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GOING HOME ON DIFFERENT PATH
by Ramona Cook When the men of the city brought the woman taken in adultery to Jesus to quiz Him about what should happen to her for her sinful behavior they were, according to the Scripture text, not really concerned about the woman's spiritual or physical condition, but their question to Jesus was an effort to entrap Him in a public disagreement with Jewish Law. John 8: 3 Getting rid of Jesus was their primary concern. What Jewish Law really said is that she and the man involved must be stoned to death. A notable observation is that the man was never presented to Jesus for His view on this matter. More notable is the fact that Jesus seems not to be overly interested in the sin that had occurred. All He said was that the person among the accusers who had no sin in them should cast the first stone at her. Two actions of Jesus are prominent in this account. One is, that saying nothing more, He simply began to write some type of information on the ground. Based on what then happened we can assume that He wrote the sins of each one of the woman's accusers in the dirt, because one by one, beginning with the oldest to the youngest, they all walked away. Jesus then spoke to the woman asking her, "Where are your accusers, did none of them condemn you?" She answered that no one had condemned her. Jesus' response to her was, "Neither do I condemn you. Go home now and stop your sinning." Jesus' primary concern for us is to stop our sinning; whatever type of sin that maybe. We may be forgiven of anything, but the proof of our acceptance of that forgiveness is that we walk on a different path thereafter. The men of that city, the accusers, also went home on a different path than that on which they had arrived. Their own sin had been exposed and they recognized that they were not worthy to accuse or to execute judgment on anyone else. This is the story of us today as well. Jesus is concerned for us to stop our sinning. He has no desire to hurt us for what we have done, but only that we cease from the doing of it. Because Jesus knows that the effects of sin will bring its own crushing hurt to us, and that is what He does not want us to experience. "If we would judge ourselves, we will not be judged by God." I Corinthians 11: 31 If we will confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1: 9 The challenge for us is identify our sins and we cannot easily do that without exposure to the Word of God. Our Path to "Home" must be filled with the Presence of God accessed by the study of His Word as found in The Holy Bible. From reading the Scriptures we can become as did the accusing persons, who saw their sins exposed and realized that they must acknowledge their own sins, as well they understood that they could not condemn anyone else. From reading the Scriptures we may also be as the woman, taken in the serious sin of adultery, who found that God did not wish to kill her for her sin, but rather, He wanted her to cease the sinning. Everything God asks of us to do, or to not do, is for our protection. He truly is a God of Love. When we refuse His Path and His forgiveness, we have placed ourselves in a position for experiencing the judgment that sin will execute upon us. "Man chooses his own way and then complains against God for the outcome." Proverbs 19: 3 We have no choice but to walk on some path; good judgment is to take the best road "Home." The Good News is this: today you and I may choose a different path if we need to do so, and be on the Protected Path that leads us "Home." Jesus wants us to be free, happy, and blessed; those are benefits, shed like gentle showers over the Path of Righteous Living. Ramona: 07/06/2013 Ramona, Master in Ministry Arts, BA in Biblical Studies, I am an Ordained Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |