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Go and Sin No More Shawn Daniels, evangelist
The religious world of Christendom seems to be increasingly on a moral decline. Instead of teaching morality, the major religions seem to have gone on to ‘better’ things. I believe that to be the most popular. If you look at some religious organizations, you will find them accepting any and every sin one can imaging from adultery to drunkenness to homosexuality and say that it’s alright to live this way, and they will not judge. In doing so, they make those of us that will teach against such acts as being mean, hateful, and far removed from the spirit of Christ. What is the spirit of Christ in dealing with the sinner? Did he not teach against transgressing the Law of God? Let us take a look. In (John 8:3-11) we read, “And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” Now let us notice the way that Christ handled this situation. It is logical and consistent that if we are followers of Christ that we will handle the sinner in the same way as He did. The command that Christ gave in this situation is this, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Here Jesus is speaking of physical punishment for sin, stoning. We know very well that we’ve all committed sin. John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) So for us, which have all sinned, to go after a sinner with a self-righteous attitude, such as the Pharisees, is hypocritical. We are to approach the sinner knowing that we too can and have been trapped into sin. Also, we need to realize that to God sin is sin. James tells us, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10) One that commits adultery is no more a sinner than one that is a coveter, greedy, murderer, liar, or a thief. All have sinned and in sinning we have all the same situation; punishment! Many use this command of Christ in reference to one calling a certain act sin. Therefore, they conclude that since all has sinned, then you have no right to say one is living sinfully for you have done it too. This is false, as we will see. Jesus is speaking of condemning, and in this reference, it is a physical condemning by stoning! So we see in our text that all the accusers left, and Jesus said that He wouldn’t condemn her either. This is where the modern religious world stops. They make Jesus look like He tolerated the sinful actions of men. I heard a preacher say, “Christ didn’t condemn them, (speaking of homosexuals) so I will not either.” Christ, however, did not stop there. He told her to ’go and sin no more.’ Isn’t it weird how that the religious world feel that telling one that they are sinning is condemning them? Yet we see that Jesus said He wouldn’t condemn her and then in the same breath told her not to sin. Telling someone not to sin is not condemning. It’s helping. It is giving them a chance to change their ways! This is the same way we must deal with sinners when speaking with them. We can’t righteously condemn them because we’ve been in the same boat. That doesn’t mean we don’t teach them what they are doing is sinful. They must realize that they need to repent and discontinue those sinful acts. If they are not told, they will never repent, and will have no hope! This is what separates the Children of God from the sinner. Yes we have all sinned, but the children of God repented and obeyed God, and continuously work on building a sinless man for God until we die. Modern religion is wrong in how they perceive Christ. He did not tolerate the sin of man. He taught constantly on the morality of man. He taught constantly on repentance, and we must do the same. Let us strive for perfection! |