John 8 opens with the adulterous woman story which ends with “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” It’s a story that many translators took out – check your Bible and see if there’s a note to the effect of, “This story does not occur in the most reliable Greek manuscripts.” Why not? Here’s part of the story:

Then they said to Jesus, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the very act of adultery. Doesn’t Moses’ law command us to stone to death a woman like this? Tell us, what do you say we should do with her?” They were only testing Jesus because they hoped to trap him with his own words and accuse him of breaking the laws of Moses. But Jesus didn’t answer them. Instead he simply bent down and wrote in the dust with his finger. Angry, they kept insisting that he answer their question, so Jesus stood up and looked at them and said, “Let’s have the man who has never had a sinful desire throw the first stone at her.”  (John 8.4 – 7, TPT)

I like this translation: “Let’s have the man who has never had a sinful desire thrown the first stone at her.” I expect that sinful desires were going on right there. What do you think the woman was wearing if she was “caught in the act of adultery”? By the way, where was the man? Doesn’t it take two? 

In general, most of us could be less condemning. It’s the whole issue brought up in the Atlantic article. Condemn! Punish! Dr. Tim Keller was trying to counteract this attitude when we said, “Proud people are out; humble people are in.” That is just not the way we usually see it.

Here’s the note from TPT on the adulterous woman story:

8:11 It should be noted that this entire episode (referred to commonly as the “Pericope Adulterae”) is missing in the majority of the most reliable Greek manuscripts. There are some manuscripts that have this story at the end of the book of John and at least two that include it in the Gospel of Luke. Many scholars surmise that this episode in the ministry of Jesus was added after the Gospel of John had been completed.

However, it is the conclusion of this translation that the above text is indeed an inspired account of the ministry of Jesus and may have been deleted by many translators and copyists who doubted that Jesus could tell an adulterer that he would not condemn her. St. Augustine, one of the early church fathers, mentioned this story and stated that many translators had removed it because they interpreted it as Jesus giving license to immorality. God’s grace always seems to startle the religious. (St. Augustine, De Conjug. Adult., II:6) (Emphasis mine)

This is good, and Augustine got it right. “God’s grace always seems to startle the religious.”

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6.9 – 11, ESV, emphasis mine)

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Luke 18.13, 14, NIV)