Mark 5:1-20New Living Translation (NLT)

Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Man

5 So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. [a] 2 When
Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil [b] spirit came out from the
tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be
restrained, even with a chain.4 Whenever he was put into chains and shacklesas he
often washe snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one
was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Day and night he wandered among the burial caves
and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones.
6
When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and
bowed low before him. 7 With a shriek, he screamed, Why are you interfering with me,
Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, dont torture
me! 8 For Jesus had already said to the spirit, Come out of the man, you evil spirit.
9
Then Jesus demanded, What is your name?
And he replied, My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this
man. 10 Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some
distant place.
11 12
There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. Send us
into those pigs, the spirits begged. Let us enter them.
13
So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the
pigs, and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the
lake and drowned in the water.
14
The herdsmen fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the
news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. 15 A crowd soon
gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion
of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all
afraid.16 Then those who had seen what happened told the others about the demon-
possessed man and the pigs. 17 And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away
and leave them alone.
18
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged
to go with him. 19 But Jesus said, No, go home to your family, and tell them everything
the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been. 20 So the man started off to
visit the Ten Towns[c]of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had
done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.

John 8:1-11New Living Translation (NLT)

A Woman Caught in Adultery

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 taught them. 3 As he was
speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had
been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
4
Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law
of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?
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, but let the one who has never sinned
throw the first stone!8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
9
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the
oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then
Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, Where are your accusers? Didnt even
one of them condemn you?
11
No, Lord, she said.

And Jesus said, Neither do I. Go and sin no more.

Exodus 20:13
Matthew Henry Commentary
20:12-17 The laws of the SECOND table, that is, the last six of the ten commandments,
state our duty to ourselves and to one another, and explain the great commandment,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, Lu 10:27. Godliness and honesty must go
together. The fifth commandment concerns the duties we owe to our relations. Honour
thy father and thy mother, includes esteem of them, shown in our conduct; obedience to
their lawful commands; come when they call you, go where they send you, do what they
bid you, refrain from what they forbid you; and this, as children, cheerfully, and from a
principle of love. Also submission to their counsels and corrections. Endeavouring, in
every thing, to comfort parents, and to make their old age easy; maintaining them if they
need support, which our Saviour makes to be particularly intended in this
commandment, Mt 15:4-6. Careful observers have noted a peculiar blessing in temporal
things on obedient, and the reverse on disobedient children. The sixth commandment
requires that we regard the life and the safety of others as we do our own. Magistrates
and their officers, and witnesses testifying the truth, do not break this command. Self-
defence is lawful; but much which is not deemed murder by the laws of man, is such
before God. Furious passions, stirred up by anger or by drunkenness, are no excuse:
more guilty is murder in duels, which is a horrible effect of a haughty, revengeful spirit.
All fighting, whether for wages, for renown, or out of anger and malice, breaks this
command, and the bloodshed therein is murder. To tempt men to vice and crimes which
shorten life, may be included. Misconduct, such as may break the heart, or shorten the
lives of parents, wives, or other relatives, is a breach of this command. This command
forbids all envy, malice, hatred, or anger, all provoking or insulting language. The
destruction of our own lives is here forbidden. This commandment requires a spirit of
kindness, longsuffering, and forgiveness. The seventh commandment concerns chastity.
We should be as much afraid of that which defiles the body, as of that which destroys it.
Whatever tends to pollute the imagination, or to raise the passions, falls under this law,
as impure pictures, books, conversation, or any other like matters. The eighth
commandment is the law of love as it respects the property of others. The portion of
worldly things allotted us, as far as it is obtained in an honest way, is the bread which
God hath given us; for that we ought to be thankful, to be contented with it, and, in the
use of lawful means, to trust Providence for the future. Imposing upon the ignorance,
easiness, or necessity of others, and many other things, break God's law, though
scarcely blamed in society. Plunderers of kingdoms though above human justice, will be
included in this sentence. Defrauding the public, contracting debts without prospect of
paying them, or evading payment of just debts, extravagance, all living upon charity
when not needful, all squeezing the poor in their wages; these, and such things, break
this command; which requires industry, frugality, and content, and to do to others, about
worldly property, as we would they should do to us. The ninth commandment concerns
our own and our neighbour's good name. This forbids speaking falsely on any matter,
lying, equivocating, and any way devising or designing to deceive our neighbour.
Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to hurt his reputation. Bearing false witness
against him, or in common conversation slandering, backbiting, and tale-bearing;
making what is done amiss, worse than it is, and in any way endeavouring to raise our
reputation upon the ruin of our neighbour's. How much this command is every day
broken among persons of all ranks! The tenth commandment strikes at the root; Thou
shalt not covet. The others forbid all desire of doing what will be an injury to our
neighbour; this forbids all wrong desire of having what will gratify ourselves.
Exodus 20:13 Commentaries
Study Bible
The Ten Commandments
12"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land
which the LORD your God gives you. 13"You shall not murder. 14"You shall not commit
adultery.
For Christians, Jesus teaching and actions have a huge influence over their
perspectives on ethical issues. In the case of punishment, Jesus is repeatedly shown to
look beyond what people have done and offer mercy to them.

One example is found in Johns gospel. In Chapter 8, some religious leaders bring a
woman caught in adultery to Jesus and ask him whether she should be stoned to death.
This was the standard penalty for adultery at the time. Jesus does not follow the letter of
the law: he instead tells them that whoever is without sin (i.e. has never done anything
wrong themselves) should throw the first stone. None of the men could do it all had
committed wrong-doing and so left. When Jesus asks the woman where her accusers
were, and she pointed out that they had gone, he tells her Then neither do I condemn
you go and sin no more.

Mercy means not giving people what they deserve. Although the law had said she
ought to pay for what she had done wrong, Jesus let her off the hook but with a
command not to do it again. She was forgiven and offered the chance to make things
right. This added impetus of bringing guilty people to a place where they can live as
they ought is fundamental in many Christians view of punishment. It is not
punishment for punishments sake, but something that aims to restore people, always
offering the offender a second chance.

This links into the wider issue of what Christians believe about human nature, sin and
forgiveness. The Bible teaches that all people have messed up and go against the will
of God. All people fall short of Gods standards. Christians believe that God became
human, in the form of Jesus, and died on the cross as a way of taking the punishment
that people deserve. It is because of Jesus death and resurrection that Christians
believe that humans can have their sins forgiven.

So for Christians, even the most hardened criminal can receive Gods forgiveness if
they are sorry and repent (i.e. takes positive steps to change). Furthermore, Christians
believe that when people allow God to take control of their life, they can be completely
transformed into a new person (see Romans 12:2). A Christian would say that there is
always hope that an offender could be reformed or rehabilitated. Therefore the
punishment meted out to criminals should always allow for the possibility that they could
reform.

Answer: There are two instances in the New Testament when Jesus told someone to
sin no more, and they were each under very different circumstances. The first is when
Jesus healed an invalid by the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:115). Afterward, Jesus found
the man and told him, See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may
happen to you (verse 14). It is clear that Jesus knew what had caused the mans
condition. We are not told the specifics of the mans physical impairment, but the
context implies that it was caused by sinful choices. Jesus warned the man that he had
been given a second chance and that he should make better choices. If the man
returned to his sinful behavior, he would have wasted the opportunity Jesus gave him to
live whole and forgiven.

The second instance is in the account of the woman taken in the act of adultery (John
8:311). When the womans accusers brought her before Jesus, expecting Him to
pronounce judgment, He told them that the one who was without sin should throw the
first stone. One by one, the condemning crowd left. Then Jesus told the woman,
Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more (verse 11). She had been caught. She
was guilty. She did deserve stoning according to the Law of Moses (Leviticus
20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22). But the religious leaders who had dragged her there had
no concern for holiness. They were trying to trap Jesus into saying that the Law did not
matter (verse 6).

Jesus often reminded those religious leaders that He had not come to abolish the Law
but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). He, as God, was the Author of the Law (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Pharisees focused on the letter of the Law but missed the true spirit of it, which is
given in Galatians 5:14: The whole law can be summed up in this one command: Love
your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus refused to condemn the woman, He was not
minimizing the importance of holiness. He was offering her the same kind of forgiveness
He offers every one of us (Acts 3:19).

In saying, Go and sin no more, Jesus was not speaking of sinless perfection. He was
warning against a return to sinful lifestyle choices. His words both extended mercy and
demanded holiness. Jesus was always the perfect balance of grace and truth (John
1:14). With forgiveness comes the expectation that we will not continue in the same
path of rebelliousness. Those who know Gods love will naturally want to obey Him
(John 14:15).

When we turn to Christ and receive His forgiveness, we experience a heart change
(Luke 9:23; Acts 1:8). Forgiveness is not cheap, and it does not excuse the sin that
separated us from God. It cost God everything to offer us the cleansing that pronounces
us righteous before Him (John 3:16; 15:13). Rather than continue in the self-centered
path that led us astray from Him to begin with, the forgiven can walk in Gods path (Luke
14:27). A move toward God is a move toward righteousness, purity, and holy living (1
Peter 1:16; Romans 8:29). We cannot experience the transforming power of forgiveness
without being forever changed.

It goes without saying that the woman caught in adultery did not return to her infidelity.
She had met Jesus. She would not be perfect. No one is. But she was forever changed.
Her eyes had been opened to the depravity of what she was doing. Sin no longer held
the appeal it once did. When we meet Jesus, sin no longer holds its fatal attraction.
Grace changes things. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no
means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans
6:12).When we are born again (John 3:3), the power of the Holy Spirit breaks the
power that sin once had over us (Romans 6:6). Once we lived only to please ourselves,
but when we have been forgiven, our motivation changes. We now live to please God
(Galatians 2:20).

It should be the goal of every Christian to sin no more, although we recognize that,
while we are in the flesh, we will still stumble (1 John 1:8). Gods desire for each of us is
to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). We still sin, but sin is no longer a lifestyle choice
(1 John 3:910). When we fail, we can come to God and ask forgiveness (1 John 1:9; 1
Peter 4:12). And if we are truly Gods children, He will correct us, disciplining us when
we need it (Hebrews 12:611). His work is to conform us to the image of His Son
(Romans 8:29).