Neither Do I Condemn You: Go and Sin No More

Brethren, I have been considering the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ toward sin, particularly the sin of adultery, and how different His attitude was from that of the religious people who brought before Him a woman caught in the very act of adultery.

I believe there is something in this encounter that the Church of Jesus Christ must pay careful attention to in this hour. It concerns not only those who have committed adultery, but also those who condemn them, those who excuse their own sins while exposing the sins of others, and those who have taken the mercy of Christ as permission to continue in the very things from which He came to save us. I am not denying that some sins, such as the very act of adultery, carry particularly direct and long-term consequences, being acts of covenant betrayal.

My concern is that we have sometimes made certain sins so prominent in our religious judgment that we have almost forgotten that the same God who condemns adultery also condemns envy, hatred, lying, covetousness, bitterness, malice, unforgiveness, pride, and every other work of the flesh.

We have become accustomed to treating some sins as scandalous while accommodating others in our own lives and fellowships. We can be very quick to identify the adulterer or adulteress, but much slower to recognize the bitterness, envy, covetousness, dishonesty, and hatred that may be dwelling in our own hearts.

Yet the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world, does not examine only the outward conduct of men. He searches the heart.

In John 8, the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus whom they said had been caught in adultery. They were prepared to stone her according to their appeal to the law of Moses. But Jesus confronted them with a question that brought every one of them before his own conscience.

“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” — John 8:7

One after another, they departed, being convicted by their conscience. The woman was left standing before Jesus, and the Lord said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

— John 8:11

I want us to consider these words together, because it is possible to embrace one while rejecting the other. Some are very eager to say, “Go and sin no more,” while refusing to drop their stones of condemnation. Others are eager to declare, “Neither do I condemn you;” while resisting the command to turn away from sin.

But these words came from the same Jesus Christ. We cannot receive His mercy and reject His authority. Neither can we claim to represent His righteousness while refusing to demonstrate His mercy.

What Jesus Himself Calls Adultery

We must first establish what our Lord Jesus Christ taught concerning adultery, because it is His Word, and not the changing opinions of men, that must govern our understanding of righteousness.

The commandment given through Moses was clear: “You shall not commit adultery.”

— Exodus 20:14

Adultery includes sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her spouse. It is a violation of the covenant of marriage, which God Himself instituted.

When Jesus was questioned concerning divorce, He took His hearers back to the beginning. In Matthew 19:4–6, He reminded them that the Creator made them male and female, and that a man would leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two would become one flesh. He then declared, “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Marriage, according to Jesus, is not merely a social arrangement that men may redefine according to their desires. It is a union established by God, and faithfulness within that union is required.

But Jesus went further than the physical act of adultery. In Matthew 5:27–28, He said:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Consider what the Lord has said.

A man may never have physically touched another woman, yet he may already have committed adultery with her in his heart through deliberately cultivated lust. The same call to purity applies to a woman who cultivates lustful desire outside her marriage.

Jesus brought the matter into the heart, where no religious reputation can conceal it from God.

This does not mean that merely recognizing another person's beauty or experiencing an unwanted thought constitutes adultery. The Lord was speaking of looking with the intention of lusting, of giving the heart to desires that violate the holiness of marriage.

Now, how many of those who are quick to condemn someone caught in physical adultery have themselves been entertaining adulterous desires in their hearts? How many are prepared to publicly disgrace a man or woman for sexual unfaithfulness while secretly feeding their own lust through what they watch, imagine, pursue, and desire?

If Jesus calls the deliberate lust of the heart adultery, then we cannot pretend that only those whose acts have become public are guilty before Him.

Our Lord also addressed adultery in relation to divorce and remarriage.

In Mark 10:11–12, Jesus declared:

“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Luke 16:18 gives the same solemn warning concerning a man who divorces his wife and marries another.

We must not pass over these words simply because they are uncomfortable or because certain arrangements have become common in society and even within our churches.

Jesus explicitly identified remarriage following divorce as adulterous in the circumstances He described. He did not apply this warning only to women. He spoke concerning men and women.

Paul, writing to the Romans, also drew upon the binding nature of marriage when he said:

“For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress” — Romans 7:2–3

Although Paul was using marriage to illustrate our relationship to the law, his illustration rested upon the recognized covenant obligation of marriage.

In 1 Corinthians 7:10–11, he wrote:

“Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.”

And in verse 39, he wrote that a wife is bound as long as her husband lives, but if her husband dies, she is free to marry, only in the Lord.

These passages require serious attention from anyone who desires to follow Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, we must not use difficult cases to silence the plain warnings of Jesus. A civil divorce or another marriage ceremony does not, by itself, settle every question of covenant faithfulness before God.

Where a relationship is contrary to the teaching of Christ, we cannot defend it merely because society recognizes it or because religious people have accepted it.

Our Lord has spoken, and we must be willing to hear Him.

The Religious People and Their Stones of Condemnation

When the scribes and Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus, they said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act”

— John 8:4

They then appealed to Moses and demanded to know what Jesus would say concerning her.

But John tells us that they were tempting Him, seeking something by which they might accuse Him.

Their concern was therefore not simply the holiness of God's people or the restoration of a sinner. They were using the woman's situation to entrap Jesus.

There is also something else that should trouble our conscience when we read this account.

Where was the man?

If this woman had been caught in the very act of adultery, then there was another person involved. The law in Leviticus 20:10 did not prescribe judgment for the adulteress alone. It spoke of both the adulterer and the adulteress. Deuteronomy 22:22 likewise required accountability for both parties.

Yet only the woman was presented before Jesus.

We are not told what happened to the man, and we must not claim knowledge of what Scripture has not revealed. But the absence of the man certainly raises a question about the consistency of those who had brought the accusation.

And is this not something we have seen among religious people?

A woman commits adultery, and her name becomes an object of public discussion and disgrace. A man commits the same sin, and people begin to explain his circumstances, defend his reputation, or appeal to his position and usefulness in ministry. Sometimes the person being protected is a minister, a leader, a wealthy person, or someone whose influence is considered important to the religious community.

In the same vein, if a woman commits adultery with a man who is a minister, people must not excuse her and then go on social media to condemn and defame the minister alone because he has money or is famous.

Brethren, this must not be so.

God does not have one standard of holiness for a man and another for a woman. Neither does He have one standard for the congregation and another for those who stand before the congregation to minister.

The same Lord who calls the woman to repentance calls the man to repentance. The same Lord who condemns adultery among ordinary members of the Church does not suddenly approve it when it is committed by someone carrying a title.

What is darkness is darkness, regardless of who is involved. What is not the Light is not the Light, regardless of the person's reputation or position.

The Church must not become a place where the sins of the weak are exposed while the sins of the influential are concealed.

In short we should be careful before we expose and/or throw the stone on either publicly. We might Ask Jesus was He thinks first. Selah

Come to think about it: beyond this question of double standards between men and women, Jesus confronted something much deeper in the hearts of the accusers.

They had come to judge the woman, but they had not come prepared to be examined themselves.

Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground. Scripture does not tell us what He wrote, and we should be careful not to build doctrines upon speculation concerning it.

When they continued questioning Him, He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

They came with stones in their hands, but Jesus brought them before the witness of their consciences. They were prepared to condemn another person's sin while apparently unprepared to confront their own.

John tells us that they went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, being convicted by their conscience.

I do not understand this to mean that the Scriptures prohibit every form of judgment, correction, or discipline unless the person administering it has never sinned. The Lord Himself taught concerning righteous judgment, and His apostles instructed the Church concerning discipline and restoration.

But Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of those who were prepared to condemn another while refusing the examination of their own hearts.

And this is where I believe we must allow the Word of God to search us.

If you are prepared to condemn the adulteress, what about the hatred in your own heart? What about your envy, dishonesty, bitterness, covetousness, unforgiveness, pride, malicious speech, and the many other works of the flesh that you may have continued to entertain?

If the Light of Christ examines your conscience, can you honestly claim that you have no sin?

John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

— 1 John 1:8

Why then should a person who needs the mercy of God imagine that he is qualified to stand in self-righteous condemnation over another person who also needs that mercy?

The Sins We Condemn and the Sins We Excuse

One of the great dangers of religious hypocrisy is that we begin to measure sin according to how publicly disgraceful it appears rather than according to what God has spoken.

Adultery is condemned, but envy is excused. Fornication is publicly denounced, but greed and covetousness are allowed to flourish. Sexual immorality becomes a scandal, while bitterness, slander, hatred, manipulation, dishonesty, and pride continue among people who are regarded as spiritually mature.

Yet when Paul wrote to the Galatians concerning the works of the flesh, he did not identify sexual sins alone.

In Galatians 5:19–21, he included sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality, but he also identified idolatry, sorcery, hatred, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and disorderly indulgence, together with other similar things.

In everyday language, Paul was addressing people who engage in sexual misconduct, give to created things the devotion that belongs to God, practice forbidden spiritual arts, harbor hostility toward others, continually quarrel, resent the blessings of others, become consumed with jealousy, erupt in destructive anger, pursue selfish ambitions, create factions, indulge in drunkenness, and give themselves to uncontrolled conduct.

He then warned that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Notice that Paul did not reserve this warning for the adulterer.

The person who habitually practices hatred, envy, selfish ambition, and the other works of the flesh must also take the warning seriously.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, Paul likewise speaks of the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those engaged in same-sex sexual acts, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners. These include people who steal, pursue wealth through greed, abuse others with their speech, or obtain what belongs to others through deceit and exploitation.

Then Paul declares in verse 11, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

What a testimony concerning the power of the Gospel!

Some of those believers had once lived in the very sins Paul had identified. But they had been washed, sanctified, and justified through Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.

The Gospel did not teach them to continue in those sins because God was merciful. Neither did it declare that their former sins placed them beyond the reach of Christ.

They had been brought into a new life.

Paul gave similar instructions in Ephesians 4:25–32 and 5:3–5. He addressed lying, stealing, corrupt communication, sinful anger, bitterness, wrath, malicious shouting, slander, malice, sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, obscene speech, foolish talk, and degrading joking.

He instructed believers to put these things away and to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving toward one another, even as God had forgiven them in Christ.

Consider the person who has never committed physical adultery but has refused to forgive someone for many years. He may speak strongly against sexual immorality while continuing to nurture bitterness and resentment in his own heart.

Has he not also been commanded to repent?

In Colossians 3:5–9, Paul instructed the saints to put to death sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and covetousness, which he identified as idolatry. He also commanded them to put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy communication, and lying.

These are not optional instructions for those who consider themselves spiritually mature.

The same apostle who calls us to put away sexual immorality commands us to put away hatred, greed, lying, and malicious speech.

Our Lord Jesus Himself taught this in Mark 7:20–23, when He explained that what defiles a person proceeds from within the heart.

He identified evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual immoralities, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, an evil eye, blasphemy or slander, pride, and foolishness.

These include the evil intentions we entertain, the lust we cultivate, the greed that governs our decisions, the envy with which we look upon others, the lies we tell, the pride that makes us consider ourselves superior, and the malicious things we say and do against other people.

Jesus concluded, “All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

Brethren, please consider that statement.

The same Jesus who said that adultery defiles also said that covetousness, deceit, envy, pride, and other evils proceed from the heart and defile a person.

Why then should someone who is filled with these things imagine that he stands before God in a position of moral superiority over the adulterer?

This does not mean that every sin produces the same consequences in human relationships or that the Scriptures make no distinction between different offenses. Adultery, for example, can involve a profound betrayal of marital trust, with consequences for a spouse, children, and an entire household.

But it does mean that we must not regard our own sins as acceptable merely because they have not brought us public shame.

James 2:10–11 warns us against treating obedience to God's commandments as something we may selectively practice while considering ourselves righteous.

We must all come before the Light.

The Adulteress and Jesus Alone

There is a part of this account that I find particularly instructive.

After Jesus had spoken to the accusers, John records that they went out one by one, being convicted by their conscience, until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing in the midst.

“And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst” — John 8:9

The accusers were gone. Their stones were no longer being raised against her. The voices that had demanded her condemnation had become silent. But the woman was still standing before Jesus.

She was now before the One who knew the truth concerning her life, the One whose Light had exposed the consciences of her accusers.

And what happened next is very important.

Jesus asked her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

She answered, “No man, Lord.”

Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Brethren, the fact that her accusers were themselves sinners did not make her adultery righteous. The fact that they had been convicted in their consciences did not remove the need for her own repentance. The fact that they had dropped their stones did not mean that she could now return to the same adulterous conduct and continue in it.

Jesus did not condemn her, but He did not approve her adultery.

He said, “Go, and sin no more.”

This is where I believe we must be very careful in how we apply the account.

Those who came to condemn the woman had to respond to the Light of Christ. Their consciences were convicted, and they departed without carrying out the condemnation they had demanded.

But the woman also had to respond to the Light of Christ. She was not merely delivered from the stones of her accusers. She was given a command concerning how she must now live.

There is no permission for perpetual adultery in the words of Jesus. There is no encouragement to continue in an adulterous relationship because the people who condemn it are themselves sinners. There is no justification for holding on to a sin simply because those who exposed it were hypocritical in their approach.

If you have committed adultery, the hypocrisy of those who condemn you does not make your adultery righteous.

And if you have been condemning someone in adultery while refusing to deal with your own sin, the adultery of that person does not make your hypocrisy righteous.

Both must come before Jesus.

I am particularly concerned that some have embraced Romans 8:1, which declares that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, as though it gives them the right to remain deliberately in a relationship or conduct that the Lord has called sinful.

They demand that others stop condemning them, but they are unwilling to examine their own lives in the Light of Christ.

They want the accusers to obey John 8:7, but they do not want to obey John 8:11. They want the stones of condemnation dropped, but they are unwilling to let go of the adultery itself.

How can this be right?

The Lord who told the accusers to examine themselves is the same Lord who told the woman to sin no more.

The woman did not become innocent of adultery simply because her accusers were guilty of other sins. Neither did their sins give them the right to condemn her hypocritically.

When the woman was left alone with Jesus, she had to hear His Word for herself.

And this is true for every one of us.

There comes a point where we can no longer hide behind the hypocrisy of other people. We must answer to the Lord concerning our own obedience.

If you have committed adultery, you must not remain in it because those who condemn you are themselves guilty of envy, hatred, pride, or unforgiveness.

If you have been condemning someone else, you must not continue in your own darkness because that person's sin is more visible than yours.

There must be no double standard when we stand before Jesus.

Go and Sin No More

What, then, does the command of Jesus mean for us today?

To the man or woman who is married and is having sexual intercourse with someone other than his or her spouse, the Word of the Lord is that you must turn away from adultery.

Go and commit adultery no more!

You cannot continue sleeping with someone who is not your spouse and claim that the mercy of Christ has given you permission to remain in that relationship.

Confess your sin, cease the adulterous conduct, and turn to the Lord in repentance.

To the man who deliberately looks upon another woman to lust after her, and to the woman who cultivates lustful desires toward someone who is not her spouse, the Lord calls you to purity of heart.

Go and stop committing adultery in your heart!

Do not defend the inward corruption simply because it has not yet become a physical act. Jesus has already spoken concerning the lust of the heart in Matthew 5:27–30.

To those who are unmarried and are engaging in sexual intercourse outside marriage, the Lord calls you to abstain from sexual immorality.

Go and stop fornicating!

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee sexual immorality.” He also taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 that the will of God is our sanctification, that we should abstain from sexual immorality.

The patience of God must not be mistaken for His approval of our conduct.

To those who have divorced and entered another marriage while their original covenant spouse is still alive, the teaching of Jesus and His apostles must be examined with a sincere willingness to obey.

Go and confront what the Lord has said concerning an adulterous remarriage!

Do not assume that because a civil authority has recognized a divorce or a religious institution has conducted another marriage ceremony, every question concerning the original covenant has been settled before God.

Jesus spoke solemnly concerning divorce and remarriage in Matthew 5, Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 16. Paul also addressed the continuing obligations of marriage in Romans 7 and 1 Corinthians 7.

Where a relationship is adulterous according to the teaching of Christ, it cannot be defended as righteous merely because it has become socially acceptable.

At the same time, we must not issue careless instructions concerning the dissolution of existing remarriages without considering the full teaching of Scripture, including the exceptions and circumstances addressed in Matthew 19 and 1 Corinthians 7. Questions involving children, abandonment, abuse, and continuing obligations require careful pastoral examination. The Scriptures do not explicitly settle every circumstance that may arise after remarriage, and Christians have differed concerning the proper response in such cases.

But the difficulty of applying Scripture to complicated circumstances must never become an excuse for refusing to hear what the Lord has said.

We must come before Him sincerely, ready to obey His Word rather than merely searching for an interpretation that will preserve what we have already chosen.

To those involved in same-sex sexual relationships, I also appeal to you to consider the teaching of Scripture concerning sexual holiness and marriage. The historic Christian understanding of marriage as the union of a man and a woman is grounded in the creation account to which Jesus appealed in Matthew 19:4–6, together with the apostolic teaching concerning sexual conduct in Romans 1:24–27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9–11.

According to this understanding, sexual relationships outside the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman are not affirmed as righteous before God. This call must be applied without contempt or discrimination, and with the same seriousness with which we call heterosexual people to turn from fornication and adultery.

No person should be singled out for humiliation, and no person should be denied the invitation to come to Jesus Christ.

But now I want to speak again to the religious person who has never committed physical adultery and who may feel that these warnings are directed only at other people.

What about your own heart?

Go and stop lying.

Go and stop harboring hatred against your brother or sister.

Go and stop envying others because of what God has entrusted to them.

Go and stop coveting what belongs to another person.

Go and stop slandering people behind their backs.

Go and stop nurturing bitterness and refusing to forgive.

Go and stop allowing pride to govern your attitude toward others.

Go and stop manipulating people for your own advantage.

Go and stop provoking quarrels, divisions, and strife.

Go and stop allowing uncontrolled anger to govern your conduct.

Go and stop practicing the very works of the flesh that the apostles commanded us to put away.

Why should the person who commits adultery be required to repent while the person who continually practices envy, hatred, greed, and dishonesty is permitted to remain comfortable in those things?

The same Lord calls all of us to repentance.

His command was not merely that the woman should commit adultery no more. His words were, “Go, and sin no more.”

And we must hear those words as people who are ourselves accountable to Him.

No Condemnation in Christ Does Not Mean Fellowship with Darkness

Paul wrote in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

I thank God for this glorious truth.

But we must understand what Paul was teaching concerning those who are in Christ Jesus.

He was not teaching that we may continue deliberately in sin and then use our position in Christ as a defense against the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 8:2–4, Paul explains how the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit.

The same chapter tells us that we are not debtors to the flesh to live according to the flesh. In Romans 8:13, Paul teaches that if we live according to the flesh we shall die, but if through the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we shall live.

How then can someone appeal to Romans 8:1 as permission to continue in the very works of the flesh that Romans 8 calls us to put to death?

In Romans 6:1–2, Paul had already confronted this misunderstanding.

“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!”

The grace of God does not teach us to remain in adultery, fornication, covetousness, hatred, bitterness, pride, or any other work of the flesh.

Titus 2:11–12 teaches that the grace of God that brings salvation also teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Jesus Christ did not die so that we could become comfortable with the sins from which He came to save us.

He died for our sins and rose again so that we might belong to Him and walk in newness of life.

This is why I am concerned when someone demands that other people stop condemning his or her adulterous relationship but is unwilling to hear the teaching of Jesus concerning that relationship.

Yes, the religious hypocrite must drop the stone of condemnation.

But you also must respond to the command of the Lord.

You cannot require another person to repent of hypocrisy while refusing to repent of adultery. You cannot insist that someone else obey Jesus while treating His teaching concerning your own life as optional.

The mercy of Christ is not a refuge for deliberate rebellion against Christ.

It is the mercy by which sinners are brought to repentance and restored to fellowship with God.

The Cleansing of the Conscience before the Light of Christ

John wrote in 1 John 1:5, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”

He continued by saying that if we claim to have fellowship with God while walking in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the Light as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

John then warned that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8–9).

This is the place to which I believe the Lord is calling all of us.

We must come into the Light.

The adulterer must come into the Light. The religious hypocrite must come into the Light. The person living in sexual immorality must come into the Light. The person harboring envy, bitterness, hatred, and unforgiveness must also come into the Light.

There is no darkness that becomes righteous simply because it has been concealed beneath religious activity.

Neither is there any sinner who must conclude that forgiveness is impossible because his or her sin has become public.

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

Hebrews 9:14 teaches that the blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 10:22 calls us to draw near with a true heart, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

Consider that the purpose of this cleansing is not merely that we might feel relieved from guilt while continuing in the same works of darkness. We are cleansed from dead works to serve the living God.

The Lord is calling us into fellowship with Himself, and fellowship with Him requires that we walk in His Light.

This is why our conscience must remain responsive to His Word.

The accusers in John 8 were convicted in their consciences and departed. The woman who remained before Jesus was also confronted with His Word and called to leave her sin.

We must not resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit while demanding that others acknowledge the mercy of God toward us.

The same Light that exposes the sins of those who condemn us must be permitted to expose the sins we ourselves are practicing.

The Church Must Learn to Restore without Compromising the Truth

How then should we treat a brother or sister who has fallen into adultery or another sin?

Paul wrote in Galatians 6:1:

“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”

I want us to pay attention to the spirit in which restoration is to be carried out.

Paul did not instruct spiritual people to celebrate the downfall of someone who had sinned. He did not instruct them to make the person's shame an occasion for religious entertainment.

He instructed them to restore such a person in meekness, while considering themselves lest they also be tempted.

This requires humility.

It requires truthfulness concerning the sin, but it also requires that we remember our own dependence upon the mercy and sustaining grace of God.

The Church must not become a place where people are afraid to confess their sins because they know that those who hear their confession will use it to destroy them.

Neither must it become a place where people are encouraged to remain in sin because those responsible for spiritual care are unwilling to speak the truth.

Paul addressed serious sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 5 and instructed the Church concerning discipline. He did not treat persistent, unrepentant sin as something to be ignored.

Yet in 2 Corinthians 2:6–8, he also instructed the believers to forgive, comfort, and reaffirm love toward a person who had undergone discipline, lest he be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

The purpose of correction within the body of Christ must never be revenge.

It must be the honor of Christ, the holiness of His people, the protection of those who have been harmed, and the restoration of those who are willing to repent.

Where sexual wrongdoing has involved coercion, exploitation, abuse, or other harm, those who have been harmed must be protected and appropriate accountability must follow. Forgiveness must not be used to silence victims or excuse further wrongdoing.

We must learn from Jesus.

He did not join the crowd in condemning the woman, but neither did He encourage her to continue in adultery.

He received her with mercy and spoke to her with truth.

This is the attitude that must govern those who truly know Him and have His Spirit dwelling in them.

When You Are Left Alone with Jesus

I want to return to the woman standing before Jesus after her accusers had departed.

There is something about that moment that I believe speaks to every one of us.

The woman could no longer point to the hypocrisy of those who had brought her. They had gone.

She was standing before Jesus Himself.

And Jesus had spoken to her.

In the same way, there comes a point in our walk with God when the failures of other people can no longer serve as the subject of our attention. We must consider what the Lord is saying to us.

Perhaps those who condemned you have been hypocritical. Perhaps they have treated you unjustly. Perhaps they have publicly exposed your sin while concealing their own. Perhaps they have applied one standard to you and another to people whose position they wish to protect.

The Lord sees all of that.

But what will you do with His Word concerning your own life?

Will you continue in adultery because those who condemned you were hypocrites?

Will you continue in fornication because you know religious people who are living in envy and hatred?

Will you continue in bitterness because someone who offended you has not repented?

Will you continue in covetousness because you have never been caught in a sexual scandal?

Brethren, none of these things can stand before the Light of Christ.

We must all come to the place where we stop defending ourselves by comparing our sins with those of other people.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the standard.

And He is also the Savior.

The woman needed Jesus, but so did her accusers. The adulterer needs Jesus, but so does the religious hypocrite. The person whose sin has become known to everyone needs Jesus, but so does the person whose sin remains hidden within the heart.

And the wonderful testimony of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ is able to save and transform all who come to Him.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that some of them had formerly lived in the sins he identified, but they had been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

This is what Christ has accomplished through His death and resurrection.

He did not merely come to protect sinners from the condemnation of other sinners. He came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a people zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).

Through faith in Him, we receive forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, by whom we are enabled to walk in newness of life.

And as His disciples, we are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him according to His teaching.

Neither Do I Condemn You Go and Sin No More

Brethren, I want to leave us with the words of Jesus.

“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

And then:

“Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

To the religious person who is prepared to condemn someone else while refusing to acknowledge his own sins, the Lord is calling you to examine your conscience.

Drop your stone of condemnation and religious hypocrisy.

Do not use another person's adultery to conceal your own hatred, envy, covetousness, pride, deceit, unforgiveness, and other works of the flesh.

To the man or woman who has committed adultery, the Lord is calling you to repent.

Do not use the hypocrisy of religious people to justify continuing in adultery.

Their sins do not make yours righteous, and their need for repentance does not remove your own.

If you are deliberately cultivating adulterous desires, turn away from them.

If you are engaging in sexual intercourse outside the marriage covenant, cease that conduct.

If you are involved in a relationship that the Lord's teaching identifies as adulterous, do not defend it against His Word. Bring the matter before Him in sincerity, with a willingness to obey and with careful attention to the responsibilities and circumstances involved.

If you are living in envy, hatred, bitterness, greed, pride, lying, or unforgiveness, you also must repent.

There must be no double standard before Jesus.

The accusers must not continue in hypocrisy. The adulteress must not continue in adultery. The fornicator must not continue in fornication. The covetous must not continue in covetousness. The bitter must not continue in bitterness. The proud must not continue in pride.

All of us must respond to the Light of Christ.

And I want to emphasize that this call is not an invitation to despair. It is an invitation to come to the One who is able to forgive, cleanse, and deliver us from the dominion of sin.

If you have fallen, come to Him. If your conscience is troubled, come to Him. If you have been living in a sin that you have tried to justify, come to Him. If you have been condemning others while concealing your own darkness, come to Him.

Confess your sin. Turn from it. Receive His forgiveness and yield yourself to His Spirit.

For the same Jesus who spoke to the woman in John 8 also declared in verse 12:

“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” — John 8:12

I find it significant that the account brings us to this declaration concerning Jesus as the Light of the world.

The answer to the darkness in the accusers was Jesus. The answer to the adultery of the woman was Jesus. And the answer to the darkness in our own hearts remains Jesus Christ.

But notice what He said concerning those who follow Him. They shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

We cannot claim to follow the Light while deliberately holding on to the darkness from which He calls us.

May the Lord deliver us from religious hypocrisy that condemns others without examining ourselves. May He also deliver us from the presumption that His mercy permits us to continue in sin.

May the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse our consciences from dead works, and may His Spirit enable us to walk in the obedience of faith.

And may we, as His Church, learn to speak the truth concerning every sin without partiality, while extending the same mercy through which we ourselves have been received by God.

The accusers departed, convicted by their consciences.

The woman remained before Jesus and heard His command.

What will you do with the Word of the Lord when you are left alone with Him?

Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.

Shalom.

Your brother in Christ

Dr. Tunde Caleb Agboola

Dtransfer Fellowship

Transferring the life of Christ across generations.

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV).