It has been said that water is life. Although not literally true, liquid water is an absolute necessity for life because the chemistry of life happens in water. Without water there is only the dry dust of death. It is hard to overstate the importance of water to life. In the ancient world, settlements sprang up near sources of fresh water. In desert climates, city walls were often extended to protect a source of water so that an enemy could not cut off the supply. Travel and trade routes developed where wells and springs were located. Water can make the desert bloom and make uninhabitable land productive and inviting. Water is not life but life is impossible without water.
By weight, each of us is two-thirds water and the two quarts (1.9 L) or more of water we lose by perspiration and urination each day must be replaced, or death is only a few days away. People die of dehydration when access to fresh water is cut off by accidental circumstances or by being intentionally denied water. Both situations are tragic and unwanted. Few people die by voluntary dehydration but that number may grow as more elderly people who have no hope of life beyond death take for themselves the prerogative which belong to God.
Without question everyone needs water. So it is surprising when a person refuses the offer of something they cannot live without, clean, fresh water. On a hot summer day in my town I was among a group of Christians handing out bottles of water along with a small pamphlet about the source of spiritual “living water”. One woman accepted the gift of water and pamphlet only to come back moments later and, without a word, returned both to me. I was surprised because she likely needed both types of water. It seemed she wanted me to know she was rejecting the gift of both physical and spiritual water of life. She was one of many who are desperate to live physically for as long as possible, but ironically, are also content to remain spiritually dead. These people, the living-dead, are careful to drink enough water for their bodies but are spiritually dehydrated even though the source of life-giving spiritual water is always available, free for the asking and unlimited in abundance.
It is no accident that Jesus used the life-giving, regenerative, and satisfying properties of physical water to illustrate the power of spiritual salvation through faith in His death on the cross (John 4:1-10) and the work of the Holy Spirit within the believer to eternally satisfy the human thirst for a real relationship with the real God (John 4:11-14). You can have a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ where the living water of eternal life makes the dry dust of your spirit live within you. Why stay one of the living-dead? “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Rev 22:17).