How To Approach Sinners

It is an amazing thing to me that I should ever have to do a blog of this nature, but it seems that in recent years it has become more and more popular among Christians to become politically motivated against certain sins. We have anti-gay rallies and march in the street for what we might consider “gross” sins, but then we fail to be as angry towards our own political party’s rampant adultery. What am I suggesting? I am suggesting fairness towards all. That means if we are really going to get upset about sin, let’s begin with ours initially, and let’s don’t pick and choose which ones we are going to protest. I mean, can you imagine an anti-lying rally in downtown Atlanta this morning, or maybe an anti-lust rally, or perhaps we should have an anti-hatred rally. The truth is that the reason we don’t is that we have all been guilty of those things, and we would feel hypocritical if we took part in a rally of that sort. But, it is much more feasible to protest that which we have not taken part in, and so we do. In order to shed some light on what our perspective should be towards sinners, I would like to refer you to the story of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter eight.

This story, to me, is one of the most revealing stories in the Bible about the reality of sin in our lives, and the power of Jesus’ love and grace overcoming it. The classic phrase in the King James, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (or as so often is the way that it is quoted, “let him cast the first stone”), is one of the most famous statements in the entire English language. Those who know nothing of Jesus and his love, know about the depth of that one phrase spoken so long ago. This story is a story about sinners, their sin, and their blindness to their own sin, and their need of Christ to deliver them from their sin. I hope that through this story we can learn some truths about the reality of sin and our approach to sinners. There are several principles here that to me are monumental in learning how to deal with sinners.

All of Us Have Sin and Should, Therefore, Treat Every Other Sinner Graciously.
The fact is we are usually harder on other people than we are ourselves. We look at others with an eye of frustration, because they are not like we are, or because they struggle with different sins than we do. We often condemn people, if not by our actions or words, by our thoughts. These men were so focused on this other’s sin that they failed to see the sin in their own life. Isn’t that the way we feel? We get so upset about other people’s sins, and there are all sins that make us angrier than others. You can sit and listen to people who get upset over other people’s certain sins, and they rant and throw a tirade over it, because they are angry at another’s sin.

Don’t misunderstand me. I think there are times when anger is expected, like when 9/11 happened, or when someone tries to attack our family. But, most of the time our anger and frustration with people is nothing more than hypocritical judgment. We should not be blinded to our own sin, but should look inwardly, so we can see clearly to love and help others. The men who took the woman caught in the act of adultery were showing their hypocrisy in several ways:

1. Their Judgment was Only One-Sided. The last time I checked there has to be two people involved in adultery. Where was the man? Was he not at least AS guilty as the woman? Could it be, because of their chauvinistic culture where women were little more than door stops, that they were angrier with the woman just because she was a woman?

2. Their Judgment was Humiliating to the One Involved. It says two things here that are revealing: (1) They caught her in the act. My friend Sam, pastor of the River, astutely pointed out that she was probably naked during this act (it should be apparent now why commentaries are of little value to me). Not to be crude, but it would be very difficult to commit adultery with your clothes on. Therefore, they may have brought her either naked, or half-dressed (at bare minimum) with just a blanket or something thrown over. Either way, she was totally exposed.

(2) They also made her stand before the group. There was a large crowd in the temple courts waiting to hear Jesus teach when this happened. As if being half-dressed or naked was not bad enough, then she had to stand there before the group, with some men undoubtedly lusting after her. This could explain, by the way, Jesus’ looking down and writing on the ground. We are unfortunately, often harsh in our judgments to people, and we often are blinded by our own arrogance.

The Longer We Live the More Sin We Have.
This is a very simple point, but (in vs. 7-9) it is not insignificant that the older ones went away first. They started to go away when Jesus mentions he who does not have sin can cast the first stone. Their going away means that they apparently felt guilty because of what Jesus said, because they knew that they were not without sin. The reason the old ones went away first, I believe, is because they had lived longer, and therefore, had more sins to be convicted over. This isn’t picking on anyone, but the truth is the longer we live, the more we are going to sin, and therefore, the more repentant and broken we should be before God. Sadly, though, we do not normally with time become more broken, but we become more hardened by the effects of sin in our life. And this hardness creates in us a judgmental spirit that treats the sinners of today like the lepers of yesterday. This is not the way to approach sinners. We should remember Jesus condemning the hypocrisy and condemnation of the religious leaders and extending grace and forgiveness and love to the broken sinner.