"He who is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone." Or, as I sometimes say, "I'd be the last one qualified to accuse someone of forgetting to ____," meaning that as forgetful as I am, I certainly have no grounds to stand in judgement of another's forgetfulness. But there's more to these words of Jesus than my ready remark.I think that as Christians we often take this verse from the passage in John 8 and give it a broad sweep that goes far beyond its context. We are too often reticent to speak up about sin in each other's lives. We've come to believe that we're hypocritical if we do, that we have no qualification or right to do so because "we're all sinners saved by grace," and that "but by the grace of God there go I." All of which can be true, but not necessarily.
As I was reading John 8:1-12 today (the passage of the woman caught in adultery), Jesus' writing on the ground arrested my attention. As the passage tells us, the scribes and Pharisees brought the woman as a trap for Jesus, another one of their schemes for gaining grounds to accuse Him. No one in our day knows exactly what He was writing, but it apparently meant something to the scribes and Pharisees, which is why they all turned and left one by one. Some suggest that He may have been writing something about them personally, or at least something that they recognized as exposing them in something just as sinful or illegal. This was probably the case.
They had failed to take into account that having caught the woman "in the act" meant that they had also caught her partner "in the act" as well. The scribes and the Pharisees were guilty of breaking the law themselves (Lev. 10:0; Deut. 22:22) because they let the man go.
Perhaps Jesus had written that requirement of the law on the ground, and they knew that if they pushed the issue, it would be turned on their own heads. He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her (8:7). They were all guilty, and they knew it. That meant something to them.
This passage is often used to disarm someone who is about to speak in regard to someone else's sin, meaning that those who have no sin of their own are the only ones qualified to speak into a sinful situation. That, of course, should shut all of our mouths, which is often the intent. But we cannot take this verse out of its context and apply it as a general axiom to anyone who needs to call someone out in regard to their sin.
One of the results of this kind of thinking is that we're not admonishing one another toward righteous living. We see the results of that in our churches today. Most people in the general culture have no moral code governing their lives, and Christians often live as if we don't either. But Jesus calls us to moral as well as faith living. We're letting each other go down our own sinful paths, when what we really need is rescue.
Yet as we do so, we also need to bring Matthew 7:5 to bear upon our admonition: "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." We cannot be blinded by our own sin, cannot be biased by our own sinful ways, cannot be self-righteous.
Some will bring up Matthew 7:1--"Do not judge so that you will not be judged...." Typically the recitation ends there, but the next verse says, "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you." We don't want anyone else to judge us, so we recalibrate and look away. It's not that we have no right to judge anyone, but that we need to be careful in doing so. As John 7:24 tells us, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
My takeaway: Don't pick out fragments of verses and hide behind them to avoid involvement. Get the facts of the matter straight first and be sure I know biblically and can explain why I'm judging as I am. Then go rescue and restore with grace and kindness.
Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.
~ Fanny Crosby
Image ~ Gabriel Schachinger, 1886
public domain via WikiMedia Commons
