Articles
Your Church Really Seems to Care: Why Is That? (Part 3)
Jesus commanded “that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one an-
other. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to anoth-
er” (John 13:34–35; cf. 15:12). This “new command” took love to a higher level. No longer do
believers love others as themselves, as in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:43).
Now Christians love as Christ loved (Ephesians 5:1–2, 25), which is the full measure of love
(John 15:13; 2 Corinthians 8:9).
In today’s sexually permissive society, it often feels as if Christians must choose between
either being too soft on sin or too hard on sinners. God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16–19; Psalm
119:104), and He commands Christians to hate evil (Psalm 97:10; Romans 12:9). Yet God
loves sinners and commands Christians to do so.
As in all things, Jesus set the perfect example. He hated sin yet loved sinners. For instance,
He once dealt with a woman His enemies brought to Him and accused of adultery (John 8:1–
11).
“Should we stone her?” they asked. (Moses’ Law stipulated death for adultery [Deuteronomy
22:22].) Jesus had the odd reputation of being both a holy prophet and a friend of harlots
(Luke 7:37–50), so they thought they had Him in a trap. If He said “No,” then He showed dis-
respect for Moses’ law as no prophet would do. If He said, “Yes,” then He was not the friend of
sinners.
These Pharisees were not truly interested in righteousness. If so, why bring only her? Both
the man and woman were equally guilty. They wanted to find a way to accuse Jesus (John
8:6).
How would Jesus handle it? He could take the path of rigid holiness and have her killed. He
could take the path of indulgent love and lend support to immorality. Instead He chose the
third path that they had not considered: the path of amazing grace.
He “stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.”
They finally demanded an answer, so He stood and said, “He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her” (8:6–8). He then stooped again. One by one, they dropped
their rocks and left, until she was the only one left.
How did Jesus handle sin and sinners?
He reached out to her. With His enemies gone and the crisis averted, Jesus could have gone
back to His sermon and let the embarrassed woman simply melt into the crowd. He chose
instead to help her prepare for heaven, saying, “Woman, where are those thine accusers?
hath no man condemned thee?” (8:10–11).
