Show a little grace: We are not so perfect after all
- Kyle Snyder: Live on Purpose
- May 7, 2018
- 1842
“The least amount of judging we can do, the better off we are.” — Michael J. Fox.
You know my mother helps me clean up the spelling and grammar in my writing. After she got done helping me with my last column about the woman caught in adultery, she turned to me and asked me what happened to the man.
There is no mention of the man. Even in the account, the man is nowhere to be seen or heard from. However, it is very clear they were in the middle of the act when they were caught red handed.
Did they separately punish the man but publicly sought to make an example out of the woman, or was the man rich and payed them off? We will never know. It looks like the man may have gotten away scot-free.
It’s interesting that it was the teachers of the law who brought her before Jesus. The law of Moses said the woman must be put to death for her sin (Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22).
So why in the world did they need to make a big scene about it or even ask Jesus what to do with her? They knew they should put her to death. The law also said the man should be put to death as well. They didn’t need to ask him what he thought. All they needed to do was obey the law and kill both of them.
The question was used as a trap against Jesus to help build a case against him. A number of times including in this passage (John 8:6), the Bible says, “They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.” However, Jesus turned it around on them and told them the person without sin may begin carrying out the death penalty.
Still, I would like to know what happened to the man. What about his sins? Better yet, what about our sins? How perfect are we that we can be like the teachers of the law and condemn someone else for their sins, but we don’t look at our own?
We say things like did you hear about so and so who did such and such, and all along we pay no attention to our own sin. Even sometimes depending who we are, people look the other way.
A lot of people say don’t judge me, but they can render judgment on whomever they please. Not only that, but some even use the Bible to do so. While from time to time we need to tell people what they are doing is wrong in order to help them out of their sin, we don’t have the right to judge them. That is God’s job.
I remember one time I was reading a book by a former politician who was known for his faith in God as well. Another Christian saw me with the book and said, “He is an evil man.”
I vaguely remember him telling me he is going to, well, you know where. This man who wrote the book is a Sunday school teacher. Plus I think it’s a safe bet to say they had never met. Even more disturbing to me was that he thought because I was reading the book, I wasn’t a true Christian.
He tried many times to get me to follow Jesus, and every time I told him I was a Christian, he didn’t hear it. I tried to keep my distance from him, but I soon realized I was stooping down to his level. I needed to be nice to him and show him that I was the bigger man. Over time he forgot about it, and everything went back to normal.
It’s time for all of us to take a long look in the mirror. We need to understand we are just as guilty as the next person. We like to rank sin so we can say what we do is not as bad in comparison.
In God’s eyes there is no ranking of sin. One is just as bad as the next one. All we can do is worry about our own life and try to improve our own way of living. We are so quick to cast stones at someone, but we will never cast them upon ourselves.
Next time we want to pass judgment on someone, we would be wise to remember our own shortcomings and show grace to that person.