By Lisa Wilmore
Scripture: …When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, LORD. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more (John 8:10-11).
My Dear Friends,
Jesus does not condemn us for our sins, but He does expect us to do better. In many cases, individuals continue to knowingly commit sinful acts while believing that God accepts it because they have confessed Christ. In fact, they know what the Bible says and in many instances share the Word of God with others, but continue to live the opposite of God’s principles for His children.
As Paul writes to the Romans about being justified (declared not guilty) by the blood of Jesus Christ, he makes it clear that we should not continue in sin. He writes, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid (Romans 6:1a). Paul observably shares that since we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, grace abounds (overflows). True; however, we must not allow sin to rule our lives. No, there are no perfect persons; nevertheless, we must be mindful of our behavior.
The desire to bring others to Christ is always purposed in the heart of true believers. The efforts become challenging when non-believers witness the misbehavior of those who have confessed Christ, but continue to commit sinful acts. It is disheartening when our loved ones and fellow Christian brothers and sisters return to their old way of living by willfully satisfying the flesh in a sinful manner. Paul reminds us to, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead…” (Romans 6: 12-13).
In the aforementioned text for this message, Jesus remarkably does not condemn the woman caught in adultery, but tells her to “sin no more”. As mentioned in the title of this message, “Jesus does not condemn us for our mistakes, but He does expect us to do better. With this in mind, we must bring glory to God with our bodies, souls and minds. Paul further writes, “Knowing our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from this time we may not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).
Our lives should bring glory to God.
