How does Proverbs 13:14 connect with Jesus' teachings in John 4:14?

Proverbs 13:14 – A Fountain of Life

• “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning one from the snares of death.”

• Picture: wisdom pours out like a fresh spring, rescuing listeners from deadly traps.

• Purpose: to redirect a person’s course away from ruin and toward true, God-given life.

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John 4:14 – The Living Water

• “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

• Jesus positions Himself as the source of a permanent, internal spring.

• Result: unending satisfaction and eternal life, not merely temporary relief.

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Shared Imagery – Life-Giving Water

• Fountain / fount / spring: both passages use active, flowing water to depict continuous life.

• Life versus death: Proverbs rescues from “snares of death”; Jesus grants “eternal life.”

• Source of wisdom: Proverbs refers to “the teaching of the wise”; Jesus embodies ultimate wisdom, offering His own teaching and His very self (cf. Colossians 2:3).

• Internalization: wisdom must be received and applied; living water must be drunk—both call for personal appropriation.

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Practical Connections

1. Receiving Christ’s words = embracing divine wisdom

• John 6:68—Peter: “You have the words of eternal life.”

2. Ongoing flow, not a one-time sip

• Proverbs highlights continual instruction; John 4 describes a spring “in” the believer.

3. Deliverance from traps and thirst

• Proverbs warns of “snares”; Jesus delivers from spiritual dryness and death (Romans 6:23).

4. Mission to share

• A fountain overflows; believers, filled with living water, become channels of life to others (John 7:38).

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Other Scriptures Echoing the Theme

• Isaiah 55:1—invitation to thirsty souls to “come to the waters.”

• Jeremiah 2:13—God is “the fountain of living water.”

• Revelation 22:1—river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb.

The “fountain of life” in Proverbs finds its fullest, literal fulfillment in Jesus, whose living water not only guides away from death’s snares but springs up within believers, guaranteeing eternal life.