John Calvin Commentary John 4:22

"Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews." — John 4:22 (ASV)

He now explains more fully what he had briefly touched on regarding the abolition of the Law, but he divides the substance of his discourse into two parts. In the first part, he charges with superstition and error the form of worshipping God that the Samaritans had used, but testifies that the Jews observed the true and lawful form. And he assigns the reason for the difference: that the Jews obtained certainty regarding His worship from the word of God, while the Samaritans received nothing certain from God's mouth. In the second part, he declares that the ceremonies the Jews had observed until now would soon end.

You worship what you know not, we worship what we know. This is a sentence worth remembering, and it teaches us that we should not attempt anything in religion rashly or randomly; because, unless there is knowledge, it is not God whom we worship, but a phantom or idol. All so-called good intentions are struck by this sentence as if by a thunderbolt, for we learn from it that people can do nothing but err when they are guided by their own opinion without the word or command of God. For Christ, defending the person and cause of His nation, shows that the Jews are widely different from the Samaritans. And why?

Because salvation is from the Jews. By these words He means that they have the superiority in this respect: God had made a covenant of eternal salvation with them. Some restrict this to Christ, who was descended from the Jews; and indeed, since all the promises of God were confirmed and ratified in Him, (2 Corinthians 1:20), there is no salvation but in Him.

But since there can be no doubt that Christ gives preference to the Jews on this ground—that they do not worship some unknown deity, but God alone, who revealed Himself to them and by whom they were adopted as His people—we should understand by the word salvation that saving manifestation of heavenly doctrine that had been made to them.

But why does He say that it was from the Jews, when it was, rather, deposited with them so that they alone might enjoy it? He alludes, in my opinion, to what the Prophets had predicted: that the Law would go forth from Zion (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2), for they were separated for a time from the rest of the nations on the express condition that the pure knowledge of God should flow out from them to the whole world.

It amounts to this: God is not properly worshipped except through the certainty of faith, which can only be produced by the word of God. Therefore, it follows that all who forsake the word fall into idolatry, for Christ plainly testifies that an idol, or an imagination of their own minds, is substituted for God when people are ignorant of the true God. And He charges with ignorance all to whom God has not revealed Himself, for as soon as we are deprived of the light of His word, darkness and blindness reign.

It should be observed that the Jews, when they had treacherously set aside the covenant of eternal life that God had made with their fathers, were deprived of the treasure they had enjoyed until that time, for they had not yet been driven out of the Church of God. Now that they deny the Son, they have nothing in common with the Father; for whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father, (1 John 2:23).

The same judgment must be made concerning all who have turned aside from the pure faith of the Gospel to their own inventions and the traditions of men. Although those who worship God according to their own judgment or human traditions flatter and applaud themselves in their obstinacy, this single word, thundering from heaven, lays prostrate all that they imagine to be divine and holy: You worship what you do not know. It follows from this that if we wish our religion to be approved by God, it must rest on knowledge obtained from His word.