to throw the stone

^{1 -2} Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. ^{3 -6}The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him. ^{6 -8}Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. ^{9 -10}Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?"¹¹"No one, Master." "Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."

John 8:1-11

This story is important on two points. First, who are we to condemn someone?? All of us have sinned, none of us are perfect and all of us were lost at one point. God showed mercy and love to us when we were lost, shouldn't we glorify Him by doing the same for others? When others are sinning, we show them mercy and love as God showed us His when we clearly didn't deserve it. Not even Jesus condemns us. That's so important. Not even the perfect One condemns us. He loves us and wants us back home. Second, a more practical point. People use the Bible all the time to quote contradictions and take verses out of context to bring us down. One example of this is when people take Old Testament laws where we're instructed to "stone" or kill people because they have done something wrong. Yes, in the context of that time, that's what they would have done. But after Jesus came to flip things around, using the above story as an example, Jesus asked us, who are we to condemn, stone, or kill? None of us have that right. This is the great story of redemption. Where once, when we sinned, we were sentenced to death, literally and metaphorically. But when Jesus came to save us, no longer did our sin lead to death but rather, forgiveness and mercy. Our sins led us to second chances and third chances and fourth chances and so on because of God's love for us. This story tells us so much about how to interpret the Bible. Yes, there are things in the Old Testament that we would not kill people for nor would we want to but they are still sins. Jesus shows us how to act through this story, we forgive and forgive and forgive but we never condone the sin. As he tells the woman that He doesn't judge her, He tells her in the end, "From now on, don't sin." We're still held accountable for our sins and we're held accountable to help others not to sin, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. So the question comes up, "Why should I not sin when Jesus is going to forgive me anyway??" Paul actually writes about this in 1 Corinthians. Yes, Jesus forgives us for all we do, but why would we want to keep on sinning when we know it hurts Jesus? To hurt someone who loves us so much? And even then, we don't sin because it just simply isn't beneficial to us. There's nothing good that comes out of it. That's why we run from sin. We flee. Oh! One another important thing! We always ask where the line is. Where do we draw the line? How far can I go before I actually sin and we tiptoe that line. It shouldn't be like that. We should run as far as we can from that line no matter where it is to keep ourselves from temptation! I'm guilty as any other when it comes to this. But I want to encourage everyone to flee. Flee from anything close to sin and live lives that glorify our awesome savior, Jesus Christ. Let's not judge and condemn, but forgive and love.