“Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
— John 8:11
Wow. A life of sin. It’s one thing to make a mistake once in a while, even once a day – but to live a whole life around a bad thing, yikes.
That’s the way it was with a woman some important men brought to Jesus. She’d been caught doing something very wrong, which she had evidently been doing repeatedly for some time. Under the law of Moses, she should have been stoned to death.
Mind you, the teachers and Pharisees didn’t really care whether the woman was punished. They were just trying to trap Jesus, because he’d been talking about forgiveness and love instead of law. If he said to let her go, he’d be going against the law. If he said to go ahead and stone her, he’d be going against what he’d been teaching. These leaders thought they were so clever.
Jesus turned that around on them. He said, “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Is it any surprise that they all dropped their stones and went away pouting?
More to Explore: 1 John 1:9
Girl Talk: Is there something in your life that you know is wrong but you find yourself doing again and again? Whatever it is, take it to God.
God Talk: “Lord, it seems like I keep making the same mistake over and over again. Please forgive me for . Take away this bad pattern. I know that you have the power to help me walk away, and you will never stop loving me. Amen.”
From That Is So Me by Nancy Rue