Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

A preacher, Steven Cole, once served on a jury for a drunk driving case.

The woman defendant had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit.

The judge carefully instructed us that the jury’s job was to determine if this woman had, in fact, broken the law.

Pastor Cole naively thought that the case was a simple judgment.

He though, “We shouldn’t have to deliberate longer than a few minutes.”

When they went into the jury room one guy piped up, “I can drink that much and drive without any problem!”

Someone else then chimed in with similar comments.

Some ladies said how nice the young woman seemed to be.

Pastor Cole couldn’t believe it!

They were totally ignoring the judge’s instructions!

After three hours of arguing, another juror and this preacher finally had persuaded everyone of the woman’s guilt, except for one woman.

This stubborn lady said, “I could never vote to convict her, because the Bible says, ‘Judge not, lest you be judged.’”

It became late in the day, and the pastor knew that if they didn’t convict her, they’d all have to come back the next day.

So Pastor Cole said, “None of us wants to come back tomorrow.

We’re going to convict her, so you just keep quiet!”

And that’s how justice was done that day!

And there is hardly any verse that is more frequently disobeyed among Christians than this verse!

Even I have disobeyed it on many occasions.

Also, keep in mind that, according to our Lord, Jesus, it is a sin to judge another person in your heart, even if you keep your thoughts to yourself.

Judgmental words eventually will flow out of a judgmental heart, but the sin begins in the heart.

It is a manifestation of pride; we think that we’re better than others are; therefore we place ourselves above them.

Pride is a funny thing.

We can easily spot it in others, but we can’t see it in ourselves.

Some of the proudest people I have ever met thought of themselves as being very humble and were very critical of pride in others.

Most of us are a lot prouder than we would like to believe.

And if you just said in your mind’s eye, “no I’m not!” then you just proved me right!

Transition:

Pastor Cole points out after telling that story that there is hardly any verse of the Bible that is more misunderstood than Jesus’ words, “Judge not lest ye be judged” , but we’ll get to that later because James has something to say about judging in our passage this morning:

If you’ve been paying close attention to James for the last few months, you might be thinking right now “Gee James, didn't you already cover these topics enough?

If you are thinking this thing you'd be near right--chapter 3 is all about the tongue, and the first two chapters address the treatment of your neighbors.

The repetition is how we learn and how it will stick in our long term memories.

But, at least he went back to calling his readers “brothers” as opposed to the last few verses.

This signifies a shift in his tone and it is because now he wants to show his audience what submission to God looks like in their daily lives.

Transition:

Judgmental words come from a judgmental heart, but this sin begins in the heart.

It is a manifestation of pride; we think that we’re better than others are; therefore we place ourselves above them.

In this passage, James hits hard on pride.

Pride is a blinding thing.

We can easily spot it in others, but (like with most of our sin issues) we can’t usually see it in ourselves.

We know that this is true because almost all of the proudest people you meet think of themselves as being humble and can be very critical of pride in others.

This is usually the case with people: whatever you are most critical of or paranoid of, ends up being the thing that you are most guilty of.

And a lot of us are a lot prouder than we would like to believe.

And if you just said in your mind’s eye, “no I’m not!” then you just proved me right!

This brings us to the first point that it is believers that are guilty of judging.

I.

The Just Judging (v.11a)

james

We show our love to God by being humble before Him; we show our love of God to our neighbor by refusing to speak evil.

Speaking evil takes on many forms:

We may speak the truth about a person and still be unkind, or

we may spread gossip that others have no business knowing.

We may be questioning someone’s authority or nullifying their good work by backbiting.

Obviously, this hurts the unity among any believers (see also ; ; ).

The tense used here in James is a PRESENT IMPERATIVE with a NEGATIVE PARTICLE, which really means that James is forbidding a practice that is already in progress which shows the people were in the habit of criticizing one another.

in the Greek reveals that James is forbidding a practice that is already in progress.

The people were in the habit of criticizing one another.

Although no one would say this, it seems that some people today think fault-finding is their spiritual gift!

This is wrong and sad!

They were brothers and sisters in Jesus.

They were members of the same body.

And they were turning on one another.

It was like the body attacking itself!

Suppose my hands started attacking my feet, bringing blood and inflicting severe pain.

Or maybe more like a terminal autoimmune disease: slowly killing off the body.

But it is no more dangerous than that which is going on in many churches today.

How sad this is!

They were brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

They were members of the same body.

And they were turning on one another.

It was like the body attacking itself!

Suppose my hands started attacking my feet, bringing blood and inflicting severe pain.

What a strange sight that would be!

But it is no more strange than that which is going on in many churches!

II.

Just Judging Justice (v.11b)

What law is he talking about??

The Mosaic Law?

Well, keep in mind this verse is now the sixth and then seventh time in his letter that James has mentioned law (; , ).

The law of liberty, the perfect law, the royal law, things we talked about and saw months back, but back to our passage:

It is likely the royal law—the law that frees us or convicts us of sin, a law that must be kept.

Here James says the law is under attack.

It really could refer to the Mosaic law: specifically the ninth of the “Ten Commandments”: “Do not testify falsely against your neighbor” ().

BUT it also violates the law that we Christians today are under which is the Law of Christ, (or as Paul calls it “the law of Grace.”)

Jesus sums up this New Covenant law like this:

“Love your neighbor as yourself” Which is actually Jesus quoting the Mosaic law in :

Matt 22

“Love your neighbor as yourself”

Back to our passage in James:

James 4

“you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it” In we are told to be doers, not just hearers; here we are told to be doers, not judges.

“you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it” In we are told to be doers, not just hearers; here we are told to be doers, not judges.

Let’s return to Jesus’ words in as mentioned before with the jury deliberation:

Pastor Cole said:

there is hardly any verse that is more frequently disobeyed among Christians than this verse!

Even I have disobeyed it on many occasions.

Also, keep in mind that, according to our Lord, Jesus, it is a sin to judge another person in your heart, even if you keep your thoughts to yourself.

But was that juror lady right, when she quoted Jesus, that we cannot judge anyone under any circumstance?

Is that really all that Jesus meant here?

NO!