Jesus offers living water to quench the soul. But what do you do when someone isn’t thirsty for the gospel?

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” goes the old saying. What it means is that you can show a person something that is good, beautiful, and beneficial, but you can’t force that person to want it for himself.

A friend once told me, “Actually, there is a way to get the horse to drink. You just put a salt tablet in its mouth. Then the horse will be thirsty, and it’ll want the water.”

That’s a good point. When a person is thirsty, refreshing, cool water is the perfect remedy.

An apathetic world

Sadly, many people in the world aren’t spiritually thirsty. They don’t realize how dehydrated they are. They don’t realize how desperate their condition is. They live from weekend to weekend, from paycheck to paycheck, from holiday to holiday. They spend money, enjoy life, have fun, and live for now. Because they’re so focused on the fun and now, they don’t stop to think about anything deeper than eating, drinking, and making merry.

They don’t stop to think that their life is spinning away faster than a roll of paper towels.

They don’t stop to think that life is fragile and precious, a mist that is here for a while and then evaporates. They don’t stop to think that they are roaring at full throttle down a dead-end freeway that ends in inevitable death. Life could end today. Or tomorrow. Or . . . ?

They don’t stop to think that the day of their death looms closer and closer with every day of their earthly existence.

They don’t stop to think that they have a date with God. They’ll meet their Maker. They’ll be judged. They’ll be sentenced. And they have absolutely no choice in the matter.

They live under the illusion that after death there is nothing. Or they imagine that everybody goes to a better place. Sadly, they don’t have a clue. For them, it’s all speculative—a hunch, a wish, a notion.

So life is a game. It’s a race to see who gets the most toys, who has the most fun, who wields the most influence. Live for now. Plan the next vacation. Don’t think about forever.

A salty tool

When people are in this frame of mind, the good news of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus is foolishness. We can talk about God’s grace and mercy and God’s love in Christ until we’re blue in the face, but the message falls on deaf ears and indifferent hearts. Who cares about something they think they have no use for?

Jesus said, “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs” (Matthew 7:6). Lutheran theologian C. F. W. Walther wrote, “The Word of God is not rightly divided when [the gospel] is preached . . . to those who live securely in their sins” (The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel: Thirty-Nine Evening Lectures, C. F. W. Walther, p. 2).

In other words, before people will crave living water, they need to be thirsty.

They need a salt tablet.

God gives us the precise tool to make people thirsty. It’s called the law. It demands obedience—or else! It exposes the real condition of natural human hearts—corrupt, vile, depraved, sinful. The law is blunt and brutal: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). “There is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12).

As Christian witnesses, we love people enough to wield the law: “You think it is all fun and games? Think again! You have a serious, unresolved problem. You want to be a wholesome, upstanding person; you dismiss your own bad behavior by comparing yourself to other people; and you present a moral façade, but an honest look in the mirror tells a different story. Your nagging guilt from the past is a real thing. Eternity is coming. You need a solution. I love you enough to warn you.”

It’s hard. The law sounds so negative, so pessimistic. It flies in the face of everything people have wrongly been taught: “People are basically good.” But it’s loving, necessary, and true. The honest law is a salt tablet for those who aren’t thirsty.

A refreshing drink

Then there are the times when the force of the law strikes naturally, times in life when serious things—eternal things—take center stage. Loved ones are lost. “Will I ever see them again?” A sleepless night leaves a restless soul tossing and turning and wondering, Where is my life going? What will happen to me? Is there more to life than just this? A critical diagnosis brings the fragility and brevity of life into focus: “I have only a few months left. What happens then?”

Jesus has answers for those who are searching. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled,” said Jesus (Matthew 5:6). When life in this world is dreary, parched, and desolate, Jesus offers living water to quench the soul. To the brokenhearted, he offers comfort. To the guilty, he offers forgiveness. To the troubled, he offers peace. To the burdened, he offers rest. To the despondent, he offers comfort and joy. To the despairing, he offers hope. To the lonely, he offers companionship with him and with his church. To those disillusioned with this short and fleeting life, he offers immortality.

Love them enough to give them a salt tablet, a little reminder now and then that their worldly life is really empty.

These gifts Jesus promises, and he seals them with his own blood.

I’m sure you know people who are utterly disinterested in your Christian faith. They’re living their best life now, and they don’t care about your Jesus. Love them enough to give them a salt tablet, a little reminder now and then that their worldly life is really empty and they need something more. Much more!

I’m sure you also know people who are searching and wondering. Love them enough to give them Jesus. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Be generous with the good news of forgiveness, immortality, and eternal hope.

Don’t throw your pearls to pigs.

Don’t withhold living water from the thirsty.

And pray that the thirsty will drink and find refreshment for their souls.

Author: Jon Buchholz
Volume 112, Number 05
Issue: May 2025