“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7
When Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground, the scribes and Pharisees paid no attention to Him. They failed to make the connection between the finger of Jesus and the finger of God, who gave them the Ten Commandments (Ex. 31:18). They “continued to ask him” their question (John 8:7). So Jesus stood up and said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (8:7).
How did these men respond? “When they heard it, they went away one by one” (8:9). This happened slowly. Some of them had to think about it longer than others. Picture these scribes and Pharisees slowly walking away. They had been the kind of people who kept telling themselves, “I’m a good person.” But here they are walking away from Jesus because their own consciences tell them that they too are sinners.
If you think about it long enough and hard enough, your conscience should tell you that you are a sinner too. “Let him who is without sin… be the first to throw a stone” (8:7). John tells us that they went away, one by one, “beginning with the older ones.” It wasn’t immediately obvious to these men that they were sinners too, but the ones who had lived the longest saw it first. The same law that condemns others also condemns me.
A culture of condemnation is one in which the dominant thought is “We are in the right and other people are in the wrong.” If that’s your dominant thought, you will be at home in a culture of condemnation. But when you see that the same law that condemns others also condemns you, you will have a new interest in mercy.
Think about what you really hate in others. Now take a deep look inside your own heart and ask, “Where do I see this inside of me?” How might coming to grips with this truth set you free?
