May 18
I Samuel 11-12
Psalm 62:1-8
Proverbs 14:1-2
John 8
The First Stone
“When they persisted in questioning Him, He stood up and said to them, ‘The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her!’ Then He stooped down and continued writing on the ground…. Only He was left, with the woman in the center. When Jesus stood up, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, Lord.’ She answered. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus. ‘Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.’” John 8:7-11 HCSB
This is one of the most quoted passages in the Bible by people who do not know much about the Bible. It is too often used to excuse and take attention off the sin and accuse Christians of being judgmental. When we look at the context of the passage and not just that one verse, we get a clearer picture of the Pharisee’s intentions, and we can understand Jesus’ response to them in a more accurate way. John tells us exactly what was going on in verse 6. “They asked this to trap Him in order that they might have evidence to accuse Him.” (HCSB) The Pharisees were doing everything they possibly could to try to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against Him. They controlled the people by their legalism and man-made laws and Jesus threatened their power. He had so many followers that they were afraid the people were going to reject them and turn to Jesus. They were desperate.
This passage does deal with being judgmental. The Pharisees were very judgmental. They had a long list of rules the people were required to follow, and the Pharisees made it their job to make sure everyone was following the rules. Some of the rules were given to them by God, but a majority of them were rules that they had made up to dictate every aspect of daily life. God gave them rules because He loved them and wanted to make sure they were protected and taken care of. The man-made rules were put in place to control the people, not out of love and concern. Jesus often went against those man-made rules. But He never disregarded God’s laws. He knew the intentions of the men who brought this woman to Him, and His response was directed at them. After the men left, He gently turned to the woman. He did not tell her, “It’s ok, no big deal, just forget about it.” He said to her, “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” He did not excuse her sin. He did not say it wasn’t sin. He showed her grace and told her to go and sin no more. There are two important things to remember about this passage. God’s rules are given to us out of love and protection. God knows the things that are bad for us. He knows the things that cause harm physically, emotionally, and spiritually to us and He wants to help us avoid those things. We obey His laws out of respect and with the understanding that if we obey God our lives will have less difficulty and problems. We must examine our lives often and ask God to show us areas of sin that we need to turn away from. When we recognize sin in our lives, we must deal with it. We cannot make excuses or laugh it off as just the way we are. Sin is very serious, and we will be held accountable for it. It is also not wrong of us to gently and lovingly correct our fellow believers who we know are engaging in sinful behavior. The important distinction is the motive of our hearts. We need to confront them in love wanting what is truly best for them and attempting to help them deal with it and turn back to God. If we approach them with condemnation, anger, and contempt we are being judgmental and that is not pleasing to God. Knowing a fellow believer is engaging in behaviors that are sinful and ignoring it is not loving. Those behaviors will lead to heartache and difficulty, and we should pray for them asking God what we can do to help.
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