JUDGE NOT, LEST YE BE JUDGED by JOLEISA
Intro:
This is a creative account of the story in John 8:1-11 of the woman caught in the act of adultery as could have been told by of one of the men who brought her to Jesus. The story teaches us as Christians or even non-Christians to be careful how we mete out judgement and justice, remembering that none of us is faultless.
A big bouquet of thanks to my lovely sisters, Jo and Leisa, for contributing this guest post. You can see their brief bio at the end of the post.
“WHAT A BOOMERANG!”
“Let me tell you something. I have lived in this community all my life and I’m a grown man! It’s an ok place to live. We have our challenges but for the most part we all get along. We support each other. Yes, there are some hard-core criminals but we try to deal with them as best as we can.
“Out of the blue, this man appeared in our community, making all sorts of claims. First of all, He claimed to be the son of God! Can you imagine that? What a claim to make! He even claimed to be a prophet! But for some reason, the people often flocked to Him and listened to Him speaking. I’ll give Him that. He was good at drawing the crowds, an orator of sorts.
“To be honest, He did do some good as well. On many occasions, after He talked and talked, the people were hungry and He fed them with whatever He could find. No one ever left Him hungry.
“He was also able to make sick people better, even people who had been sick for years. But other than the food and the healing, what was it that made Him so endearing that the people kept coming back? We could not tell!
“Sometimes, my friends and I would be in the crowds listening to Him talk. I can tell you, we did not like the thought of this intruder in our midst and the fact that He was making these claims was alarming. A prophet! No way!
“So my friends and I started to make a plot to trap Him. He claimed to be a prophet, right? So let us see if He would abide by the Mosaic Law. We know Moses to be a prophet. If this man Jesus refused to follow the Mosaic Law, then we could definitely say He was no prophet. We discussed which law was easier to trap Him with.
“We knew of an area in town where adulterous women go to have illegal liaisons with men. We would go there, catch one of these women in the act and take her to Jesus. Now the Mosaic Law recommends that a woman caught this way should be stoned to death. Let’s see if this man Jesus would follow this law.
“So the next day, we went. Sure enough, we caught one of these women in the very act, so we dragged her to Jesus. I bet she was ashamed. I didn’t care. She should have thought about that before she went with this man.
Anyway, as usual there was a crowd there and an even bigger one gathered as we shoved the woman in the centre. We disrupted His discourse. There was no way He could pretend not to notice. I mean, the woman was naked!
“‘Here you go Jesus! This woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Moses’ Law says we should stone her. What do you say?’
“Yes! This is the moment of truth. Let’s see what He would do. Somehow, He seemed calm, not flustered. He did not even seem bothered by the fact that the woman was naked. I suppose to Him it meant that we did indeed catch her in the act. For a while He did not respond, so we started to chant: ‘What say you Jesus? What say you Jesus?’
“He didn’t say a word! How could He ignore us? This was abominable!
“Our anger and frustration grew. But He seemed calm. He stooped down to the ground and wrote something with His fingers. When He stood up, there was this air of anticipation. Then He spoke, saying: ‘He that is without sin among you, let Him cast the first stone.’
“Oh my gosh! What a boomerang! We were caught in our own trap! Certainly we had all sinned! No one knew where to look. Then to add insult to injury, Jesus stooped and started writing on the ground again. I, and all the others around got the chance to look into our own conscience.
“Personally, I thought of some things I had done, blatant sins which I had committed. To what this woman had done, there was just no comparison. I was so ashamed. So were my friends. We all walked away totally humiliated. We were caught in the very trap we had set. My feeling from the whole affair: Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
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[bctt tweet=”With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. – Matthew 7:2 (KJV)” username=”edithohaja1″]
This, dear readers, is an example to all of us. The admonition in Galatians 6:1-3 should be our yardstick in this regard:
“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
The point is that sin in anyone and in any form is ugly. But when we approach anyone to point out sin, it must be with a sense of admission of our own filthiness, and humility to allow God to work in us to work out His way. It should be done with a Christ-like attitude, one that seeks to restore, rather than to condemn. Otherwise, the same treatment we give to others is what we will also receive as Matthew 7: 1 & 2 warns:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
The message to all of us from Christ is, “GO AND SIN NO MORE.” Pray that you will be humble enough to be used by God in His service. Pray too, that you will not take pride in judging, lest ye be judged.
[bctt tweet=”We should seek to restore any who errs rather than to condemn. – Joleisa” username=”edithohaja1″]
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The scriptures cited in this post are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
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ABOUT THE WRITERS
Jo and Leisa are twin teachers, authors, freelance writers and bloggers who hail from Jamaica. They currently reside in England where they are doing their bit to raise their children. The Christian ladies now blog about frugal living and using wisely the resources we have at our disposal. Their blog is joleisa.com and they can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
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Well written!! We can actually sense the anguish and jealousy of the people of the day and the point of judging is brought out so clearly, we should never judge harshly, or the mirror points at us. Also, another thought that came was the Holy Spirit was so powerfully present in Jesus that conviction fell on everyone in such a way that they were gripped with their sins and could not dare to lift a stone…Something like I am praying for, for the last revival!! Thank you for this post Jo and Leisa and thank you Edith for sharing!
Hello my dearest Rita! You captured the mood and nuances of the story so well. It reminded me of your own writing in a way. Have a fabulous weekend and remain ever blessed!
Beautiful! You know that Jesus said “I don’t condemn you either, now go and sin no more”, the power and consciousness of no condemnation empowers one to live above sin (go and sin no more).
Amen. May God grant us the grace to behave like Christ in this and every other respect in Jesus’ name.
This post is interesting but the content of it makes me angry. why should one judge another when you are guilty of the same crime, why do some people peer into others’ business like they are saints.
Easy, bro! It’s not good to judge others harshly but we need to keep one another accountable, else some of us will miss our way. Cheers!
this is really touching, we all are victims, we cast stones at others while we never take the time to check and criticize our own actions.
Ummmm, I’m not sure everyone is guilty here. There must be some meek and considerate persons among us. Bless you!
I love that you were so creative in taking this Bible passage and making it into such a beautiful story.I’ve always been particular about this one especially.Judging others without insight as to why they do the things they do just isn’t right.May God help us examine our conscience first before pointing fingers.Amen
Bless you, Kat! You do realise it’s a guest post, meaning it was contributed by others. But you’re right, it’s a beautiful narrative.
OMG!! Im in love with this piece. I love the way the narrator gives the account which is probably how peeps felt when Jesus came. Lets try our best not to judge others but correct them where necessary. Great work Jo and Leisa
Just the way I felt when I read it. Glad you loved it. You are blessed!
adorable piece. i enjoyed it….
Praise God!
Glory!!! No one is beyond sin but the son of God came so that he can set us free from any sin holding us bound. An inspirational piece.
Praise God!
nobody is perfect. You are not meant to judge others while u still have where to correct in your life
Sweetheart, if we subscribe to that, we won’t be doing one another any favour. What is wrong is harsh judgment based on malice or pride rather than love. For an exposition on this, read the post, “Myself, the Judge.” It’s in Guests Posts. Cheers!
Such an exciting read! The way the story was captured made it look like it happened in our time.
Exactly. And they have done the same thing with the upcoming story. Cheers!
Wow. I love the style. The thing is many people would be willing to cast a stone, but the Lord who is without sin does not consider it necessary. He came for all.
That is why we describe His grace as amazing. Blessings on you and your family, Miracle!
There is no perfect being on earth, for all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. What we just have to do is to pray for one another. wonderful write up Ma!
Indeed one should not judge and point accusing fingers. God always forgives his children but this should never be taken for granted.
Just like the fish in the sea can’t deny being in water, so can we not deny the fact that we are sinners. Again, this is a clear message that no one or gods can prevail over the most supreme God (our Father in Heaven), hence the lord should never be put to test.
Most of us aren’t able to remove the logs from our eyes but we see clearly the tiny pieces on other’s. We shouldn’t judge but correct, and that should be done with every atom of love we can gather so that the one we are correcting is able to change and not drift further away…nice write-up?
Truly, the manner in which this story was written is just superb,an eye opener indeed.Why try to point out another’s bad side when we know that ours are way worse.Thanks a lot for this write up.
There is no condemnation for anyone in Christ. Do not be quick to judge but rather open your hearts to forgive others.
Nice one ma ,this is a wonderful story because it concerns every individual, it teaches us that we should not judge anyone, that nobody is perfect, we have to remove what is in our eyes before removing other people’s own ,because we are not even sure of our own very existence.
Mosaic Law permits a woman caught in adultery to be stoned to death. But Christ says ” Go in peace and sin no more” and that’s the moment of truth. God is kind and merciful and we ought to emulate that.
Nobody is perfect, we all are humans and because of that, we don’t have the power or right to judge one another, only God in heaven, has the power to judge. This is a wonderful write up.
Wow!! I can’t believe I could find such a place like this blog to read amazing stories like this…firstly because of the contemporary version introduced to the stories my imagination runs wild….very impactful as well….Am blessed by the stories not necessarily because I know them to be a gospel stories from the bible but because it bring our present language,setting and plot to play….this is really incredible….Your minds are blessed for being so creative.
This is a very interesting story and touching too, no one is beyond sin, but we are all leaving under his mercy, and no one is perfect and no one is meant to judge another.
This is a wonderful story. The story concerns the individual mind, the way we perceive others and their lifestyle. So, individuals are not suppose to judge others based on just one-sight, because we all are walking towards perfection. Thank you ma for this write up.
That’s one creative way of telling the story of the adulterous woman. Firstly, why the woman should be the only one stoned when caught in the act of adultery and the man going free still puzzles me. Its a good thing the story is coming from the Pharisee’s point of view. No one has the right to condemn any. God’s first point of action towards those who err is mercy and not judgment. Nice work.
He who is without sin should cast the first stone…and none did. it is very necessary that we should have it at the back of our mind that Jesus has already died and forgiven our sins and we judging others doesn’t make us children of the father. we should try and look into our lives to make sure it walks in line with the way of the father, if it doesn’t, you have no reason what so ever to judge others. love this piece ma. nice job.
Dnt judge so that you won’t be judged….judgement is for God alone to do……yes that she is a prostitude shouldn’t give you the right to condemn her rather come closer to that person and make her feel the love of Christ,show her way to Christ….. Some of us are fond of judging someone immediately because of one thing or the other the person did,if God should start condemning us like this that means nobody will be alive by now but because he always gives us the opportunity to change and make Amend without him condemning us then who are we to judge or condemn others……let’s know how to show love to one another and stop be the Mr and Mrs know it all…….
I should never judge anyone as if am perfect least i fall into the same temptation and be cast by God and others. This article is great and a lesson for all. This piece teaches us how to correct others in Christ- like attitude and in love, nurture not in condemnation of such individual. God is not saying we should not correct or tell people of their wrong actions rather He said we should that in love and also watch our attitude and character so it can endeared people to the love and obedient of God. This do not judge; is for all friends, families and colleagues whose actions can either build or destroy the others in our lives.
If you point a finger at someone remember that the remaining four fingers are pointing back at you, no one is perfect we have have our flaws so why judge another when your own life is in shambles, the same way you judge someone today is how you will be judge tomorrow so judge not so that you may not be judged.
Judge not lest ye be judged. Thank you so much for taking this scripture and turning it into a beautiful story. most times we judge people forgetting that we aren’t blameless ourselves. May God help us to heed to his word especially on this issue of not judging people.
The story is informative and educative which points out that we should all look deep down in ourselves before passing any accusation, blame or judgment irrespective of gender, educational background or financial status. The story is well said as it had so many moral lessons to learn from. There is a simple saying that goes like this “treat people the way you would like like to be treated”.Nevertheless, the story is full of impact. God bless you for that wonderful story.
Their motives were even two – to condemn Jesus and to condemn the woman. They could not achieve any, but a judgment of their own conscience. Wow! Jesus was the one. A man of insight.
I suggest the ‘Judges’ were equally covering their faces. Thanks for this creative piece
An interesting one! They actually condemned themselves on the process of condemning another. Though, we have the urge to judge, we really should not. A nice one.
“WHAT A BOOMERANG!”
Indeed, it’s a boomerang; they fell into the very trap they had set for Jesus. This story teaches us to look into ourselves first before judging others because no one is perfect.
And they were caught at their own trap! Truly, judging others make us look like we are so without sin… Something of that sort. I learnt that we might feel the need to correct a certain wrong but end up doing it wrongly. It is hence important to do this in love and careful admonition bearing in mind that we are not all righteous. The life of Jesus is a great example… M greatly touched by this post and I love you Joliesa!
God is the only one that can judge a person. People are always fond of condemning people for their sins or misbehaviour when, their sins are much more worse than that of the person they are condemning. We should stop this unless, we will fall into our own traps one day like, the men who tried to condemn the adulterous woman in this story.
Even the bible said “judge not, that thou will not be judge, one have no right to judge others because you cannot out rightly say you are all round perfect. Just like my pastor normally says “when you point a finger at someone, the other four fingers are pointing back at you.
Did you read the post, my dear? It doesn’t seem like you did.
This is a really well written script. Judging others before we have the time to evaluate ourselves is not the right way to go. Judgemental people always seem to have their own secrets hidden here or there. To the writer I say, well done.
This guest post is an insightful one. Our country, Nigeria, is also typical of the content of this story. If one could still remember the little boy that was killed in Lagos through the so-called jungle justice. He was burnt just because he stole garri. Do this group of people want to claim that they are all saints or what? They too should also be prepared to be judged by the MOST HIGH..
Now while I don’t support jungle justice, I remember the incident you referred to. The facts were doctored by some online media sites to attract traffic. In the first place, it was not a little boy. He was just small-sized. He wasn’t torched for stealing garri but for stealing phobes, etc. and inflicting injury on folks while at it. U know the Area Boy thing, they tend to get overconfident. That day seemed to be the last straw. Again, he should have been handed over to the police. But someone posted a wrong version of the facts to elicit more reaction and make some money out of that unfortunate incident. You are blessed!
“Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more”, says jesus christ.Now, if christ did not condemn sinners, who are we to condemn others.Jesus christ is the perfect judge who doesn’t support jungle justice.The people of isreal wanted to stone the woman caught in the act of adultery but where is the man she was commiting it with.We should only allow God to judge..
Majority of us are guilty of this sin of judging others ignorantly without checking ourselves. Who are we to judge others. First remove the plank in your eyes before removing the pick in another person’s eye. Note: judging is quite different from correcting, so we should not misunderstand the both.
they say before you spot what is another person eye do clear yours first before it blinds you.must people are innocent of what they are accused of do not judge so you wont be judge just like what Jesus did.
Everyone in life has sinned in one way or other,so anytime you judge others you are indirectly judging yourself.judge not so that you will not be judged.
Yes it’s certainly the truth. It’s not in our power to condemn anyone. But our power is to give directives to those that are going astray. God made everything and said that all of them are fine, he didn’t condemn any. Therefore, who are we to condemn?
It is good we point out the ills in our selves first before looking around for others to help…Let’s learn…Good job Ma.
Honestly we should not judge people or plan for their failure this is because no one is perfect. So we should first look into ourselves before judging others.
No one on earth is without sin, but we tend to be unconscious of our own while magnifying other people’s own.
Good write up. Judging people is a bad attitude. And judging people is a way of calling judgement upon your self.
This is quite a didactic lesson, no one is perfect, we should not condemn others especially when we are better and we should also correct with humility.
We should not point accusing fingers at people because we do not know what led the action they took.
Well said ma, we live in this world for comprehension and not competition is quite disheartening that most people rather bring down other either through their words or deeds and it ought not to be but we should be able to help even if the person flaws are so obvious .
No one on earth is blameless or without sin, we should not be quick to make conclusions about others or out rightly accuse them, we should try to treat others how we’d want to he treated!
We should learn to correct people of their mistakes instead of condemning them. When we condemn people on something, It will make then feel bad and may not stop their attitude but when correct them in a spirit of Gentleness, they will understand and change their ways. Also nobody should condemn anybody because no one is faultless.
This is a beautifully written narrative and I must say that the story became localised and relate-able to me. we should learn to be lenient to other people’s shortcomings since we too have ours to deal with. correction is needed to put erring people in the right way but we are advised to do that with love.
if our heavenly father did not judge the adulterous woman who are we to judge our fellow humans.people are guilty of this crime a lot. they are found wanting of saying things like why did he do this , why did he do that without finding out anything,they just assume the role of the scribes and pharisees.
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.if we all are judges then no man would be fit to enter into the kingdom.God pardon and forgive us for we to sin no more.but on the condition we put an end to continuous sin,some have taken it that if they sin that grace is there but they have gotten it wrong.we are pardoned to turn from our evil ways never to return back again.
we all have sinned but one thing I definitely sure God grace is sure and amen.but we should not point fingers at other sinner simply because we fill that we are pure and clean.God hates that.remember the issues of the tax collectors who found grace in the bible. If God forgave men like that despite hoe they were looked at, at that time who are we.
God is faithful.if men were God we would have been wiped from the face of the earth.a nice piece ma.judging others is not good but that does not mean that we should not call a person who is going astray in terms of evil deeds.but its should be in a lovable manner that that person would love to be like us.i was enlightened ma.
He that is without sin should cast the first stone. This is really deep. When ever we are in a state to condemn a person, firstly, we should check ourselves to see if we are guilty. Secondly, we should seek a way to help such a person to desist from that act that brought condemnation . Reason being that, after the men left, Jesus told her to go and sin no more. Here he told her what to desist from. I hope we learn from this Write-up.
we all have at one point or the other fallen short of the glory of God or even wronged our friends and family. Judging people is wrong.
Judge no man no matter the sin in him or her lest you be judged. A nice piece from you ma.A society that is driven by immorality and the desire to better or best your neighbour comes with issues.one is now judged almost in everything. We should cultivate the habit of not judging because we might never no what we might fall into tomorrow and we will definitely expect people to reason with you after you outrightly condemned another.
Judgment is of God, every individual have a reason for exhibiting certain attitudes or following a certain lifestyle, everyone has a sob story that might be worse than yours, you do not feed, clothe, or provide financial security for them, so who are you to judge?
I’m afraid that you may be taking this beyond the true meaning of the saying. Read the other guest post, “Myself the Judge”, for a comprehensive teaching on this. Happy Sunday!
What extraordinary thing I have learnt for this piece, DO NOT JUDGE OTHERS… we ourselves aren’t better at any means. Your mistake can be worse compared to what others have done.
This is very common in the society, where haters,critics,hypocrite are everywhere.An enlightenment which admonishes us to not judge.Even God has instructed us not to Judge so we should heed his instructions.if our creator looked past our transgression, sin who are we yo judge and sometimes decide someone fate. Nice one ma.
Thank you for this wonderful story Ma. We humans are very judgemental. I pray God helps us to quit this negative attitude
We should not assume the role of judge for we were all sinners and were liberated by his tender mercies. Why should we judge when he hadn’t judge us.he didn’t destroy us immediately but took pity and forgave us.we should do the same.
We human are good at judging others forgetting that we are all human being that are bond to make mistakes.
Most Christians are guilty of this pointing fingers at others and saying all sort of things about someone without checking themselves first.
Sometimes we fail to see the log of wood in our eyes yet we pry and see the broom stick in anothers
Nobody is above sin, this means that we all are sinners so we have not right to judge people because of theirs actions
To be honest,I was someone like this then, I do judge people even without knowing but I thank God for opening my eyes to his word. We have no right to judge or condemn anyone. Thank you for this ma.
Well said!! We are living in a dispensation where people are so quick to judge others, forgetting to look inward in themselves. The fact is that we all were born into sin and for the fact that we are privileged to be saved by Grace, when we approach anyone to point out sin, we should do so with a Christ-like attitude, we should seek to restore not condemn.
No one is too perfect that he/ she won’t be seen with a spot of sin. We humans are very fast to judge others, and we judge base on the things we count as right to us not knowing if our right is wrong. After reading this I changed my perspective and stopped judging others.
This is a good lesson to learn. We should not condemn or judge others because nobody is perfect..
whenever we point a finger at someone the rest of the fingers directs to us , remove the log of wood in your eyes first before removing the sand in your brother’s eye , ” for a have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God” .
Today, people are always too fast to judge without considering the fact that they may be guilty of the sins they are convicting others of. Condemning people does not save them but a simple act of love and kindness does.
Being innocent of one sin doesn’t mean you’re innocent of others. We’re all humans and we have our weaknesses,we should correct with love when someone goes astray not condemning him/her.
Judging other without insight to why they do the things they do is wrong. No one is beyond sins and mistakes. Thanks Ma for this write up.
Let’s not be quick to judge others.
Like I said in the other post relating to this, we live in a society where people judge others easily without judging themselves first
These days you see people condemning others when they are guilty of the same crime. Thank you ma for this, at least we learn everyday.
Nobody is above mistake, let try not to make people feel intimidated because of their wrongs
I love the way the story was presented, the narrative made it look like something that happened in our time.kudos to the writer
In our today’s society people tends to find joy in another person’s agony. Yes sin is not good and a sinner should not be encouraged, but we also need to understand that in one way or another we have also sinned. Approach a sinner in a good way to advise and not to condemn.
This creative perspective on John 8:1-11 underscores the vital lesson of humility and empathy, teaching us not to be quick to judge, but rather to seek restoration and transformation in others.