“Let him who
is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
(John 8:7 ESV)
In our journey through the gospel of John, we now come to the 8th chapter. In it, we find the verse above. However, although it is an important verse, it's also one of
the most misused verses of Scripture today.
We see in this passage that the scribes and the Pharisees
brought to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery. They did so to test him. They were looking for an accusation that they
could make against him.
They brought her to Jesus, pointing out the teaching of
the Law. According to the Law, those
caught in adultery were to be stoned. And they wanted to know what Jesus would
say about this. Would he agree that she
should be stoned? Or would he disregard
the Law?
Jesus made this statement to prick the consciences of those
who were using this woman. And this
statement would do so in a couple of ways.
First of all, each of those who were accusing this woman
were also guilty of sin. And, like this
woman, each of them were deserving of death.
By condemning this woman, they also condemned themselves.
Not only were they sinners in general. Not only were they generally deserving of
death. They were also guilty in this
instance. By bringing this woman to
Jesus, they were sinning against the Lord, making themselves deserving of
judgment.
You see, the Law didn’t only prescribe death for women
caught in adultery, but also for men.
And if this woman was caught in the act, where was the man? Why were they letting him off the hook while
they condemned her? In this way, they
were guilty of injustice. They were
guilty of partiality. They were guilty
of perverting judgment.
They were also guilty because of their motives. Their motives were to entrap Jesus. They sought to accuse him so they might put
him to death. They were seeking to
unjustly take the life of Jesus.
Recognizing their guilt, and recognizing the penalty they
deserved, her accusers then went away one by one. And, finally, no one was left. As Jesus pointed out to the woman, no one was
left to accuse her.
However, Jesus didn’t simply dismiss her sin. He didn’t let her off the hook. He never offered a word of forgiveness. He, instead, told her that she was to leave her life of
sin. He called her to repent.
This is where this passage is often twisted today. People cite it, telling us that we’re to
leave them alone. They tell us that we’re
wrong to address their sin. They tell us that we're to mind our own business.
Now, as we reach out to others, it’s true that we must
recognize our own sin. We must recognize
the punishment we deserve. We must first
repent and seek forgiveness for our own sin before we address others. We must not be hypocritical when it comes to
this matter.
The other reminder that comes out of this is that we are
not seeking to condemn the lost. Like
Jesus, we’re to seek the salvation of the lost.
Our hope is that those lost in sin will receive the mercy of Jesus.
Yet, this also means dealing with sin. Too often, today, we go about life pretending
that we’re innocent, along with those around us. We spend our time
justifying our actions rather than confessing our sin. In
fact, we approve of sin. And this is
something we must not do.
In
sharing the gospel, sin cannot be ignored.
It has to be addressed. We must
do so that, like ourselves, others see and understand their need for a Savior. We must do so that they also might repent,
and seek the forgiveness that is available through faith in Jesus.
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