaptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for ⁱJohn had not yet been put in prison).

25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you ^jbore witness—look, he is baptizing, and ^kall are going to him.” 27 John answered, ^l“A person cannot receive even one thing ^munless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, ⁿthat I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been ^osent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the ^pbridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore ^qthis joy of mine is now complete. 30 ^rHe must increase, but I must decrease.”¹⁰

31 He who comes ^sfrom above is ^tabove all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and ^uspeaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his ^vseal to this, that God is ^wtrue. 34 For he whom God has sent ^xutters the words of God, for ^yhe gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father ^zloves the Son and has given ^aall things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ^bbaptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed ^cagain for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near ^dthe field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.¹¹

7 A woman from Samaria came ^eto draw water. Jesus said to her, ^f“Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For ^gJews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you ^hliving water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater ⁱthan our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but ^jwhoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^kwill never be thirsty again.¹² The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, ^lgive me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that ^myou are a prophet. 20 ⁿOur fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, ^othe hour is coming when ^pneither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^qin spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that ^rMessiah is coming (he who is called Christ). ^sWhen he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, ^t“I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. ^uCan this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, ^v“My food is to do ^wthe will of him who sent me and ^xto accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^ythe fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 ^zMany Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed ^athe Savior of the world.”

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that ^ba prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen ^call that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

46 ^dSo he came again to Cana in Galilee, ^ewhere he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you¹³ see ^fsigns and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants¹⁴ met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour¹⁵ the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now ^gthe second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

O Lord My God, You Are Very Great