The Cut and Paste Mistake
Talk about a paradox…
Some unbelievers like to quote a Bible verse to justify their their unbelief (!) or use a Scripture to explain why they reject evangelical Christianity.
So they take a verse, or part of one, a verse that they don’t fully understand, and they make their case.
And in a world where there’s enormous and ever-increasing pressure to normalize behavior that God’s Word condemns as immoral (and then force that worldview onto everyone in society) there’s a famous go-to line (from Jesus) unbelievers like to use (and abuse) to rebuke Christians for staying true to Biblical values.
The problem is that they only quote the first half of what Jesus says and leave off the rest of His thought.
Very convenient, but a half-truth is a full lie.
It’s the cut and paste approach to the Bible—take the part you like, and cut out the parts you don’t.
The passage I’m talking about is found in John chapter 8 (here condensed).
4 “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” … 7 When they kept on questioning Him… He said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” … 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time… 10 Jesus… asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
The bad-boy Pharisees are wanting to trap Jesus into saying or doing the wrong thing.
So they drag a woman caught in the act of adultery before Him and ask Him for His judgment in this controversial matter.
Long story short, Jesus protects her from being publicly condemned (and subject to the death penalty), by convicting her accusers of their own personal guilt: “Let the one with no sin be the first to cast a stone at her.”
It’s a well-known and well-loved story, and for good reason—it’s a picture of the Gospel–of you and me.
But sadly, it’s not uncommon these days for unbelievers (who wish to justify sinful lifestyles) to hide behind this passage claiming that the same Jesus who didn’t condemn the adulterous woman would not condemn them.
But they ALWAYS leave off the second sentence which explains why this woman could escape well-deserved condemnation.
Moral transformation (leaving her life of sin) would prove she had come to saving faith; which qualified her for forgiveness—she no longer stood condemned because she had come to faith.
Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life (John 5:24).
She could enjoy a full pardon for all her sin based on the condition that she had faith in Jesus, and that faith would be evidenced by a clean break from sexual immorality (which is called repentance). The only sinners who will not be condemned are the ones who have been born again through faith in Jesus.
And proof they’ve been born again is that they leave their life of sin (not remain in it).
