Attitudes Matter
He leads me …
Remember the story in the Gospel of John, chapter 8:1-11 where the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery to Jesus. They asked, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap Jesus into saying something that they could use against him, but Jesus just stooped down and wrote in the dust with His finger. They kept demanding an answer, so He stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then He stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (NLT)
The wonderful thing about this story is that Jesus gave the woman a second chance. And He does the same for us too. There can be times when there will be more than just a second chance as well. After all, the Lord is very clear that He will never fail us or abandon us (Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5 AMP)
There has been speculation about what Jesus was writing in the sand. I wonder whether it was a list of sins like the one in Mark 7:20 – 23 where Jesus says, ‘“It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”’ (CEB)
Notice that Jesus did not say that adultery was a bad sin and foolishness[1] was a mild sin. The whole list is classed as sin.
If we were standing in the crowd and saw this list written in the dust, would we feel entitled to throw a stone at the woman? I doubt it. Even if we could, being a Christian involves being led by the Holy Spirit through the highs and lows of life so that we become more like Jesus. That means that if it is good enough for Jesus not to judge the woman worthy of punishment, then that should be our attitude towards others too.
If we have been badly treated, revenge is not the answer. This just makes us bitter, so that we are not nice to be around, and it can also have a negative effect on our health as well. We are much better to hand the situation over to the Lord and let Him help us through the process of forgiveness to a positive outcome which is beneficial for all involved. It may not be easy, but it is worth it.
[1] Strong’s Lexicon in the original Greek defines foolishness as senselessness and recklessness.
