Let Not The Spirit Of Christianity Die!!

John 8:5-7  

"Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus 

stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though 

he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, 

he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He 

that is without sin among you, let 

him first cast a stone at her." 

 
     The dilemma into which they sought to put Jesus was this: If he said that the woman ought to be stoned to death, two things followed. First, he would lose the name he had gained for love and for mercy and never again would be called the friend of sinners. Second, he would come into collision with the Roman law, for the Jews had no power to pass or carry out the death sentence on anyone. If he said that the woman should be pardoned, it could immediately be said that he was teaching men to break the law of Moses, and that he was condoning and even encouraging people to commit adultery. That was the trap in which the scribes and Pharisees sought to entrap Jesus. But he turned their attack in such a way that it recoiled against themselves.
    This incident shows vividly and cruelly the attitude of the scribes and Pharisees to people. They were not looking on this woman as a person at all; they were looking on her only as a thing, an instrument whereby they could formulate a charge against Jesus. They were using her, as a man might use a tool, for their own purposes. To them she had no name, no personality, no feelings; she was simply a pawn in the game whereby they sought to destroy Jesus.
    "It is always wrong to regard people as things; it is always unchristian to regard people as cases." The Bible is found of names. God says to Moses: "I know thee  by name" (Ex. 33:17). God said to Cyrus; " that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. " (Is. 45:3).
     It is extremely unlikely that the scribes and the Pharisees even knew this woman's name. To them she was nothing but a case of shameless adultery that could now be used as an instrument to suit their purposes. "The minute people become things the spirit of Christianity is dead."
     God uses his authority to love men into goodness; "to God no person ever becomes a thing." We must use such authority as we have always to understand and always at least to try to mend the person who has made the mistake; and we will never even begin to do that unless we remember that every man and woman is a person, not a thing! 
Amen!!

Reading: (John 8:1-11)
Ref: (HG SB)
        (DSB)

May God Bless You 

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry