In the Gospel of John, the story of the woman caught in adultery is perhaps as famous as any other section of the Gospel.

This story is a perfect example of how Jesus not just calls but exhibits in himself the principle we are to employ in our own lives: Hate the sin and love the sinner.

In this story, we see Jesus uniting justice and mercy as he does perfectly on the cross as well.

For, he forgives the woman (which presupposes a real wrong to be forgiven of) and he commands the woman to sin no more.

Jesus does not fall into the contemporary error of thinking we need to love and approve of the sin in order the love the sinner, or that if we have to hate the sin we necessarily have to hate the sinner.

To the contrary, we see the Lord paving the way for how we are to engage others who may have committed offense against us: we extend mercy and forgiveness of the person and implore them to cease sinning so that, as Jesus also says, they may not perish.


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