Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God
8 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and talked to them. 3 As he was speaking, the Jewish leaders and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and placed her out in front of the staring crowd.
4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 Moses’ law says to kill her. What about it?”
6 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. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, hurl the stones at her until she dies. But only he who never sinned may throw the first!”
8 Then he stooped down again and wrote some more in the dust. 9 And the Jewish leaders slipped away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until only Jesus was left in front of the crowd with the woman.
10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
11 “No, sir,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
12 Later, in one of his talks, Jesus said to the people, “I am the Light of the world. So if you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, for living light will flood your path.”
13 The Pharisees replied, “You are boasting—and lying!”
14 Jesus told them, “These claims are true even though I make them concerning myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. 15 You pass judgment on me without knowing the facts. I am not judging you now; 16 but if I were, it would be an absolutely correct judgment in every respect, for I have with me the Father who sent me. 17 Your laws say that if two men agree on something that has happened, their witness is accepted as fact. 18 Well, I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.”
19 “Where is your father?” they asked.
Jesus answered, “You don’t know who I am, so you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, then you would know him too.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.