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Jesus Responds to Opinions
We form opinions of people around us on a daily basis. People are loving, helpful, happy, sad, irritating, annoying, lying, jealous, crazy, etc., etc. There are some you want to hang out with and there are some you want to stay away from. In today’s passage we see a woman people didn’t want to be seen with and they brought her to Jesus to get his opinion.
Jesus did not react to the crowd. He responded calmly. Jesus moved the focus from the person to the sin. Not just the sin which the crowd was ready to judge but every sin. He then moved the focus from the sin and person they were accusing to those who gave their opinion.
Jesus’ statement “let him who has no sin throw the first stone” made the accusers flee the scene. This also makes us believe that there were some in the crowd with the same sin as the woman or with some sin “not as bad” as the woman’s, in their eyes, but all had sinned.
Just picture the woman standing there ashamed of being caught in the act and suddenly realizing her accusers had fled and Jesus busy writing on the ground. Now she too could have fled, but she chose to stay. God, seeing her repentance, offered her His forgiveness and in the same breath commanded her to sin no more.
The woman went home free of sin and with the choice of sinning no more. She was given a new life. I am sure that if any of the accusers also chose to stand with the woman in repentance of their sin, they would have got the same forgiveness and command to sin no more from the one who was worthy to condemn them.
The religious leaders brought the woman to trap Jesus, but He shows us the way to deal with sin and sinners. A similar situation today is when we are asked about how we respond to people who live a lifestyle contrary to what we believe it should be according to the Bible. Today we are caught up judging lifestyles, whether they are right or wrong, that we miss out on improving our relationship with God. Relationship with God involves getting closer to Him, acknowledging our mistakes, receiving the forgiveness He gives and, most importantly, sinning no more.
We form opinions of people around us on a daily basis. People are loving, helpful, happy, sad, irritating, annoying, lying, jealous, crazy, etc., etc. There are some you want to hang out with and there are some you want to stay away from. In today’s passage we see a woman people didn’t want to be seen with and they brought her to Jesus to get his opinion.
Jesus did not react to the crowd. He responded calmly. Jesus moved the focus from the person to the sin. Not just the sin which the crowd was ready to judge but every sin. He then moved the focus from the sin and person they were accusing to those who gave their opinion.
Jesus’ statement “let him who has no sin throw the first stone” made the accusers flee the scene. This also makes us believe that there were some in the crowd with the same sin as the woman or with some sin “not as bad” as the woman’s, in their eyes, but all had sinned.
Just picture the woman standing there ashamed of being caught in the act and suddenly realizing her accusers had fled and Jesus busy writing on the ground. Now she too could have fled, but she chose to stay. God, seeing her repentance, offered her His forgiveness and in the same breath commanded her to sin no more.
The woman went home free of sin and with the choice of sinning no more. She was given a new life. I am sure that if any of the accusers also chose to stand with the woman in repentance of their sin, they would have got the same forgiveness and command to sin no more from the one who was worthy to condemn them.
The religious leaders brought the woman to trap Jesus, but He shows us the way to deal with sin and sinners. A similar situation today is when we are asked about how we respond to people who live a lifestyle contrary to what we believe it should be according to the Bible. Today we are caught up judging lifestyles, whether they are right or wrong, that we miss out on improving our relationship with God. Relationship with God involves getting closer to Him, acknowledging our mistakes, receiving the forgiveness He gives and, most importantly, sinning no more.
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About this Plan
This study helps us to look at Jesus, the son of God, who became man, and what it means to us as a child of God. It is aimed at helping us see Jesus from the perspective of how we can learn lessons for our everyday life.
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