"Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." John 8:11 NKJV
This is an interesting verse; the crowd were expecting Jesus to compromise what He had been teaching by agreeing with them. But He didn't. What He did do was to challenge them, 'He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.' v7. This cleared the place. He then spoke to the woman caught in adultery and told her that he didn't't condemn her. William Barclay in his commentary to the Gospel of John comments: 'It is important that we should understand just how Jesus did treat this woman. It is easy to draw the wrong lesson altogether and to gain the impression that Jesus forgave lightly and easily, as if the sin did not matter. What He said was "I am not going to condemn you just now; go and sin no more." In effect, what He was doing was not to abandon judgement and say, "Don't worry; it's quite all right". What He did was, as it were, to defer sentence. He said, "I am not going to pass a final judgement now, go and prove that you can do better. You have sinned ; go and sin no more and I'll help you all the time. At the end of the day we will see how you have lived.'
In contrast David Guzik gives a more convincing version of this passage:
" Go and sin no more: Jesus sent her away with a call to stop her sin, and to continue stopped in regard to that sin. He sent her away without ever approving of or accepting her sin. “The form of the command implies a ceasing to commit an action already started: ‘Stop your sinful habit’. Jesus did several things with these powerful words.· He recognised that what the woman had done was sin, because He told her to stop sinning.· He told her to repent, and to not continue her sin.· He gave her hope that her life could go on in freedom from sexual sin.· He gave her a word of hope to speak against the shame that would later likely threaten to overwhelm her life. The woman needed hope because the consequences of her sin would be severe enough. After this she would likely be shunned by her community, and rejected by her husband, perhaps even divorced (assuming she was married or betrothed)".
Whereas, we may all agree with the latter version and find the first difficult to accept, they indeed are both right. Jesus told the woman to sin no more. Once we have been forgiven for something, we cannot carry on with this sin. It would be like committing adultery, receiving forgiveness and going and committing it again knowing that we will be forgiven. It doesn't work like that. It would be mocking Jesus' position on the cross. We receive His forgiveness and move away from this in the future. However, Jesus knows that we are not perfect and makes provision for this. He will always forgive us 1 John 1:9. It is important to note that Jesus was referring to adultery, not every sin in the world that we could commit. But it does show us that Jesus is serious and although He forgives our sin and will not hold it against us in judgement; He expects us to avoid that sin in the future.
Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.
Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
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