Early the next morning He was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and He sat down and taught them. As He was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “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 Him into saying something they could use against him… —John 8:2-6 NLT
…Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with His finger. —John 8:6B NLT
Lord, You are the hope of Israel; all who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away from You will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord. —Jeremiah 17:13 NIV
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. —John 8:7-8 NLT
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. —John 8:9-11 NLT
“Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” —John 8:11B NLT
Love is the tension between
and
.
Christ-following is about what we are
and not about what we are
.
Embrace the difference between
and
.
“If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.” —Matthew 5:46 NLT
Empathy is not the surrender of your beliefs, it’s not the acceptance of a position, it’s the acknoledgement of another person’s reality.