Jonah and Judgment
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Student Read
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?
Pray
So tonight I want us to approach this passage a bit differently than we have the past few weeks. I want us to look at a living, breathing example of the harm of sinful, self-righteous judgment in the life of a man from the OT. But, let’s begin by helping you see the overarching argument James makes.
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.
So he begins at the ground level and says - hey, bro, don’t speak evil against one another. Like don’t be critical. It’s evil. In fact, if you do speak evil against someone within the body of Christ or anyone, really, well you are actually standing in judgment over them. See because evil, vile, reckless, critical speech involves judgment. It actually involves you raising yourself above someone else - making yourself more important than them. This is what he says, “The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law.” So hurtful speech, evil speech involves judgment. A self-righteous (like, I’m here and you are here) type of judgment.
So the ground floor is evil speech against one another is a form of judgment - so says the Bible. And he concludes this is a breaking of the law - which in his mind is the royal law.
What is that you ask?
Well, James explained it earlier:
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
So the great, royal law is to love our neighbors - that means each other. Other human beings. We are to love them. But when we speak evil against them - we judge them and thus we break the law of love. You can’t love me and speak evil against me. So evil speech against one another involves breaking the law of love - or the ways James puts it “speaks evil against the law.”
But then James takes it a step further he says not only does judging someone violate the law of love - lover your neighbor but he also says when you do this “you judge[s] the law.”
Baseball Glove Illustration
Transition: only bringing the glove along with you when you can be seen, but not doing it privately like you were asked is denying coaches authority. It is saying “hey, I know better. You dummy. You are clueless. You are crazy, I don’t trust you. I’m smarter. I got this.”
When we fail to follow God’s word - his holy command to love each other - we deny God’s authority. We deny the authority of the law. We say “hey, I know better. You dummy. You are clueless. You are crazy, I don’t trust you. I’m smarter. I got this - I’ll just continue to speak evil and judge and break your law - because at bottom I don’t think it has authority.”
So this is the jam packed argument of (v.11) - when you speak evil against a brother you stand in judgment over them; you break the law of love and deny that the law has any practical authority in your life.
So what comes to the surface again in (v.11) is that James understands that the measuring rod of authentic Christianity can be boiled down to practical obedience. It is not about how much you may think of God or having all the right answers or knowing all the Scripture passages.
Rather, the question is: is my relationship with Christ, the Son of God, changing me? Am I being conformed to God’s will daily? Do I look and love more like Christ today than yesterday?
(v.11)
Transition: but notice in (v.12) how he makes this argument not just practical, but a personal affront to God.
There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Critical Speech Is a Presumptuous Violation of the Law (4:11–12)
Quarrels over most issues usually end up including personal attacks and judgmental attitudes
See what James says is this: you are sitting in self-righteous judgment over your brothers, but here is the problem: that is God’s seat. He is the only one who has the unique right to sit in judgment, for He is holy. Students there is only one lawgiver and there is only one true judge. He is able to save and destroy - He is our holy God. So when you think you are funny and you have people rolling because of the gossip and slander and shade you are throwing at someone else - think about how that type of judgment - standing over someone, thinking you are better - is only God’s right. Doing that is a personal attack on him.
And then James levels with us: “but who are you to judge your neighbor.” His point: you are not God, therefore you have no right. You have no right to sinfully stain God’s good and just right of judgment.
That’s the passage from the floor up.
But, remember I wanted to put flesh and bones, blood and breath on this passage. So I thought who better than the prophet Jonah.
Story of Jonah
-God comes to Jonah - “Go to Nineveh and tell them that disaster is coming.
-Jonah flees on boat to Tarshish “away from the Lord’s presence.
-Boat hits a divine storm - but Jonah sleeps through it.
-Everyone draws lots and Jonah is chosen.
-Jonah admits his wrongdoing against God and tells them to toss him into the sea.
-Eventually they do and the sea becomes calm and Jonah is swallowed by a big fish that God divinely appoints.
-Jonah spends three days within the belly of the big fish - then finally prays, repenting to God.
-Big fish spits Jonah out on dry ground, God comes a second time to Jonah - go to Nineveh.
-Jonah obeys and spends three days telling the Ninevites that in 40 days God would destroy them due to their disobedience.
-The king and the people repent of their wrong doing and place their faith in God. And, thus God relents from destroying them (God’s heart for the nations in the OT).
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- “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” Literally in Hebrew it reads, “it was evil to Jonah as a great wrong.”
-Jonah blames God’s goodness for saving Nineveh.
Application: it was Jonah’s judgment upon this nation that caused him to (1) run from God’s plan for him - sin evilly against God and harm his relationship with God.
See I think that Jonah is a good representation of how many Christian’s act, because what you happen to remember about Jonah’s situation is that Nineveh was awful. They were wicked and evil. They were, at that time, one of Israel’s worst enemies. In Jonah’s mind and God’s they deserved to be wiped off the planet. From a human perspective Jonah was right to be bitter and judgmental toward them.
But what did his self-righteous judgment, his racism (you could call it) lead him too?
Divine judgment and consequence. He was tormented upon the ship - and that harmed him and those aboard. It hurt others. He spent three days inside the belly of a fish. Then even after God relented Jonah spent time outside the city being refreshed by a divinely appointed plant, then God sent a worm to kill it and then he pouted and wished he were dead because of the scorching wind and heat.
But, I love the 10,000 foot view we get at the end of the book of Jonah it says:
9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
What God tells Jonah is “It’s my unique right to be judge. I have pity on them - for I created them. You don’t because you cannot see past your sinful feud and distasteful judgment. I am the only one who gets to make these calls.”
Jonah 4:9:11
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Critical Speech Is a Presumptuous Violation of the Law (4:11–12)
He suggests that our criticism of a fellow believer involves standing in judgment over that believer.
How strikingly similar is that to James cry in (v.12) “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.”
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So, if we want to be a body that loves one another - that fulfills the law of love - than we must remember Jonah as an example not to follow - and we must trust God as the perfect judge. We have no right to look down our nose at others in judgment thinking higher of our self than we ought. For what right do we have? We are not God. So let us love; let us not judge.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Critical Speech Is a Presumptuous Violation of the Law (4:11–12)
But how can James claim that criticism of a fellow believer is tantamount to criticism of the law? Clearly a part of the argument is missing; but James’s shift to the word “neighbor” at the end of v. 12 implies what we need to supply. That word must be a reminiscence of the love command—confirming the suspicion that James might have Leviticus 19 in mind throughout. So James assumes that criticism of a fellow believer contradicts the demand that we love our neighbors. Therefore, we fail to keep the law when we slander and stand in judgment over one another. And in failing to keep the law, James says, we also “judge” it.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Critical Speech Is a Presumptuous Violation of the Law (4:11–12)
Since James contrasts “judging” the law with “keeping” it, he apparently thinks that failure to do the law implies a denial of the law’s authority. However high and orthodox our view of God’s law might be, a failure actually to do it says to the world that we do not in fact put much store by it. Again we see coming to the surface James’s understanding of Christianity as something whose reality is to be tested by the measure of obedience.
(v.12)
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Critical Speech Is a Presumptuous Violation of the Law (4:11–12)
But there is another reason why slandering another is so wrong: it also involves an infringement on the unique right of God himself: There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.
jlkj
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Critical Speech Is a Presumptuous Violation of the Law (4:11–12)
James rebukes jealous, censorious speech by which we condemn others as being wrong in the sight of God.