Gospel of John Student DevotionalSýnishorn

How often do you go throughout your daily life and find yourselves judging others? I think we can all honestly say that we’ve judged someone at some point in our lives. Maybe it was the way they acted, the way they dressed, or maybe it was something they said. Or maybe you judged someone because they did something that you would never personally see yourself doing. This may be the case but we don’t have to stay in these ways.

The people in John 8 were in this situation when they caught a woman in adultery. The Pharisees quickly brought the woman to the place where Jesus was teaching to be stoned. “Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center.” ‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭3‬. The Pharisees were very quick to judge and began to accuse the woman explaining to Jesus why she should be stoned. The Pharisees were very persistent trying to get Jesus to approve of the stoning, but Jesus knelt down and wrote in the sand. “When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground.” (‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭7‬-‭8‬) Everyone left one by one and not a stone was thrown.

This just puts into perspective that all these people were judging this woman for committing adultery. They overlooked their own sins just to point a finger at someone else’s actions. These verses are a good reminder that we are above no one else around us. We also make mistakes, but Jesus gives us an opportunity to repent, and he gives us grace even if we might not deserve it.