The Pitfalls of Pride - James 4:11-17

The Pitfalls of Pride

Bible Passage: James 4:11–17 “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Opening Illustration:

Anybody here knows what Blockbuster was? In the early 2000’s, streaming was not a concept yet and if you ever wanted to watch a movie at home, you would go to blockbuster and rent out a physical DVD just like you would do at a library for books. It was the main store for video rentals at it’s time. They had thousands of stores worldwide and were dominating the market. So when Netflix approached Blockbuster with an opportunity to partner and buy them out, Blockbuster dismissed the idea, believing that physical rentals would never go away and that streaming would never pick up in popularity.

Fast forward a few years, Netflix completely changed the game on how we watch movies and Blockbuster failed to adapt. By 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. It was their false sense of confidence and pride in themselves that they could not see the changing world around them. Pride can keep us from seeing clearly, making wise decisions, or responding to the opportunities God places before us. Just as Blockbuster had a chance to buy Netflix, they let pride take over and this led to the company failing.

In our passage today, James warns us about the dangers of pride. Pride can lead to slander, boasting, and even inaction. He warns us against this mindset, but he also points us to the right direction: humility.

As we continue with our series of James, we see that he builds on the secret to winning life. If you guys were here last month, Pastor Kenny gave us what the secret to winning life is: humility. Last youth group, James warns us against worldliness where “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”. He calls us to humble ourselves before the Lord and we see that if we don’t listen and follow suit, pride can lead to slander, boasting and inaction.

We’re going to touch on all three of those points today.

Pride can lead to slander

Pride can lead to boasting

Pride can lead to inaction

Through these warnings, James is calling us back to humility. A life that recognizes God’s authority, submits to His will, and reflects His love in everything we do.

1. Pride leads to Slander - James 4:11-12

James 4:11 “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”

James begins by addressing the power of our words once again and the destructiveness of speaking evil against one another. The concept of the power of words is mentioned over and over again in Scripture and James brings this to light.

Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits."

James 3:5 says “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!"

It’s no surprise that James emphasizes that we are not to speak evil against one another. This isn’t just about venting frustrations or talking about what happened at school if your parents asked how school was.

James is getting deeper than that and the language he uses here is literally translated “speak against” but other translations are speak evil/slander/defame. It is about engaging in harmful speech. The same word is used in Numbers 21:5 where Israel “spoke against God and against Moses” and also in Psalms 101:5 where it says “slandering someone in secret”. It is harmful speech that seeks to tear others down.

Back in the early 2000’s, there’s a TV show called gossip girl. The premise of the drama series is following the lives of privileged high-schoolers in Manhattan. As they navigate through their lives, their world is run by this blog/website known as “gossip girl”. Teenagers from all around submit gossips and tips to this blogger who then posts it online for the whole world to read. As the series goes on, we see the same reoccurring theme happening over and over again. The individuals will submit posts so that they can defame another person with their own motive attached. This results in breaking of relationships between best friends, partners, and even society as a whole with jobs and family. The show reveals how something as simple as gossip and our words can cause serious harm to others.

The act of speaking evil against one another is really rooted in pride, a pride that blinds us to our own flaws and makes us feel justified in judging others. James continues to expand on the consequences of doing such. It not only defames the other and breaks relationships and trust but we are speaking evil against the law and judging the law as he gets to in the later half of verse 11.

James could have easily just stated that we should not speak evil against one another as it seems like common sense but he goes deeper and gives reason as to why we shouldn’t. We are speaking evil against the law and judging the law. So what is this law?

Most likely he is referring to the OT law in Leviticus 19:18 where we are called to “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

This is the royal law that James states in James 2:8 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.”

Just two verses before the royal law, there’s some allusion happening where in Leviticus 19:16 it also says that “You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people.”

This idea of slandering and loving one another is closely related as we can see. If we are slandering one another, we are also failing to keep the royal law of loving your neighbors. By doing one, you are excluding the other. And when we fail to keep the law, James is saying that we also are judging it. We make ourselves the judge of the law versus a doer.

One commentary says this:

“one who practices slander judges the law. With a fault-finding attitude I set myself up as a judge. I neglect God’s law, thus declaring that it is a bad law and worthy of being removed. God calls Christians to keep the law, not to sit in judgment on it. When we slander our neighbors, we show our opposition to the law of love and imply that we are exempt from observing it”

So by denying and going against the law, we are criticizing the one who gave it - God. We are claiming authority that belongs to God alone as we can see in verse 12.

James 4:12 “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?”

By putting ourselves as the judge and above the law of God, we are dishonoring Him and attempting to be god ourselves. James reminds us that God alone is the lawgiver and judge and only He has the power to save and destroy. He warns us that judgement is left for God alone.

Matthew 7:1–2““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”

I want to end this first point with a simple yet humble question that James asks us- who are you to judge your neighbor? Remember -this doesn’t mean disagreeing, but speaking against someone in order to hurt them. As Christians, are we abiding and following his commands to love our neighbors or are we speaking evil to one another behind closed doors?

Neighbors doesn’t literally mean your next door neighbor of your home but really applies to everyone around you; parents, siblings, friends, classmates, church. Are we letting go of our pride and humbling ourselves by loving all of these people? Or are we acting as the judge?

James reminds us that God’s authority is above all and it is our role to obey his commands and not to take his place. We must be humble and compassionate, that our words will build up one another versus bringing others down.

2. Pride leads to Boasting - James 4:13-16

James 4:13–14 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

James ends chapter 4 with a section about boasting about the future. As we look at verses 13-14, it seems like James is saying we shouldn’t plan for the future. However this isn’t what he’s getting at. James is addressing the pride and arrogance in our planning of the future as if we have complete control over our future. To be clear, James isn’t saying that planning or trying to make money is bad here, he’s saying that we shouldn’t boast about the future because we have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow.

The example he gives is of a business man going out with a goal to trade and make profit. Now during the time that James wrote this, it was fairly common for people to travel for business to make some money. So he gives an example that is relatable to everyone and uses it to highlight a danger and warning.

This may not be completely relatable to you guys right now but the same concept applies to many aspects of your lives. Sports is a big thing in Texas and many of you guys are on a team - swimming, football, lacrosse, volleyball. Imagine your team is ranked seed number 1 and undefeated so far. Based on how the team is performing so far, you boast that the championship is a sure thing and everyone around you agrees. Maybe even the opposing teams agree. However, you never know what can actually happen - injuries, poor performance, sickness, schedule conflicts can all affect the plan for a championship.

James calls talking about the future as if they are certain or doing things in your own strength without dependence on God as boasting. He warns us that it is easy to be so consumed with the world that we forget about the reality of life and its uncertainties. It is easy to plan our lives without thinking about God. It’s easy to live our lives as if God doesn’t exist. We go to church on Sundays and youth group on Fridays but every other time, we don’t think about God. Our lives are so busy that we often plan schedules without praying or considering God. Yet doing so reveals a sense of self-reliance and pride in us. This is why he rebukes us in verse 14 bringing us back to reality saying “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

We see the same warning in Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”

Jesus also tells a parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 where a rich man builds a bigger farm to house all his belongings saying that he can rest and live a comfortable life for years to come. Yet God reveals to him that he is going to die at night and will not live one more day and all his treasures he prepared were for nothing. Who were they for?

James brings us back to reality with two concepts in verse 14 - time and life.

Time - We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We do not know the future holds for us. We can make a 10 year plan or a 5 year plan saying things such as I’m going to be a doctor, or I’m going to go to this college but reality is that we don’t even know what the next hour will look like. Anything can happen and we are ultimately powerless and we rely on God’s grace and mercy every second. James reminds us that we can’t boast about the future as it assumes that we are in control.

Life - James asks, what is your life? He answers for us saying that we are a mist that appears and then vanishes. Psalm 144:4 “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”. Life is brief and uncertain.

Spurgeon says this “ It is a great folly to build hopes on what may never come. It is madness to risk everything on the unsubstantial future. Life is like a vapor... ...Therefore, if this life is unsubstantial as a vapor—and nobody can deny the fact—let us regard it as such, and let us seek for something substantial elsewhere. Unless we purposely live with a view to the next world, we cannot make much out of our present existence.

Are we building our lives here on earth so that we can live comfortably with things that will rust and fade away or are we building up treasures in heaven - looking beyond our time here on earth? How would you live if you knew you had a year to live? A month to live? A week? Our plans would look vastly different.

We should live our lives daily trusting in God and seeking the will of God in all of our plans. Again - James isn’t warning us against making plans or just do nothing since God is in control. The problem is planning in such a way that God has no place in the plans. He’s challenging us to adopt a posture of humility, realizing that our lives are in God’s hands and that our future is never guaranteed; that God is sovereign over life and death.

James gives us warnings about slandering and boasting and then shifts into what we should be doing instead. He reveals that our plans and decisions should align with God’s will and we should be saying James 4:15 “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.””

This isn’t just about adding a phrase like “If the Lord wills” to the end of our sentences. But rather it’s about adopting a heart posture that fully acknowledges God’s sovereignty. True submission to God’s will requires humility.

It involves surrendering our desires, time, and outcomes to Him and it means actively seeking His guidance and trusting that His plans are higher and better than ours. The world tells us that we should make plans just as the business man in verse 13 does. The world tells us in the midst of all the busyness going on, we should invest in the worldliness and build our treasures out here on earth. The world naturally makes us want to boast but James tells us to do the opposite. He says that boasting comes from arrogance and pride and is evil in verse 16. He reminds that life is short and we should instead invest in the eternal kingdom to come with humility.

Real quick application - the way we can align our heart with God’s will is by reading scripture. God has so graciously revealed himself to us through Scripture that all we have to do is open up the bible and read. As we study it, we learn what pleases Him and how we are called to live. Prayer is another essential part of submission. When we bring our plans before God in prayer, we invite Him to lead us, trusting that He will direct our paths.

Even Jesus during His time here on earth prayed that the Father’s will be done.

Matthew 26:39 “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.””

Also in the Lords prayer that He taught to the disciples - Matthew 6:10“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

For some, it might be scary to think about the uncertainty of the future. But the good news is that in scripture, we see that we are called to put our trust in the good God who loves you.

Proverbs 3:5–6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”

Scripture convicts us of our sin but it also encourages us. Reference songs we just sang

3. Pride leads to Inaction - James 4:17

James 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

So far James has given us warning against specific actions that are sin (also known as sin of commission)- speaking evil to one another and boasting. Yet in the end, he brings it all together and closes with a call to action. He says that submission isn’t just about avoiding wrong actions but also actively doing what we know is right and addresses the sin of omission; that is ignoring what God has commanded us to do. Knowing the right thing to do and failing to act is a sin.

He brings to light that our faith must translate to action and it’s not just about avoiding wrongdoing but also actively doing what God has called us to do.

Luke 12:47 “And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.”

We all know that we should not murder, commit adultery, lie, or steal. We know that those are sins but did you know that failing to love our neighbors, neglecting to forgive someone, failing to worship God are also sin?

God doesn’t want us to just know what is right. He wants us to do what is right. By us not doing what God has commanded us to do is an active rebellion against God’s will. This is our arrogance and pride showing up in a different way. When we ignore God’s command, we are saying that our will is more important than God’s will.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we see not only the sin of action in the robbers who attacked the traveler but also the sin of omission in those who passed by without helping. These religious figures, who likely knew the law and teachings about loving their neighbors, chose to ignore the man in need. They chose to live out their life without listening to God’s commands.

Imagine if the church, which preaches God’s word and proclaims the importance of love and service, does nothing when they see a fellow brother or sister in need. How can the church reflect Christ’s love if it turns a blind eye to those suffering? James 2:14-17 reminds us that faith without works is dead, emphasizing that genuine faith must be accompanied by action. The church is called to be a light in the world, and failing to act is seen as sin in God’s eyes.

This is what I love about Zoe. Jin and I have been extremely blessed by the community this past month. As we welcomed Jonathan our baby boy, the brothers and sisters of the church set up a meal train and has been providing a meal for us even when we didn’t ask for it. They’ve been loving their neighbors. I know that Zoe and our community does this all the time as well as meeting up with one another, praying for another and living life as God called the church to do.

Pride blinds us to our own flaws, leads us to place ourselves above others, and causes us to live as though we are in control. But James calls us to a life of humility that recognizes God’s authority, submits to His will, and actively pursues the good He has called us to.

There is no perfect example of humility besides Jesus.

Philippians 2:5–8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus came down to earth and lived a life of perfect submission to the Father’s will as a human. As He’s about to face the suffering of the cross, he prays “Not my will, but yours be done”. His humility led Him to take on the punishment that we all deserved so that we can have a relationship with Him.

Because of Jesus, we are not only forgiven of our sins of slander, boasting, and inaction but are also empowered to live differently. Through His Spirit, we can walk in humility, speak words that build up, make plans with God’s guidance, and live out His will for us. He calls us to put our trust in Him because He is our Father who loves us. He knows the future while we don’t and we can put our complete trust in Him.

Matthew 7:11 “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Are you willing to humble yourself before God? Are you willing to submit your words, plans, and actions to His will? True humility begins with recognizing our dependence on Jesus and allowing His Spirit to transform us.

Discussion Questions:

Reflection:

What are the three ways that pride can show up in our lives today?

Slander/Boasting/Inaction

What does James mean when he warns against slandering one another?

Speaking evil against one another with the intent of tearing others down (clarify this doesn’t mean that you can’t talk about what happened or voice concerns)

What warning does James give regarding planning for the future? What should we be doing?

Boasting about the future as if we are in control/not depending on God

Trusting in the Lord’s will

James says that failing to do the right thing is also a sin. Why is inaction often overlooked as sinful behavior?

Application:

How can prayer and Scripture help combat pride and live in humility in your lives today?

Philippians 2:5–8 describes Jesus as the ultimate example of humility. How does His example challenge us in our daily lives?

What steps can you take to build others up with your words rather than tear them down?

How can you involve God more intentionally in your decision-making and future plans?

What is one good thing you’ve been putting off that you can work on doing this week?