Carl Pollard
Imagine every sin you’ve committed this past week being displayed on a screen for everyone to see. Every thought, every word, every private moment. Now imagine the people watching get to decide what happens to you. That’s an uncomfortable thought! But what makes it worse is every person judging your sins has sins of their own.
In John 8, we find a woman caught in adultery, surrounded by religious leaders ready to condemn her. They bring her before Jesus, hoping to trap Him. Interestingly, adultery involves two people, yet only the woman is brought forward. The Law condemned both parties (Leviticus 20:10). These men were more interested in trapping Jesus than administering justice.
And Jesus exposes their hypocrisy by saying, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). And one by one, her accusers walk away.
You can be right about someone’s sin and still be wrong in how you handle it. You can defend biblical truth with an unbiblical attitude. You can become so consumed with exposing someone else’s failures that you overlook your own! When we discover someone’s sin, is our first instinct to help them or tell somebody?
But the account doesn’t end with the accusers leaving. Jesus turns to the woman and says, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:11). Jesus offers mercy AND a command to repent. He doesn’t excuse her adultery. He doesn’t pretend her choices were harmless. He shows compassion while demanding change.
That’s something our world desperately needs to understand. Love doesn’t require approving of everything someone does. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is confront what is destroying someone spiritually.
We all need the mercy Jesus demonstrated. Romans 3:23 reminds us that everyone has sinned. We’ve all needed forgiveness, and we’ve all had sins we needed to abandon. Repentance doesn’t mean we’ll never stumble again. It means we’ve stopped making peace with sin. There’s a big difference between struggling against temptation and just surrendering to it.
So the challenge is this, if you’re holding a stone, remember how much mercy God has shown you. If you’re standing guilty before God, don’t mistake His mercy for permission to continue sinning.
Jesus offers forgiveness, but He also calls us to a changed life.
