If anyone is without sin

• Thought for the week

Personal attacks on individuals through social media have become a common feature of modern life. People who express what may be perfectly legitimate opinions find themselves being condemned on social media by strangers. Or they may receive hundreds of abusive emails, some making serious threats to personally attack them or their families. Those who make these attacks claim the moral high ground and seem oblivious to their own faults. In such situations the words of Jesus come to mind, “If anyone is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone.”

Jesus spoke these words when he was at the Temple in Jerusalem. While he was teaching the people, some religious leaders pushed through the crowd dragging with them a woman whom they had caught committing adultery. It was at the Feast of Tabernacles when the nation remembered how God had provided for them during the 40 years they had spent in the wilderness on their way to Canaan. During the feast some people lived in temporary shelters, called tabernacles, and the woman and the man may have been among them.

In their deep antagonism against Jesus the religious leaders were using the woman as a test case to find a reason for accusing him. They declared before all the people that the woman had been caught in the act of adultery and, according to the law of Moses deserved to die, although this penalty had not been carried for centuries. Then they asked Jesus, “Now what do you say?” If he did not condemn the woman, they would accuse him of false teaching.

Jesus looked them in the eye and said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” To the amazement of the woman one by one all the men began to go away. Jesus asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?” She replied, “No-one sir.” Jesus declared, “Then neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin.”

It is a wonderful thing to know that God doesn’t condemn us. All of us have sinned, sometimes grievously, as this woman had. We are all guilty in God’s sight and have no right to expect his mercy. But God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jesus is the Lamb of God who, by his death on the cross, took away the sin of the world.

By Peter Milsom, February 15, 2021

This article is brought to you from the Thought for the Week website.
Thought For The Week was written by David Jebson from its beginnings in 1984 until his death in 2009. In March 2010 Peter Milsom took on this ministry. Click here to read more about this ministry. The articles are also published every week in newspapers throughout the UK.”