Spirit Living – Growing into Greater Love-ability.
Jesus Loved people right where they were, right in the middle their pain and with baggage and all. By this I mean Jesus wasn’t about trying to get people to change, His sole Soul focus was on Loving them, Period!
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” – John 8:3-5
The reason the religious leaders constantly tried to trip Jesus up on the law as righteousness was because Jesus wasn’t teaching the law as righteousness – He was teaching Love as Righteousness and law as vehicle TO Love.
“Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” – Galatians 3:23-25
The big secret that religious institutions try to keep from all of us was taught by John the Baptist at first and if you would like to read a devotional on it, check out, “Why John?” This was and is the single most “dangerous” element to Christ for religious people of every religion to include Christianity and here are some reasons why:
1)We no longer control others or society by what makes us uncomfortable.
2)We no longer have a “lock” on God and who He accepts.
3)We have to face our own dirtiness as just as dirty as anyone else.
4)We no longer have any ability to judge others.
“At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said.“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” – John 8:9-11
At the point where Jesus made the last statement to this woman we need to ask a few questions:
1)What is sin?
If sin is breaking the law then Jesus just gave her an impossible and sadistic command. If by meeting Jesus she was no longer under the law but under Grace, so that she could no longer break a law she wasn’t under, then this becomes a sign of Gods Amazing Grace and The Love of God that is beyond human conception.
2)Who can judge the rightness or wrongness of a person?
If Jesus Himself wasn’t willing to call her out and say that her behavior was wrong, who are we, who is a church or preacher or other religious organization to say a behavior is wrong?
3)Who are we acting more like if we judge other people’s actions?
If Jesus Himself was not only Not willing to condemn but He actively worked to Stop condemnation, how should that influence our lives as believers?
For more on this check out these devotionals:
BeGraceFull.com
