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I. IN ITS NATURE.

1. Testimony.

(1) Credit or assent (ver. 39; 1 Corinthians 11:18). Hearsay faith: that of a child who accepts, on the word of his teacher, facts about Egypt, Palestine, etc., or as a child receives at his mother's knees what she says about God, and Jesus, and heaven.

(2) Confidence and trust (ver. 40). This differs from assent in that it leads men to act. In this sense all men live by faith.

(3) The Samaritans' first faith. What a contrast between them and the Jews I They received Him on the word of a woman when they saw the change wrought in her. She was a living epistle.

(4) Faith in the testimony of God (John 1:33).

2. Conviction (ver. 41). Their faith advanced beyond trust in the woman's word.

3. Experience. "Know."

II. IN ITS OBJECTS.

1. The word of Christ (see vers. 47-53).

2. The promise of God (Matthew 8:7). Faith in the promises makes the future present, and the heirship possession.

3. The work of Christ (ver. 42).

4. The Person of Christ.

III. IN ITS RESULTS.

1. Its effects on this occasion.

(1) In the woman. She showed it by proclaiming Christ.

(2) In the Samaritans. They came to Christ, confessed Him, invited Him to tarry with them, believed His word, and knew Him to be the Saviour.

2. How it grew: by stages.

3. Its issues (see Acts 8:6-25).

(J. Gill.)

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KJV: Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

WEB: Don't you say, 'There are yet four months until the harvest?' Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.