The Stones We Throw

I was just thinking about the incident with Jesus and the mob that wanted to stone a woman that had committed adultery and had been "caught in the act". What struck me is the very obvious fact that Jesus did not throw stones at her either. His response was not to strike or condemn her, not with his actions or his words. How many Christians, in the same situation, would react in the same way?

Jesus had the "right" to judge her, but He did not. He did not throw stones.

It saddens me that there is a trend of stone-throwing within Christianity. In fact, we have become too good at condemning sins as a way of safely avoiding the same judgment.

Simply put, the moral issues that Christians fixate upon, that are the most discussed, most condemned and most preached against, are not the sins that most Christians themselves struggle with (adultery, theft of church funds, heresy), but with moral issues that are precisely other.

Instead of dealing with sin in our midst, instead of being humble and seeking after holiness and righteousness, we have taken to throwing stones at the world and what we perceive are its wrongs. Yes, sin is sin. But we are too obsessed with others' sins and not our own.

We can only offer salvation when we have experienced it ourselves, when our sins have been laid at the cross and we carry our cross and follow Jesus. 

Judgment begins in God's house. 1 Corinthians 5 says that if we want to avoid encountering wickedness, we would have to leave this world altogether.   We are here to be a light, so can we stop repeating the obvious, that this world is full of darkness, and start being the light.