Jesus Didn’t Condemn Women. So Why Do We?

I posted on Threads once that I don’t think Jesus would respond to a woman who has had an abortion with condemnation. My comments were flooded with folks citing a Bible story found in John 8 referred to as “the woman caught in adultery.” At the end of the story Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” On my thread, several people commented something along the lines of, He wouldn’t condemn her, but he would tell her to go and sin no more.

In general, I wish Christians would stop cherry picking verses and throwing them at people like weapons. But as I thought about why this bothered me, I realized that it’s because Jesus's words in this verse felt like a contradiction to my modern ears.

So I went and looked it up to see what I was missing.

We have a deeply rooted problem in mainstream Christianity—a tendency to filter everything through sin and judgment, rather than compassion and grace. This filter has malformed our faith over generations. 

What Did Jesus Mean by "Go and Sin No More"?

“Neither do I condemn you” sounds like, “I don’t find you to be guilty.” But then, “Go and sin no more” sounds like,  “Don’t do things that make you guilty.”

What?

When I can’t make sense of something in the Bible, I remind myself that I must be missing something. In our modern translations of the Bible, we are missing layers of meaning because of years of translation and culture/context shifts. I get excited when I realize it’s time to do a deeper dive.

There were two things I was missing. First, I was fascinated to learn that “go and sin no more” wasn’t always part of this story, and scholars have noted that it appears only one other time in the Gospels. The passage itself (John 7:53-8:11) is absent from the earliest Greek manuscripts, which is why most modern Bibles set it off with a footnotes.

Secondly, this phrase "go and sin no more" only appears one other time in the Gospels. In John 5, Jesus heals a paralytic man on the Sabbath, which violated religious law. When Jesus tells him, 'go and sin no more,' it’s less about moral failure and more about avoiding the scrutiny of religious leaders as Nate Sparks argues. In both stories, Jesus pushes back against religious legalism.

The Trap in John 8 Was Never About Her

The focal point of John 8 is Jesus on trial by the teachers of the law. They’re laying a trap by misrepresenting the religious law.

In the time of Jesus, execution for adultery was not practiced (Wisdom Commentary on John). Also, according to the norms of the day and religious laws cited, for adultery to occur, the woman must be betrothed or married. And in any case, the offense is not moral, it is legal–against a man’s property rights.

So the scene is not a trial, and she is not a defendant. She is a tool. The men holding her are not interested in her or what she did; they are interested in what Jesus will say about it.

"Such Women"

The Bible is full of stories of women being brutalized by men, stories that were written in a time in history when women were literally seen as property. I often wonder how the Bible would have been different if it had been written by women, or even written by men who thought women’s lives and thoughts were important. Jesus was radical for his time because he did care about the lives and thoughts of women. 

In line with this cultural view, the woman in this story is not much more than an object. Her accusers say in verse 5, “In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death such women.” (emphasis mine).

And oh, doesn’t that hit?

Don’t we, as a culture, have strict definitions around the punishments that certain women deserve? The stigma around abortion is strong. The stereotypes around such women who have them are typically negative and not rooted in fact, like, women who have abortions are godless, irresponsible, young, unmarried, thoughtless, uneducated, or poor. These are all myths. Women of all ages, and from all walks of life, and with different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, and educational levels seek abortions. Women who are already mothers and women who are partnered seek abortions. 1 in 4 women in the US seek abortive care at some point during their reproductive years.

Such women deserve our condemnation, right? They should be told to “go and sin no more.”

He Stood with Her, and He was in Danger Too

In the story, both Jesus and the woman are in real danger of being stoned to death. In both John 5 and John 8, Jesus finds himself on trial alongside the marginalized. In John 8, the woman isn’t just an object of punishment—she represents all those who are unjustly targeted by systems of power. Jesus chooses to stand with her in solidarity, knowing full well the risks. This idea comes from Leticia Guardiola-Saenz as cited in the Wisdom Commentary.

We should not be surprised by this! This is what Jesus modeled for us–how to stand in solidarity with those who are experiencing the impacts of broken systems and how to work to bring healing.

Rather than a lens of judgment, the lens through which I now read the Bible is one of compassion. I have come to believe that the most important attribute of God is compassion (read more about about that here). When I read the stories of Jesus in particular, I am always looking for a way to interpret the story through the lens of compassion. I notice that I still tend to view Jesus as being judgmental or critical. In truth, he is judgmental toward the religious folks of the day, but not toward the so-called “sinners.”

When we see sin as individual moral failure instead of as systems that limit our collective flourishing, we’re always comparing ourselves to others, hoping to be the ‘innocent’ one. The oppressive religious systems of Jesus's time sought to control people, particularly women. Today, we see similar dynamics in how women’s bodies are regulated and stigmatized. Jesus's call to "go and sin no more" wasn't about moral purity—it was about freeing people from those systems that sought to oppress them. In John 8, Jesus’s message is liberation, not judgment.

Choosing Compassion and Solidarity

You most likely know someone close to you who has had an abortion. If you think you don’t, it’s most likely because you’re not a safe space for that person.

That isn't a guess. According to a Lifeway study, more than 4 in 10 women who have had an abortion were attending church at least monthly when they ended a pregnancy, and 70% identify as Christian. Of the regular churchgoers among them, 52% have told no one at their church. Only 38% believe churches are safe places to discuss pregnancy options. Sixty-five percent say church members judge single pregnant women.

She as in the room. She didn't tell you. She had read the room correctly.

It's time for us to stop condemning or distancing ourselves from women who’ve had abortions. Instead, following Jesus' model would look like standing with them, acknowledging the validity of their life experiences, and helping lift the burdens they carry.

I'm one of those women. I've written about my own abortion and what it was like to make that decision inside a faith that had no language for it.

If you're carrying something like it, or sitting with the residue of being condemned by people who believed they were being faithful, I wrote a liturgy for after an abortion or a pregnancy loss, and a meditation for sitting with shame rather than arguing with it. Both are free.

And if you want the long version of this argument, it's most of what my book is — twelve chapters on the ways this tradition handled women badly, and what's still in there for us anyway.

The historical/cultural context throughout my article here I found in the Wisdom Commentary for John 8, https://a.co/d/e0KtaFD