With the woman caught in the act of adultery, Jesus saw beyond her external act of sin—her adultery—to the deeper cause of why she acted out in the way she did.

We tend to see sin as only the external act. But the external act is often just the tip of the iceberg. Sin is anything that falls short of the perfection or wholeness God planned for us. It includes our damaged emotions, our wounded personality, our mixed motives, our unresolved inner conflicts, and our supercharged repressed negative emotions. Added to our sinful nature, these are the pains that keep us in bondage and cause us to act out in sinful ways. These are the barriers that alienate us from God, from others, and from ourselves so that we no longer know who or what we truly are. Sin is the whole “iceberg,” not merely the external tip.

Because of this, when Jesus ministered to the woman caught in adultery, he dealt with her whole person not just her sinful behavior. As already noted, to free her from acting out in sinful behavior, he first met the basic need in her life, the lack of which was driving her to commit acts of sin. Jesus loved and accepted her, and in doing this, possibly for the first time in this woman’s life, she was loved and accepted by a man for who she was rather than for what she had to offer. Jesus knew her sin, her weaknesses, and her hurt. He understood her fully and loved and accepted her unconditionally. In so doing he confirmed her personhood and her womanhood. In other words, the needs that her father didn’t or couldn’t meet, Jesus met. In meeting these father needs for love and acceptance Jesus set her free and could realistically say to her, “Go and don’t commit this sin anymore.”

Or take the person with a drinking problem, a lying problem, a stealing problem, a drug problem, a gossip problem, or any other kind of sin problem. Behind the external act of sin lies a deeper fault, problem, or sin. The external act of sin is merely the symptom of the deeper sin. And when a person is hiding a deeper sin or fault, he tends to confess a lesser sin all the more vigorously.

Therefore, how unkind it is of me, how lacking in understanding, and how unlike Christ to condemn you and make you feel guilty for your sin without ever seeking to understand you and help meet the basic need/s in your life, the lack of which are causing you to act out in sinful ways.

It’s easy to lay rules on you and make you feel guilty if you don’t conform, and in so doing deceive myself into believing that I have been obeying God, which is anything but the truth. But how difficult it is to seek to understand you, to learn why you do what you do, and then attempt to meet your deepest needs—the lack of which are causing you to commit acts of sin. This takes true commitment to Christ and commitment to you—it is my being as Jesus to you.

Being a sinner myself, I do not have the right to tell you not to sin again. I only have the responsibility to accept you as a fellow sinner and help to meet your needs and, thereby, help take away your need for sinning.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please deliver me of the sin of being critical and judgmental and give me a spirit of understanding to be able to help any who genuinely need your help, healing, and deliverance. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. John 3:17 (KJV).

Yesterday we talked about the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus over the woman caught in the act of adultery. The last thing Jesus said to these pious religious bigots was, “Let the man who has never sinned be the one to cast the first stone.”

Their own accusations had boomeranged on them. The silence was deafening. And now, like frightened puppy dogs, they tucked their “religious tails” between their legs and got out of there as quickly as they could.

Jesus was left alone with the woman. He knew she’d been used. He understood her deepest need and gently asked her, “What happened to your accusers? Where did they go? Isn’t there anyone left to condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she replied, “they’ve all gone.”

Then Jesus made a simple but profound statement: “I don’t condemn you either. Go, and don’t commit this sin anymore.”

The dynamic in this story is that before Jesus told this woman to go and sin no more, he first met the basic need in her life, the lack of which was causing her to sin. This is such a profound truth, it desperately needs understanding.

Let me explain. Counselors tell us that many a prostitute or a loose-living woman, for example, is a woman who has been hurt deeply by her father in her early life. Deep down she is still hostile towards him. He didn’t meet her needs for love, acceptance, and approval. Neither did he confirm her womanhood. For one or many reasons she felt rejected by him. Or he or another significant male in her early life may have sexually abused her. She doesn’t come to this conclusion consciously, but the greatest way she can hit back at her father or men is by becoming a prostitute or a loose-living woman. She is also desperately searching for the father’s love she never received as a child or as a young woman and is unconsciously trying to prove to herself that she is a woman. She is being driven into acts of sin because of unresolved hurt, anger, and by an unmet need for love and acceptance—especially that of a father’s love.

The same principle applies to the man who is running around using women. His problem includes lust, but it goes far deeper. He is not the great masculine figure he pretends to be. He may be angry at his mother and be using other women as a means of expressing his hostility. Or he may be still searching for the mother’s love he never received as a child as well as trying to convince himself that he is adequate as a male.

Behind all external acts of sin, there is almost always a deeper sin, fault, unmet need, or damaged emotion. In other words, all behavior is caused or motivated. There is a reason why people do what they do. This is not to excuse their behavior. Not at all. Jesus didn’t condemn the woman for her sin, but neither did he condone her actions. He told her not to do it again. However, he knew that this woman had a deep emotional need in her life and it was this unmet need that was driving her into acts of sin.

In meeting her unmet need, Jesus could realistically say to her, “Go and leave your life of sin.”

To be concluded …

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to always be sensitive to the true needs of others when they fall, and seek to meet them at that point of need just as you did with the woman caught in adultery. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. John 8:11 (NIV).

Perhaps one of the most beautiful examples of communicating Christ’s love in the entire New Testament is where Christ ministered to the woman who was caught in the act of adultery.

Why the scribes and Pharisees brought only the woman—and not the man—to Jesus for judgment is a little difficult to understand. How the woman could be caught in the act of adultery alone is beyond my comprehension. If truth be known, the guilty man may very well have been one of the accusers even if he weren’t present in the accusing circle. The whole affair was undoubtedly a setup to trap Jesus.

Regardless, you can just see these religious bigots gloating over their victory. “We’ve got Him cornered at last,” they bragged among themselves with a false sense of anticipated triumph. “He can’t win. And we can’t lose. Whatever way he answers, we have him trapped. If he says to punish her according to the law of God, we’ll accuse him of having no mercy. If he says to let her go free, we’ll accuse him of breaking God’s law.” Quite a scheme … so they thought.

So here they are, encircling Jesus and the guilty woman. They were like a pack of hungry wolves just waiting for the signal to pounce on Jesus and devour Him. What did they care about the woman? Absolutely nothing. They were using her as a pawn in their game.

“Now, Master,” they piously addressed Jesus undoubtedly in a sanctimonious tone of voice, “this woman was caught committing adultery in the very act. God’s law demands that such a woman be stoned to death. How do you feel about that? What say you?”

Jesus ignored them. He stooped down and wrote on the ground. But these men were persistent. They were determined to win their devious game so they kept pressing Jesus for an answer.

So Jesus stood up, looked each one of them squarely in the eye, and agreed with them. “Yes,” he said, “you’re absolutely correct. The law of Moses, God’s law, does say that such a woman should be stoned to death.”

“He’s agreeing with us,” they mused among themselves, and you could see them going for the rocks tucked under their religious robes—the rocks of accusation they were about to hurl at Jesus. They were more concerned about killing Jesus than they were about stoning the woman or defending justice.

“So,” continued Jesus, “go ahead and stone her to death if that’s what you desire.” After a brief moment’s pause and with a burning look that pierced the depths of their consciences Jesus added, “However, gentlemen, wait just a minute—let the man who has never sinned be the one to cast the first stone.”

Thud. The silence was deafening.

To be continued …

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a spirit of discernment so that I will always know when enquirers are genuine or if they have a hidden agenda seeking to hurt a fellow struggler who has fallen. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. John 8:2-5 (NIV).

“Three military recruiters accepted an invitation to address the senior class of a local high school…. Graduation was only a few months away, and the principal wanted his two hundred young men to hear the options available in the military. The assembly was to be forty-five minutes in length. It was agreed that each recruiter would have fifteen minutes to make his pitch and then have another twenty minutes in the cafeteria to meet with interested boys. The Army recruiter went first and got so excited about his speech that he went over twenty minutes. The Navy recruiter, not to be outdone, stood up and also spoke for twenty minutes.

“The Marine Corps recruiter, realizing that his fifteen-minute speech had been cut to two, walked up to the podium and spent the first sixty seconds in silence. Wordlessly, he gazed over the group of high school seniors. They knew he was sizing them up. After what seemed to be an eternity, the recruiter said, ‘I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who could cut it as marines. I want to see those three men as soon as this assembly is dismissed.’ He was mobbed by a herd of young men when he arrived in the cafeteria.”²

The military needs and is always looking for good men and women. So is God. And he is calling you and me to play a part in what He is doing in the world today. And that is impacting the world for Jesus Christ by living and sharing the gospel and by being “as Jesus” in some way to every life we touch. When we do this, we do make a difference—for both time and eternity.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please make and use me as a ‘soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb, and may I never fear to own your cause nor blush to speak your name.’³ Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Joshua 24:15 (NIV).

2. Steve Farrar. Cited in KneEmail, http://associate.com/groups/kneemail/.

3. Isaac Watts, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” hymn (paraphrase).