By: Mike Kelly, Retired Pastor
Bryan, Ohio
Which of us is without sin? Jesus once told a bunch of riled-up men that they had the right to stone a woman caught in adultery if they themselves were without sin. Matt 8:7.
When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And, as we know, they all drifted away until no one was left.
Finally, V10-11 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus is saying that He will not hold her responsible for her lifestyle, but He expects her to change. Most translations read: “Go, and sin no more.”
Here’s an aside: let’s overlook the Pharisees’ twisting of scripture. Nowhere does the Old Testament require them to execute a woman caught in adultery unless she is a virgin already promised to a husband.
Nor is stoning the mandated way to do it. And let’s not miss the fact that the Law required the man to be executed as well.
And, finally, the event must have been witnessed by the accusers. The whole scene was a setup to trap Jesus into saying something they could prosecute him for.
“Go, and sin no more.” “Go and leave your life of sin.” Did she? We don’t know. We have no record of her again in Scripture. Let me ask it this way: Could she?
If she were a prostitute, and she most likely was, since they “conveniently” let the man escape, how was she to survive? The culture did not have any safety nets like we do today. No SS, SSI, or Medicaid.
If she were living this life, it most probably wasn’t her first choice for a career. Maybe she was violated by someone when she was a teen and became unmarriageable.
Maybe she was a widow who had no children to care for her. Maybe she was tossed out by her family for being a pain to raise. In other words, her fault or as a victim, she was making her living as a prostitute.
So, giving up that profession could easily have meant losing her livelihood and perhaps becoming destitute. That’s quite a possible expense for “leaving your life of sin”.
Love requires that we attempt to see things from the other person’s perspective; it requires a deeper understanding of the individual and their circumstances.
And when one understands a person, it will most often soften our hearts. Like Jesus with the woman above. His heart was softened, and he gave grace rather than condemnation.
So, let me ask, would it cost you to stop sinning? What if it costs you a relationship? What if you were to lose someone who provides for you? I know many women living with men for the safety they get…economic and emotional.
Without his income, they might well be on the streets. Without his presence, they might not be able to cope with raising their children. Without someone to tell them they are loved; they might crack up. “Stop sinning” could require a major risk.
Do we have the right as Believers to condemn these men and women living together? We don’t always know what drives people’s decisions.
Yes, as Believers, we do have an obligation to point out the sin of other Believers, but that is not a freedom to abuse someone; it is a calling to help provide the solution.
Matt 18:15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.”
But there is a sort of prerequisite for going to them. It’s called humility. Honest self-examination forces a certain humility in our self-assessment of others. I cannot correct my brother if I fail to go in a humble and “except for the grace of God, there go I” attitude.
I’m also to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
Knowing who they are and all they’ve been through should force us to think twice about whether or not speaking a certain fault is really all that important. “Speaking the truth” may not be the best example of “loving one another.”
We’re also told in Luke 6 that it’s what’s in our hearts that comes out through our speech. Generally, it seems that Christians who judge loudly (or for whom judging takes up the better part of their lives) tend to also have a very skewed perception of what love is.
Rather, their hearts are instead filled with condemnation and guilt (most often arising from their own wounds), which is why it shows up in the form of self-righteousness by loudly judging others.
Few people know what wounds cause us to sin. And those who do have earned a right to gently speak into our lives about our sin.
In God’s sense of humor, my wife just spoke to me obliquely about a sin of mine as I was typing this message. Obliquely means that she didn’t use a hammer but just a gentle nudge.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.