When you try to live this life of overcoming sin you will quickly find that it is easier said than done. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. It is clear that in order to be Christ’s we need to do exactly this. “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:24. “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:13. Then we are fulfilling the command to “go and sin no more.” If we do this – if we never let these desires become sin – then we are following Jesus, just as He commanded. What else did He mean than that we should deny the thoughts and desires that tempt and entice us? That we should take up our cross and put these thoughts to death before they become sin? In this way we follow Jesus’ example of being tempted as we are, yet without sin. He is telling her to say no to the sin that dwells in her and stop the desire from being conceived stop the temptation from becoming sin.Īnd isn’t this the same command that He gives to the rest of us? The power of the crossĭoesn’t Jesus Himself say, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me?” Luke 9:23. So when Jesus says, “Go and sin no more,” He is not expecting that this woman is going to leave her sinful flesh at the door and never be tempted again. In other words, it is only when I agree with the thoughts and temptations that come up that I have sinned. It is only when the desire is conceived that we have committed sin. But having sin in our body does not mean we have to give in to these temptations. That is also what John means when he writes that we have sin. It is our own desires that entice us and tempt us, after all. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. The verses in James 1:14-15 give a good description of this sin that we all have. What if “go and sin no more” is actually a command to go out and stop living in sin? Is that impossible? What did Jesus mean? After all, John writes that we are liars if we say that we do not have sin. Almost nobody has dared to look at the verse this way: What if Jesus meant what He said? What does it mean to “sin no more?” It seems like everybody has an explanation for this verse, each one more elaborate and far-fetched than the last. Other people are of the opinion that Jesus was being sarcastic and told the woman to go and sin no more because He wanted to show up a bunch of Pharisees. Some people say that Jesus meant it in the same way that a parent will tell their child to stop biting his fingernails – hoping he’ll stop but, realistically, not expecting that he can just quit cold turkey. Many different explanations have been suggested, in varying degrees of ridiculousness. In John 8:11, Jesus commands an adulterous woman to “Go and sin no more.” Why would He say this if it were impossible to stop sinning?
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