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I do not believe Jesus was saying go sin no more how we have been taught. I believe the essence of what he said is “Because i do not condemn you, you are free to sin no more”. He whom the son sets free is free indeed .
Let the fundies have their fun using this verse to threaten assumed sinners with, they’re only bringing judgement on themselves.
I do not believe Jesus was saying go sin no more how we have been taught. I believe the essence of what he said is “Because i do not condemn you, you are free to sin no more”. He whom the son sets free is free indeed .
Let the fundies have their fun using this verse to threaten assumed sinners with, they’re only bringing judgement on themselves.
That makes a lot of sense! "You are free to sin no more." Thank you.
I find it interesting in how this part of the woman caught in adultery story... the go and sin no more.... is seen as the highlight of the story. Interesting in that is the last thing Jesus said to her. AFTER he said "neither do I condemn you."
Condemnation is at the forefront of much of what is called Christianity. Condemnation and a call to repent of all the evil and yuck and junk and a focus on that and much time figuring out what is sin and who is in sin and how sin is sin, yada, yada, yada.
Yet we have a Jesus that didn't focus on sin. Focused on love and on making a way out of sin by his marvelous death and resurrection on our behalf. In him we are complete. His righteousness is imputed.... imparted... placed in us. We are new creations, the old has passed away. Born again. Adopted. A royal priesthood. New.
And committing any one sin does not change this identity, this position. This is why we love those no matter what they are going thru, what they have done, how they identify themselves. We love because he first loved us. We love because Christ in us compels us to love.
And Jesus loves the LGBTQ amongst us. Yet so many have rejected the church because this isn't taught. I apologize from the bottom of my heart to anyone in this community that I played the slightest part in making you feel unwelcome to come to Jesus or to his church because of your sexuality. I am deeply saddened and turn from that line of thinking. It might be American church, but it isn't the gospel. it isn't Jesus.
That is why I came to this thread and have spent WAY too much time blabbing on here. My heart has changed and for the better.
SaintMarks, do you think she understood what that meant?. I know personally what condemnation feels like.
Like the old Wesley hymn says ... My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose went forth and followed thee. It’s condemnation that keeps you in sin.
Like much of what he said to the disciples, things he said intrigued them and stayed with them but probably didn't come to full understanding till after he died and rose and then ascended and probably even then not till after pentecost and the Holy Spirit came. I assume the same for this woman.
"Go and sin no more" should be added to the so called "clobber verses." The way it is often used is not in the spirit of the passage it came from, or the context of how Jesus generally dealt with sinners.
She did sin more and Jesus knew she would when he said that. So he gave her, and all of us, an impossible command. A kind of koan to be wrestled with and contemplated.
Here's my take on that verse, after wrestling with it for awhile:
Go and sin no more: that means go and live your new life, born of Spirit, focused on God, fed by the Living Water. Now that you have had an encounter with the living God, don't always be focused on yourself, your wants and desires. Leave behind the old you--the ego--the false self and grow in Christ.
That may not be a perfect interpretation, but it is certainly better than taking an impossible task and acting like we have some kind of mandate or right to enforce it on others.
I wonder if anyone would stone another to death for picking up sticks or carrying their bedroll on the Sabbath?
Here's my take: Go and sin no more; or the fundamentalist over there is going to accuse and condemn you.
What I find interesting is the Levitical law required that both the man and the woman were to be stoned.
Makes you think about all those who walked away least they also be stoned to death for their sins.
If Jesus is the only one who has the right to condemn or judge a person, but He chooses not to, then we better think twice before casting the first stone.
"Go and sin no more" should be added to the so called "clobber verses." The way it is often used is not in the spirit of the passage it came from, or the context of how Jesus generally dealt with sinners.
She did sin more and Jesus knew she would when he said that. So he gave her, and all of us, an impossible command. A kind of koan to be wrestled with and contemplated.
Enough with the "clobber" term. Nothing more than a crutch to try and paint the image that we are beating people over the head with God's Word. God's Word doesn't need a new interpretation. The foundation of Christian IS and has always been to repent and fight against sin. Jesus never encouraged her to keep on sinning or even tell her, well you might as well sin some more since it is an impossible command. The same hippie Jesus version you create also said this:
"If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."
Matthew 5:29
Now why would He be begging people to do whatever it takes to avoid sin here if all He cares about his loving people and not sin?
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