Christians & Judgement

Christians & Judgement

“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group  and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  
They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.  
When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”  
Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” 
              John 8:3-11

On the surface this is an example of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees trying to catch Jesus. They caught a woman committing adultery and brought her to him. Those bringing her to him however twisted the law. They said that she was to be stoned. While it is my understanding that it applied only a betrothed virgin. Additionally  the man committing the crime with her was to be stoned also and they had to be caught in the actual act.
The man however was brought before Jesus.
Additionally it was against Roman law for the Jews to carry out the death penalty. So if Jesus said stone her He would have been accused of breaking Roman law. If he had said not to stone her in the minds of his accusers at least, he could have been accused of not upholding the law of Moses.
Jesus wisely simply said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Jesus and those accusing the woman knew they were not without sin. Thus they slowly left the woman alone with Jesus causing the following exchange,
Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
There is more to this than what happened then. What happened then is happening in a way in the church today at least here in North America.
We have those calling themselves Christians be they pastors, evangelist or those sitting in the pew constantly pointing to people and groups, and judging them by the law. They are calling on God to “smite” those whom they say are sinning. They are calling them names and yelling loudly that those breaking God’s law will not be going to heaven. They’ll be going to hell.
The way I see it is, if the only experience non-believers and sinners have is with people calling themselves Christians and spewing condemnation and judgment then they will be heading to hell, because they will reject Jesus.
    Further more it will be the fault of those who call themselves Christians and are heaping condemnation on people.
The teachers of the law that brought that woman before Christ knew they were as guilty of sin as her. Yet without giving her a chance to repent they judged her and brought her before Christ. To pass judgment.
This is what many calling themselves Christians are doing today when it is not the job of the individual Christian to judge those outside the church.
The Apostle Paul made it clearly writing,
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
                                                                   1 Corinthians 5:12,13.
The Christian life is not about judging anyone. It’s about loving everyone, even our enemies.
We are to tell the world about God’s love. We are to tell anyone who will listen that,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16,17.
If we as Christians know of anyone sinning no matter what that sin is we should not be heaping judgment on them. We should not be protesting against what they are doing.
We should be praying for them.
The Christian should be asking God to give them wisdom and an opportunity to reach that person with the LOVE OF CHRIST.
Christians should not be pointing to the sin of anyone. Instead they should be pointing to God’s love and forgiveness. Asking God to give the sinner every opportunity to repent of their sin.
I like what the American evangelist Tony Campolo said, he said,
“We ought to get out of the judging business. We should leave it up to God to determine who belongs in one arena or another when it comes to eternity. What we are obligated to do is to tell people about Jesus, and that's what I do.”
                                               Tony Campolo
Please think about it.