“Christianity should be rejected because it supports patriarchy and looks down on women!” Perhaps you’ve heard something like this before – maybe you’ve even entertained such thoughts. But the first few verses of John chapter 8 should set this notion to rest. For the fact is that Jesus always insisted that women be treated with the same dignity and as having the same value as men.

And it was perhaps because His enemies knew how willing Jesus was to welcome women and talk with them, as He did with the woman at the well in Sychar (John 4:5), that they laid this particular trap for Him. For when the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman “caught in adultery, in the very act” (John 8:4), it’s likely that they thought He would let her go because of His tender heart. And that would give them clear evidence that He had turned against the Law of Moses, which prescribed the death penalty for such behavior (Deuteronomy 22:22).

But Jesus knew the Law much better than they did. For Deuteronomy 22:22 makes plain that if a couple were to be caught in adultery, both were to suffer the death penalty – and it does, after all, require both a man and a woman to engage in this particular activity. It was thus obvious to Jesus that His enemies were doing exactly what so many people accuse modern Christians of doing: having a double standard for men and women, making women suffer the consequences of sexual promiscuity while the men are free to have fun without any responsibility for their actions.

But Jesus would have none of it. And so He bent down and wrote on the ground – maybe He even wrote the words of the Law out just so there would be no misunderstanding. But then He paused and asked the woman’s accusers where the man was that they considered to be without sin – where was the man that they had excused of adultery while they condemned the woman. He was the one, Jesus said, who should cast the first stone at her. It was this clearest evidence of their own lawbreaking that caused all of them to walk away, leaving the accused woman alone.

But if Jesus insisted that women be treated fairly, He also upheld the need for sexual relations to be confined to marriage. No, He didn’t condemn the woman who was left before Him – after all, no one remained to accuse her, and He hadn’t caught her in the act. And, as John 3:17 points out, it wasn’t Jesus’ job to condemn anyone during His earthly ministry. He had come to save sinners at the cost of His own life.

But Jesus also told her to “sin no more” (John 8:11), thus making clear that what she had done was in fact sinful. And notice that He did not say, “Your sins are forgiven,” as He did to the paralytic whose friends lowered him through the roof to get to Jesus (Mark 2:5). Thus, while insisting that women be treated fairly and justly, Jesus did not excuse either of this particular couple in their breaking of marriage vows.

And modern Christians are called to maintain the same perspective. While it is not our job to condemn anyone for whatever desires they may have, we are called to affirm God’s standard that human sexuality is to be expressed exclusively within the marriage of one man and one woman for a lifetime. We are to hold everyone to this standard equally, even while we promise God’s grace and mercy for those who repent of failing to meet it. For no matter how any of us may think of ourselves, the fact is that all of us are sitting with this woman at the feet of Jesus, guilty sinners in need of His blood to wash us clean and make us new.

John 8:2-11 (NASB)

2 And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them.
3 And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst,
4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.
5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”
6 And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.
7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
8 And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst.
10 And straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
11 And she said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more.”