I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9

The story of the woman caught in adultery is not in the oldest manuscripts which we have of the Gospel of John, which suggests that it was not in the original.  However, it has been in the Bible since the Fourth Century, which leads me to believe that the Holy Spirit approves of the lessons we can learn from it.  So, what lessons can we learn.  First, only those who are free from sin may condemn others for sin.  This does not mean that I cannot point out that something is a sin, but I cannot claim to be any better than the person to whom I am pointing it out.  Instead of condemning them we should help them overcome the consequences of their sin.  Which brings us to the second lesson.  When we have helped the sinner back up our message to them is, “Go, and sin no more.”  When people are in need we help them, even if their need is the result of their own actions.  However, once we have helped them we should show them how they can avoid returning to the same bad place.

I love the story of Jesus healing the man born blind.  My initial love for this story comes from a point my Dad made about it.  When the Pharisees were questioning the man they told him that Jesus was a sinner.  The man born blind responded (paraphrasing), “I don’t know about your complex theology. But I do know that I was blind and now I see.”  When faced with questions regarding complex issues our faith should boil down to that one statement.  At some point you will face (or have already faced) a point where you have to choose whether or not you believe Christ.  I can tell you from experience that if you choose to believe Christ ever after you will face things which you do not understand saying, “One thing I know, I was blind, but now I see.”

I also love this story for what it tells us about suffering, a message which is important to remember in light of the messages we learn from the story of the woman caught in adultery.  People do not necessarily suffer because of their own sin, or even the sins of others.  Sometimes people suffer in order to give us an opportunity to demonstrate God’s love.  In fact, when we see someone suffering we should not see it as an opportunity to provide someone else with an object lesson on the danger of sinning.  Instead we should view it as an opportunity to bring glory to God by demonstrating His love.