What strikes me most about this portion of scripture, pertaining to this topic of what God values, is how Jesus interacted with the woman, and how Jesus' desciples viewed the situation.
In this passage, I believe that we get to see how Jesus responded to one of those situations that many of us are familiar with. I believe that the situation is similar to the situation that I first mentioned at the beginning of this article. In short, I believe that the woman was attractive.
Some may think that my assumption is a bit of a stretch. However, there are a few things which lead me to this conclusion.
What's most revealing to me about this, is the last verse of this portion of scripture. It's the verse which talks about the perspective of Jesus' desciples when they saw him speaking alone with a woman. The verse says that they were greatly surprised to find him talking to a woman. To me, that's fairly revealing, and is consistent with the way that most of our minds work in such situations.
I don't know about you, but if I walk in on a single male friend of mine, and he's alone talking to an attractive woman, I can't help but think that he's aware of her beauty and that it's possible that some flirtation may be going on. Even if it's not happening, I'm quite certain that he's thinking about it. This is because my mind functions the way the world does. I can't help but notice such attributes, and I think the disciples were the same way. This would explain why they were surprised to see Jesus speaking with a woman.
The other thing, which makes me think the woman was attracive, is the fact that she was married five times and was living with a sixth man. She clearly had lots of experience in the area of relationships. These were failed relationships, which, often times, tend to be more superficially based (based on physical appearance).
The woman may have been attractive. However, when you look at how Jesus interacted with her, it's clear that he wasn't the least bit focused on her physical appearance. Like God, the Father, he was completely focused on her spiritual condition. If the disciples had walked in on the same situation with any man, other than Jesus, they probably would have thought the same thing that I would have thought. They probably would have thought that the circumstances were definitely ripe for a flirtatious atmosphere between the man and the woman. But because it was Jesus, they knew that this was not likely to be the case -- not unless Jesus was interested in starting a romantic relationship, which would have to lead to marriage. They knew that Jesus is unlike any other man, and that all of his motives and words are always pure and right. For this reason, Jesus would never flirt with a woman without having an intent to court and marry her. After all, is any other type of flirtation ever right, or innocent?
John 4:1-27 isn't the only example of Jesus showing a laser focus on spiritual things and the condition of people's hearts. Mark 12:41-44, Luke 7:36-50, and Luke 18:9-14 are a few other examples of him behaving this way. The primary focus of Jesus was always spiritual, covered in love -- regardless of who he was speaking to, or how they looked.
Any time I find myself thinking the way the world does, I think about this passage in John chapter 4. When the woman walks into the room, in slow motion with her hair flowing and the music playing, I'm always reminded that it was never that way with Jesus. Like God, he's not like us. His thoughts are always right, perfect, and properly focused. But like us, he lived in this world in a human body. Imagine what it must have been like to witness God responding perfectly in every situation that he faced. That's what the disciples were blessed to witness when they spent those years in the presence of Jesus -- God's perfect son.
God is always focused on a person's heart. As we gradually lose whatever value we have in the sight of the world, we can experience great comfort knowing that, as long as we have reverence for God, we will never lose our value in God's sight.