Neither Do I

The story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery (John 8:2-11) is a favorite of many. Here we have an obviously guilty woman caught doing an obviously bad thing and facing obviously bad consequences. Brought before Jesus, He simply says, "He who is without sin cast the first stone." Now, there were all sorts of possible things He could have said. "Oh, she was caught in adultery? Then where's the guy?" Or "We are no longer a theocracy; we no longer have the right to carry out that sentence." Or "Judge not, my friends." Or even, "You know, this text isn't found in the earliest versions of John, right? So are you sure you want to base an entire perspective on a questionable text?" Okay, so maybe He wouldn't have said that last one, but He didn't say any of them. He simply went along with their apparent desire to stone her and gave them a caveat -- "He who is without sin cast the first stone."

Now, the reason this passage is so very popular among so many nowadays is because when Jesus looked up and all of her accusers were gone, He told the woman, "Neither do I condemn you." Oh, see? Glorious day! Jesus is did not come to condemn people for sin. And neither should you, you pharisaical, narrow-minded, bigoted, hateful Christian! Clearly what's being taught here is that if we are to be followers of Christ, we ought to accept everyone as they are without condemnation. See? That's obvious, isn't it?

Of course, we're suffering again from the very common method of the skeptic. We're prooftexting. Like Jesus's famous "Judge not" phrase which, when taken as a whole explains how to correctly judge and is not, as so many like to think, a command not to discern whether behaviors or people are sinful, this conclusion from "Neither do I condemn you" suffers the death of a failure to complete the thought. That is, did Jesus not condemn her for her sin? If you read to the end of His own words, you have to realize that He did. He ends with "Go and sin no more." If there was no "condemnation", He would have had no purpose in mentioning "sin" with the very clear concept that she had been sinning and must stop.

Our problem here is that English is a difficult language ... and we want to find any excuse to remain in sin that we can find. We use the word "condemn" very often to mean "to express disapproval" or something very much like it. That isn't, however, the original concept nor the primary one. Oh, it is today, but it certainly wasn't when the text was written. The origin of our word, "condemn", might illustrate the original concept. It is rooted in two parts -- "con" and "demn". "Con" means "with". Can you figure out what "demn" means? Yeah, replace that "e" with an "a" and you'll see clearly. Originally the word meant "to damn". It was a judicial sentence, not merely an expression of disapproval. And, in fact, the Greek word that is translated "condemn" in the biblical text here is katakrino, meaning "to judge against, to sentence, to damn."

If, when Jesus said "Neither do I condemn you" and then followed it with "Go and sin no more", He meant "I am not expressing disapproval of your behavior", Jesus was being irrational. You can't say, "I don't call it sin" and "Sin no more." It makes no sense. What Jesus was saying (and the context obviously bears this out) was "They intended to pass sentence on you; I will not. Now, stop sinning."

What can the Christian -- the follower of Christ -- conclude from this? Are we obligated as Christians not to call sin "sin"? Obviously that makes no sense. Jesus did it. Repeatedly. No, that is not the rational conclusion. The rational conclusion from the text and the context and the entirety of Scripture is that we must call evil "evil" just as our Father in heaven does, but we have extremely limited rights and obligations to pass sentence on that evil. We are repeatedly called to avoid evil (requiring discernment of evil) and to encourage others to avoid evil (requiring discernment of evil) and to call people to repentance (requiring discernment of evil). We just aren't the ones passing the last sentence on it. Not our place. Not our job.

Of course, if this is accurate (and it's the only way I can see to make sense of what Jesus actually said), then the sinning world's cry to shut us up about sin is to be ignored. Sorry, world. But if we are to be Christians following Christ, we must call sin what it is, urge repentance, and love those around us in the process. We'll let Christ, that Final Judge, pass the sentence on evil people. Are you a sinner? Some may wish to condemn you. Jesus didn't condemn the woman. Neither do I condemn you. Now, go and sin no more.