Daily Devotional For Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Good morning Southside! I am following the One Year Chronological Bible reading suggestion and any Bible verses you see highlighted in bold (ex. John 3:16), means it is a link to that verse. All you have to do is click on the reference and it will take you to the verse online. Our daily devotional for today comes from the words of Jesus found in John 8:1-11.
We live in a culture where we no longer blush about anything. Sin has become so normalized on TV, in the movies, streaming in our culture, that we no longer flinch or have a reaction to it or are absolutely appalled by it. But I remember a time in the church and in our culture where we did. The Bible lists some situations like that to me that disturb me to this day. One is when King Herod ordered the murder of all boys under 2 when the magi did not return to him when Jesus was born, A second one is the wicked and evil Jezebel who in cold-blooded destruction of Naboth took his vineyard. In our text today, we come to a story where the disciples would have blushed seeing Jesus willing to talk to a woman caught in adultery.
John lets us know that this was not really about her violating the Old Testament Law in this matter. This was a setup by the religious leaders to entrap Jesus. Jesus being God in human flesh saw it for what it was. To Him it was not a setup to entrap Him, but a situation to help a woman experience salvation. The Bible tells us that the religious leaders caught in the very act of having sex with a man who was not her husband. They dragged her out of the house probably unclothed and threw her down before Jesus. The Old Testament Law required that both the man and the woman be put to death (Lev. 20:10).
In all likelihood, he was part of the entrapment for this woman being used by the religious leaders to get Jesus. Now think about this, the religious leaders were accusing this woman of breaking the Law, but the religious leaders broke the law in letting the man go free. It is like the saying, “Oh what a wicked web we weave when at first we do not succeed.”
In that day, women were property. I think one reason the religious leaders were so intent on getting Jesus is how He elevated women and children in His ministry. The religious leaders, who hated Gentiles, almost hated women to the same degree. They had a saying, “I would rather be a Gentile dog than a woman.” To Jesus, women were not property, but people created in the image of God that deserved salvation from God the Father. A wife was nothing more than a glorified prostitute to them. You bred her for sex and bearing children just like you did your cattle and sheep.
So, Jesus could have urged the religious leaders to offer her forgiveness or He could have sided with them and had her put to death. Instead, Jesus exposed them for their hypocrisy and being violators of the Law. He turned the charge from her to them. I like what New Testament scholar A.W. Pink writes:
“The problem presented to Christ by His enemies was no mere local one. So far as human reason can perceive it was the profoundest moral problem which ever could or can confront God Himself. That problem was how justice and mercy could be harmonized.… How can mercy be exercised when the sword of justice bars her way? How can grace flow forth except by slighting holiness?” (Source: Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 2 vols., p. 421.
Meaning – if Jesus condemned her, no other sinner would ever come to Him for fear of being condemned to death. They would conclude that Jesus was a condemner of sinners, not a redeemer of sinners. We do not know what Jesus wrote in the ground when He bent down. Scholars and believers love to speculate. It is impossible to know for sure what Jesus wrote on the ground, or even what He meant by this action. Some commentators say that He was listing the sins of the accusers, others that He was writing out His response before speaking it, Why?
This was the custom that Roman judges did when rendering a verdict, still others that he was writing out the law’s condemnation against false witnesses, or the words of Jeremiah 17:13, “O LORD, … those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth.” Those are all reasonably possible, but John who was there, and would have seen what Jesus wrote, intentionally left this out. Why? It was not relevant. What Jesus wrote was not as important as what Jesus did. Jesus was not opposing the Law, but how these religious leaders perverted it.
The Old Testament Law stated that before the religious leaders could enact the death penalty, there had to be 2-3 witnesses to give testimony to the crime the person committed worthy of death and they were to be the first ones to cast stones to kill the person (Deut. 17:7). Bible scholar James Montgomery Boice writes this about this Scripture:
“Obviously, there was something in the gaze of the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the tone of his voice, or simply in the power of His presence that got through to these men, unrepentant as they were, and left them powerless. Think of the efforts they had gone through! Think of the plotting! Yet they were destroyed in a moment when they were confronted by the God who masters circumstances” (Source: James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, p. 516).
Reflection Assignment: Are there sins you still blush over? Are there sins in your own life that you rationalize and justify? Why? Is there a sin or sins you think are undeserving of God’s forgiveness such as child sexual abuse or murder or rape or abortion or serial killing? Why do you think we tend to be less forgiving than our Lord?
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 6:15, “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord please forgive me when I believe my sins are not as evil and bad as another person’s sins. Lord, please give me the attitude to see people as you see them to extend Your grace to them. I love You Lord, In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly