You Will Be Rewarded!

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” John 8:4-5

What a question! The question on adultery; Please read John 8:1-11. How can it only be the woman that was caught? Can a woman commit adultery by herself? So where is the man? “They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger” John 8:6. Jesus was probably infuriated with their hypocrisy and they came quoting Moses. Moses said both of them should be stoned [Lev.20:10] but you brought only one person and are quoting Moses’ sentence. Jesus stooped down and was writing in the dust. If I was Jesus and they asked me this question, what I would be writing in the dust would probably be ‘God please help me not to call down fire from heaven to consume these people’. The Bible says they kept asking him and asking him and he kept on writing. ‘O God! You are my Helper. Help me oh God not to slap this old man that is holding the stone’. That’s what I’ll be writing. “They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” John 8:7. And you can imagine, their lives flashed by in their faces. For the first time they could see themselves. The man that was stealing saw himself stealing and dropped the stone. The old man that probably had committed adultery about five times caught his breath and dropped the stone. You know the older ones are the wiser ones. Then the younger ones thought to themselves, if all these old men are dropping their stones then what are we still holding ours for? -and everybody dropped their stones. Wow! Everybody. If you find a congregation of people that are condemning other people, you won’t find Jesus there.

The question on sacrifice – sacrifice for the things of God. “Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?” Matt.19:27. What a carnal question? Shouldn’t Jesus just say, ‘It’s your heart that matters, don’t worry about what you will get, just give’. As nice as that sounds, that’s not what Jesus said. Please read Matt.19:28-30. Where do you need houses? That’s just so profound! What Jesus was saying in essence is, ‘If you sacrifice for Me, you will be rewarded’. Jesus was saying, you cannot out give me. Now that contradicts a lot of teaching that I’ve heard. Some people will say just give to God, don’t worry about the return. That actually sounds very noble, but Jesus didn’t say that. Are you going to base your walk with God on your own thinking or what Jesus says?

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace to base my walk with You and my reactions to situations on what You say and not on my emotions or logic, in Jesus Name.