This brief commentary was published in the latest issue of our ChristianGovernance e-letter. We have a regular column called, “God’s law in brief” where we published the following comments. You can sign up for our e-letter at our website by clicking here.
In I Thessalonians 5:26, Paul tells the Thessalonians: “Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.”
I don’t see much of that happening these days. Is that binding on all Christians?
Now let’s go to John 8:1-11 and the account of the woman caught in adultery. This situation is of a different order. I’m not trying to make a comparison with the Thessalonians passage. I just want us to be mindful that proper exegesis of the Scriptures is required and that Scripture has to be interpreted, rather than blindly and superficially lifted off the pages of the Bible.
That is what usually happens with John 8:1-11.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the way we approach that account is that we look at it from an anthropocentric, or humanistic, perspective, rather than through a theocentric frame of reference. In other words, we come it from an issue-based, rather than a procedure-based, mentality.
Jesus, on the other hand, was far more interested in procedure, and most of us miss that completely.
If the woman was caught in the very act of adultery, as the passage indicates, well, a person doesn’t commit adultery with herself! Where was the other offender – the man?
God’s law is as much concerned about process as it is about ends, perhaps even more so. That is why ChristianGovernance is so concerned about governance and not simply an array of issues. So much of good governance is about procedure.
For Jesus, perfectly committed to God’s law, it was essential that the process of God’s law be honoured in order for true justice to be done. Since the religious leaders did not also bring the man to him for punishment, they violated the process in at least one place. It was, therefore, impossible for justice to be done, so Jesus, in conformity to the law of God revealed in the Old Testament, was not bound to punish the woman alone. In fact, the right thing to do was what He, the sinless Son of God, and that was to let her go rather than requiring criminal punishment.
There is absolutely nothing in this passage by way of a rewriting of God’s law to repeal criminal sanctions against adultery. To say there is, is to look at the incident through anthropocentric eyes rather than with a theocentric vision.
Process is so important to the faithful execution of justice among sinful men that it is right to release someone who is guilty of a crime if one can’t find him guilty through due process. God’s law includes many procedural safeguards. One is the requirement for at least two witnesses. Another is a ban on perjury with a severe penalty for violating this law.
It is because procedure is so important to Biblical law that human rights commissions are so evil. Even if they arrive at the right decision at times, they are riddled with unjust procedure. The wicked procedure flows out of the humanistic ideology that inspired the institutions in the first place. To again strengthen God’s law order in Canada, we need to abolish human rights commissions.
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Thank you for an article that doesn’t use this portion of scripture as an argument for ignoring all sin, or saying in effect “everyone of us sins, so let’s allow all sin”. I’m sick of that type of rationalization. If I may, I’d also like to mention that the motivation of the men who brought the adulterous woman before Jesus was evil. They hoped to catch Him contradicting the law. It was not at all about justice. The law said that they (who caught the adulterers) should have immediately stoned both the man and the woman to death. Obviously, they did not.
The false reading of the Word of God has always been with us and always will be, because the heart of man is desperately wicked. Even the regenerate are plagued by the flesh and will be until the resurrection. In our selfishness we always want to read into (or out of) the bible things that favor our sinful desires. Only by the Spirit can we hope to see the real truth in it. How else to explain adultery, female ordination, gay marriage and gay ordination in the church today?
Why not just advocate for the stoning of adulterous women. You know you want to.
Actually stoning is what we have been receiving by a variety of critics – mostly atheistic, it appears – throughout the day who have avoided rational argumentation (except for Etch) and opted for knee-jerk comments based on prior prejudice that is rooted in myth and ignorance rather than facts. This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this. I’ve long since given up expecting most atheists to be tolerant, rational and unbigoted. The reality is that atheists start with a completely different – and contrary – set of presuppositions, so just like two vehicles driving 500 miles in opposite directions will not arrive at the same place, a Christian and an atheist will not draw the same conclusions on what is moral and what is immoral, what is right and wrong, what is reasonable and what is extreme. We understand that, but what is really annoying is that, beyond that, so many atheists just don’t bother to use logic and rationality to make their cases against Christians. I guess, on their perch of arrogance and self-importance, they just aren’t willing to stoop down low enough to give any respect to Christians. Interesting though how their hostility is much stronger towards Christians than Muslims, who advocate a real disturbing worldview. It shows that the heart of the battle is God and Christ vs. those who hate Him. Everything else is details.