Worth Repeating

On Sunday we concluded the message with Jesus' words to the woman caught in adultery: Has no one condemned you? Than neither do I, go and leave your life of sin.

And it seems like we often have trouble with these twin messages of grace and truth.

The grace is that there is no condemnation in Jesus Christ. He does not condemn people for sexual sin and we don't either. Sexual sin is not hard for God to forgive. It's not ultimately about what we have done, but about what HE has done.

The truth is that Jesus commands us to leave our life of sin. Jesus says sin no more. He does not say sin less. He says sin no more to a woman who was engaged in serious sexual sin minutes before encountering Jesus.

No condemnation. Leave your life of sin. If we're only saying one of these statements we are not being faithful to Jesus.

Is it hard to follow Jesus' teachings on single sexuality? Yes. Is it harder for people who've already been sexually active? Yes. Is that fair? Not necessarily. Life isn't fair. Some of us have it harder than others in this area. But that doesn't change Jesus words.

Personally, I find "Be holy as I am holy" and "love your enemies" to be harder teachings to follow. I find if I dedicate most of my life to Jesus I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I find if I ignore my enemies I'm feeling pretty good about myself. But that's not the standard Jesus sets. And just because I'm not living up to it does not mean Jesus didn't say it.

If there's a discrepancy between Jesus' teachings and my life, the fault is mine not his. Let's never forget that.