Humility and the Tongue

1. The Command

Preaching the Word: James—Faith That Works Watch What You Say ( James 4:11, 12 )

The command is unadorned and to the point: “Brothers, do not slander one another” (v. 11a). It is important that we understand the precise wording of this command as the Greek has it, because it actually forbids more than slander. Literally the command is, “Do not speak down on one another, brothers,” or “Do not speak against one another, brethren” (NASB). Slander is malicious speech that is untrue. But the command here forbids any speech (whether it is true or false) which runs down another person.

Certainly no Christian should ever be a party to slander—making false charges against another’s reputation. Yet some do. But even more penetrating is the challenge to refrain from any speech which intends to run down someone else, even if it is totally true. Personally I can think of few commands that go against commonly accepted conventions more than this. Most people think it is okay to convey negative information if it is true. We understand that lying is immoral. But is passing along damaging truth immoral? It seems almost a moral responsibility! By such reasoning, criticism behind another’s back is thought to be all right as long as it is true. Likewise, denigrating gossip (of course it is never called gossip!) is okay if the information is true. Thus many believers use truth as a license to righteously diminish others’ reputations.

Related to this, some reject running down another behind his or her back, but believe it is OK if done face to face. These persons are driven by a “moral” compulsion to make others aware of their own faults. Fault-finding is, to them, a spiritual gift. I once knew a young man who, after reading the list of the seven gifts mentioned in Romans 12, decided he had the gift of prophecy. The prophets, he observed, were confrontational, acerbic, and sharp-tongued, just as he was, so he must have the gift! Thus he had a spiritual rationale for an abrasive, critical personality. He was called to conduct spiritual search-and-destroy missions—or so he thought.

What people like this do not know is that most people are painfully aware of their own faults—and would so like to overcome them—and are busy trying. Then someone mercilessly assaults them believing they are doing their spiritual duty—and, oh, the hurt!

This destructive speaking down against others can also manifest itself in the subtle art of minimizing another’s virtues and accomplishments. After being with such people, your mental abilities, athletic accomplishments, musical skills, and domestic virtues seem not to be quite as good as they were a few minutes earlier. Some of this feeling came, perhaps, from their words about your Steinway—“what a nice little piano”—and surprised exclamations about what you didn’t know. It was also the tone of the voice, the cast of the eye, and the surgical silences.

There are many sinful reasons why brothers and sisters in Christ talk down one another. Revenge over some slight, real or imagined, may be the motivation for Christian slander. Gossip and criticism may be rooted in an overweening sense of self-righteousness. Our spirituality and sensitivity, we think, equips us to pull others from their pedestals and unmask their hypocrisies. Gideon once righteously cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” (Judges 7:20)—and we may do the same, but in our case it is to often a sword of self-righteousness.

Talking down others may also come from the need to elevate oneself—like the Pharisee who thanked God he wasn’t like other sinners “or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). We thus enjoy the dubious elevation of walking on the bruised heads of others.

Sometimes this talking down of others simply comes from too much empty talk. People don’t have much to talk about, so they fuel the fires of conversation with the flesh of others. The manifestations and motivations of the Body of Christ to run itself down could fill a library.

James’ command to desist from harmful speech tells us that the early church (so historically near to Christ that Jesus’ brother was one of its pastors!) was often engaged in mutually speaking against each other. They were puncturing one another repeatedly with fine gastric mixes of slander, gossip, and criticism, both behind the back and face to face. It was a Devil’s feast.

story about a young man in a Highland village of Scotland who because of envy and hatred passed on a very depreciating, destroying story about another man in the village. As a result, the rumor spread until the man's reputation was absolutely destroyed. He used his tongue to commit character assassination. He destroyed the man. And then through a discovery of the real fact he realized that he had passed on a story which was untrue. And so he went to the dominie of the village, the local pastor, hoping that he could be absolved for this. And the pastor said, "Tell me. What is it that you said?" And he told him. And he said, "Now can I be forgiven?" He said, "Oh no, not that quickly." He said, "I want you to do something for me. Take a whole bag of feathers. I want you to go all around the village and put one feather in every dooryard." The man thought that was a very unusual instruction from a clergyman. But wanting to be forgiven, he obeyed. And so he went all over the village and out around the outskirts of the town and put one feather in every dooryard. Then he came back, came into the man and said to the dominie, "Now, may I be forgiven?" And the dominie said, "Oh no, not yet. I want you to take that same bag and go and pick up all those feathers." He said, "Why, that's absurd, Dominie. I can't do that. The wind has carried them away." And, indeed, that's what happens.

Boys flying kites haul in their bird. You can't do that when you're flying word. Thoughts unexpressed may fall back dead, but God can't cure a word after it was said. And he's chosen it to be so. We live in a free world. He's given us our freedom, and we can use this amazing capacity to speak either to malign or to mold great people. What have you done with yours? The story of the feathers causes offensive guilt inside of us as we think of all of the people we've assassinated. They march before our minds eye, but then we think of the little words that we drop, the critical, cutting things that create a very different impression in people's minds of the true character of a person.

2. THE REASON

“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.”

Preaching the Word: James—Faith That Works Self-Elevation Above the Law (v. 11b)

In order to clarify what James means here, it is helpful to understand that he is not saying Christians are never to make judgments about others or tell them what is what. Some reason that the greatest saints never judge anyone; the ideal preacher is indifferent to people’s moral choices, treating everyone the same. Their favorite verse is Matthew 7:1—“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” They interpret Christ’s word as meaning that if you dare make a judgment about someone’s actions you will be in big trouble with God. They neglect to read the saying’s context (it is directed to people who are overlooking the logs in their own eyes while they judge others). Jesus does not forbid judgment. Rather, he forbids flagrant sinners from exercising it while refusing to deal with the sin in their own lives.

In point of fact, it is the Christian’s duty to exercise judgment. For example, we are to beware of false prophets (Matthew 7:15). How can we determine a false prophet except by judging him against the standard of the Word of God? Likewise we are told, “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16). Recognition hinges on careful judgment. We are to judge adultery, murder, lying, and theft as sins, and if anyone does these things, we must judge them as being sinful! Jesus said, “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment” (John 7:24). What the Scriptures forbid is judgmentalism, a critical and censorious spirit that judges everyone and everything, seeking to run others down.

It is this unkind, judgmental spirit that James attacks in verse 11. His point is, when anyone speaks uncharitably against a fellow believer and judges him, he breaks the law of love, the royal law (2:8)—“love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)—which then makes him guilty of breaking the whole Law of God (2:10) His failure to keep the Law amounts to judging it, in that he has judged it to be invalid and unnecessary. “Such a person,” says Douglas Moo, “becomes a judge of the law and sits himself ‘outside’ and ‘above’ the law. Thus the law is not kept but is ‘disdained.’”5 If we think thus, we evidently view our opinions as better than God’s. We imagine that given the chance we could improve the Law. Thus we become like Tolstoy, who said he was God’s older brother.

The argument here is meant to deliver us from mind games which tell us it’s okay to be judgmental because we are so spiritually sensitive and insightful, or because we have the Kingdom’s good as the motivation behind our judgments. God says this is stupid arrogance of cosmic dimensions. Perhaps we should have been on Sinai with Moses!