Playing God Over Other People

The tongue is James’ favorite illustration. While we may get tired of talking about our speech, this is the hardest area to avoid sin in our life. This is a practical application of our faith James has talked about many times.

• Be quick to listen, slow to speak (1:19)

• Keep a tight rein on your tongue (1:26)

• Our tongues reveal sinful discrimination (2:3-4)

• We all stumble in what we say (3:2)

• Our words are powerful and damaging (3:3-5)

• What we say reveals our spiritual condition (3:6-8).

The next discussion on the tongue is in our passage today

James 4:11–12 (ESV)

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. 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?

The outline is simple. It starts with a command: Don’t slander. Then James explains why we shouldn’t do it.

In 5:9, he gives us the command not to grumble, then he explains why we shouldn’t do it.

So both times it is a command followed by an explanation.

That is simple enough and that is the outline we will follow.

What is the Command? - Do not speak evil against one another.

The word for speaking evil is repeated three times:

James 4:11–12 (ESV)

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...

James 4:11–12 (NLT)

11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?

Some versions translate this word as slander, but it has a more broad and deeper meaning to it.

With all that said, let’s take a look at the command. You are told in verse 11, “Don’t speak evil against each other….”

Then James goes on to give an indication of what he means when he says,

“If you criticize and judge each other….”

For me to “speak evil against” you is for me to “criticize and judge”you in some way.

Now what does that mean?

To “speak evil against” (katalaleo) refers to the mindless, thoughtless, carelessness, critical, derogatory, untrue statements directed against others.

It has a malicious intent to it.

This is where you say things to be hateful, spiteful, mean, cruel, or hurtful in some way.

The idea is to tear someone down behind their back.

This is sometimes translated slander.

Remember, the word “evil” means to be selfish.

You are speaking selfishly against this person.

To “criticize and judge” (krino) others is to condemn them.

James is not referring to constructive criticism, but destructive criticism.

This is badmouthing someone before you really know them.

You are cutting them down to others, but you have heard something bad about them.

You are criticizing them, slamming them, cutting them down, and saying things about them that you don’t know if its actually true or not.

But you are passing this negative information about them to others without talking to them or finding out if its true or not.

These types of evil speech include

(1) Slander—saying false, harmful things against others,

We have slightly more sophisticated words for slander today.

We call it

defamation of character,

character assassination,

belittling,

using veiled innuendoes or

saying things with double meanings.

(3) Criticism, giving negative critiques directly to others which are not meant to build them up.

Since the church has emphasized not speaking false information about others—

slander is often not a big problem.

It has also emphasized not gossiping behind others’ backs.

But the church has failed to emphasize how criticism harms others.

Some believers think as long as it is true and it is towards another’s face, then it’s OK.

When God’s Word tells you to not judge others, it is not telling you to not make judgments about people. There is a difference between making a judgment and being judgmental. There is a difference between constructive judgment and condemning judgment.

However, people like that have misunderstood James and Scripture in general.

James is saying that we shouldn’t say anything true or false that tears others down instead of building them up.

Just because we know something is try does not gives us the right/authority to share it with others.

Even if it is ru

Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen as much as it should in our churches.

(2) Gossip—saying negative things behind someone’s back, whether true or false,

Selfishness and arrogance are the roots of evil speech.

One of the reasons why you are so dissatisfied in life is you feel like you have to correct everything and everyone. You are overly critical and judgmental and because of this you find it difficult to be content in life. (selfishness)

The other reason you may sin with your tongue is because you think you know better and you have all the answers. You think you must correct everything about every person. that is arrogance/pride.

We think we know the other people’s motives and share things even when we do not know the whole story.

Why because we assume the worst about others and the best about ourselves.

Spurgeon.

The Prince of Preachers experienced such evil accusations.

He and his wife, Susannah, had a peculiar practice. They would not give away the eggs their chickens laid, but would sell them – even to close relatives.

As a result, some gossiped about them and labeled the Spurgeons stingy and un loving. .

Others would criticize them saying doesn’t the church pay you enough so that you do not have to have a side business.

Others would slander them and say that they were greedy and uncompassionate.

But when Mrs. Spurgeon died in 1903, it was revealed that the egg money had been used for years to support two elderly widows.

The Spurgeons had endured the criticism in silence, knowing that time would validate their actions.

Their accusers in their arrogance and ignorance judge them without know ing all the facts and knowing their motives.

The story reinforces the truth that things are not always what they appear to be, and people are often wrongly judged because all the facts are not revealed.

How easy it is for us to jump to conclusions when we may not know what we are talking about.

How easy is it to denigrate someone out of arrogance and selfishness.

Why is it wrong? To speak evil against someone is to say...

I know better than God.

James 4:11 (ESV)

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.

Step one, to speak evil against a brother is to sit in judgment over God’s law.

James knows that true change

in relation to others—

won’t happen unless there’s change this way—in relation to God.

If we want our earthly relationships to change then our and their relationship with God must change and become better first.

So the first thing he does is connect our sitting in judgment over our brother to sitting in judgment over God’s law.

How do the two connect, though?

It helps to understand what James means by the law.

He mentions it first in 1:25 as “the perfect law, the law of liberty” (cf. 2:12).

That’s the Old Testament law as interpreted by and fulfilled in Jesus under the new covenant.

Then, in 2:8, he calls it the royal law.

Again, that is the Old Testament law—

it is God’s law—

but it’s the law that, under the new covenant and through the Spirit’s power,

gets fulfilled in one word: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

James seems to be alluding to this same love command here in verses 11-12.

That seems obvious by the way he switches to “neighbor” at the end of verse 12.

James 4:12 (ESV)

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?

Also, if you go back and read the context of Leviticus 19—

which is the love command—

the context mentions not slandering your neighbor.

To slander your neighbor is to do them wrong,

and therefore not to fulfill the law through love.

So here’s what I think James is saying.

The law of God, when taken as a whole, can be summed up in neighbor love.

To love your neighbor as yourself

is not merely to love another as much as yourself,

but to take up the life of another and make it your own.

If we love our neighbor,

we won’t lust after his or her spouse.

If we love our neighbor,

we won’t steal from him or murder him.

Loving our neighbor will also keep us from speaking evil against him.

Loving our neighbor is a summary of God’s commands;

we even love God by loving our neighbor, since they’re his children.

Whenever that neighbor love is not present in our speech,

we are functionally saying God’s Law doesn’t matter.

WE ARE Saying

I know better than God.

It’s saying to God, “Your law of neighbor love doesn’t matter.

I have a better way than your way.

My harmful words will bring a better kingdom than your kingdom.

My crass put downs will bring faster change than me laying my life down!”

That’s what we’re essentially telling God when we use harmful speech.

And here’s what happens next…

I do not have to obey God’s law.

James 4:11 (ESV)

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.

Once we determine ourselves to know better than God, we subvert our obedience to him. We functionally say,

“If I’m above the law, then I don’t have to obey it.

What’s the point in obeying God,

if I know better than God?

I know his law calls me to love,

but love is just not my way.”

You can see how the one leads to the other.

The Message of James (Against Defamation (4:11–12))

In effect we say that the law is mistaken in commanding love. It ought rather to have commanded criticism—and if we were lawgivers it would do

Essentially, James is saying that we speak against the law by saying,

at least with our evil words,

there are some parts of the law that don’t apply to us.

We believe that we should not murder or steal,

but we don’t think we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves by our speech.

Our actions say, “It’s OK for me to criticize my siblings, my parents, my boss, my pastor, my president

because I don’t have to abide by that aspect of God’s law!”

Or, we speak against the law by declaring, “It’s not a good law! That person deserves my criticism!

Isn’t this hideous?

We set our own law that everybody else has to abide by, and “if you cross it, I’ll smear you with my words.”

And simultaneously we’re absolving ourselves from any responsibility to our Creator.

And you know what that makes us? Idolaters—we see that next.

I am God.

But, criticizing and slandering others we are playing God.

We throw God of his throne and we sit there ourselves.

It’s to set ourselves up on the throne of justice and dictate to God how people in his kingdom ought to be valued and treated and condemned.

That’s what harmful speech is ultimately about—

it’s about God taking a back seat to my judgments and my kingdom succeeding.

It’s idolatry; it’s self-worship.

James 4:12 (ESV)

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?

If you have the power to save and to destroy humans for what they’ve done,

you have supreme authority and supreme rights in the universe.

And there is only one with those rights, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He alone gives the law.

He alone truly knows right from wrong.

He alone has exhaustive knowledge of all things and people’s motives

And he alone judges rightly and fully and finally.

How sobering is this, folks?

When we use evil words, here’s what’s going on.

We’ve moved from “I’m better than your law”

to “I don’t have to obey your law”

to I am playing God.

With just a few evil words against other brothers and sisters,

we’re attempting to usurp God’s authority as Judge.

We commit cosmic treason,

we plot the coup, and now our words are putting the coup into action.

Of course, it’s useless. If God alone is sovereign Judge—he has no true competitors to his throne—then we’ll be held accountable to his law.

How do we overcome evil speech?

Be cautioned instead of being critical.

See it as a warning instead of a juicy bit of gossip to share.

James 4:12 (ESV)

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?

Many times the only difference between you and the subject of your evil speech is

One bad decision

God’s Mercy.

Time

We should see tantalizing information not as something to holler, but something that humbles us.

Many times I want to be in the know of all the politics of church life and the churches around us, and when I hear something bad has happened to a pastor it is easy for me to say wow look how bad that pastor is and look how I am.

Over the past month or so, due to this study in James I am now trying to say Dave that could be you very easily. See that failure s a warning not as a time to pat myself on the back..

That could be me .

What do I need to do to make sure I do not find myself in that place.

Ponder on the failure and see it as a warning of what steps you need to avoid the same mistake.

Next

Talk to people not about them.

Instead of calling some one out on Facebook or over lunch with your Christians friends, maybe go in the spirit of Love, compassion, and Matthew 18 and begin with correction and care.

Even if the issue you are speaking about was public the first step in reconciliation or change will always be private. Yes if all goes well the repentance will need to be as public as the sin or issue, but it always starts with talking to the person privately, instead of talking about them.

Of course, we will talk about people.

How can grandparents not talk about their grandchildren?

We are commanded to judge and warn other brother and sisters of another persons flawed character( only after going through Mathew 7 and Matthew 18) and even a persons false teachers.

It is ok to share stories that put other people in a good light, or to recount what another person means to you.

But when our talking involves saying something about someone

that the person would rather not be said, zip the lip.

Some of you will tell me that if the person you are talking about was there,

you would say the same thing to their face.

Good! Go to them and say it to their face and nobody else's.

Don’t tell me and 500 other people.

If something needs to be said, it needs to be said to the person, not about a person.

If approach someone and tell them that we should not speak evil against someone

99% of the time he/she will respond with, “Well, it is true!”

People think that as long as something is true, it is free to be said.

This verse doesn’t say not to slander people unless it is true. It says, don’t slander someone --- period.

The news media doesn’t get this.

It makes money on airing dirty laundry.

If it isn’t true, then the media gets in trouble.

If is is true, it is news and it will get repeated.

It doesn’t matter how hurtful it is to the man or woman being reported on.

That is not the way it should happen in the church.

If it tears people down and is unhelpful,

nobody needs to know it.

Don’t repeat it.

If it is unhelpful;

it doesn’t need to be shared.

A defamatory word may be perfectly true: we do not have to tell lies in order to defame. But the fact that it is true gives us no right to say it. (Motyer, James, pg. 157)

Just because it is true and you know it does not automatically make you responsible for tell other about it.

Humble yourself before God and man.

So where do we go from here?

James takes us back to that point about humility that he spelled out so well in verses 6-10.

But this time he humbles us with just a final question to consider,

and I want us to linger here for the rest of our time. He simply asks at the end of verse 12,

James 4:12 (ESV)

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?

Or better,

“But you—you who judge/ Slander/Gossip/ criticize your neighbor—who are you?”

Isn’t this what Paul asked the church in Rome as well when they were standing in judgment over each other based on what kinds of food they wanted to eat and what kind of days they liked celebrating: “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls” (Rom 14:4-5).

Who are you? This is how you kill the desire to speak evil against others.

This is how you put to death those impulses to cut others down with your words—you humbly consider in light of Scripture,

Who are you, really, Dave Helton?”

WHO AM I?

You are deserving of judgment

you are deserving of judgment.

We have not always been loving with our words.

To one degree or another, we’re all guilty of speaking evil of others.

God has said love your neighbor with your words, and we have cut them down.

Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:1-5 helpfully complement James’ words here.

Matthew 7:1–5 (ESV)

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Now, how many times has someone used this passage to escape conviction over sin?—

“Judge not, lest you too be judged.”

But if you go on and read, the context isn’t saying not to judge at all.

Rather, Jesus is telling us how to judge; and that is with the humble awareness that we are just as guilty.

We’ve got our own logs to deal with first.

And unless we deal with our own logs first,

we’ll walk around puffed up with judgmental attitudes and self-righteous condemnation of others.

Part of remembering who we are is remembering that we’re no better than others.

We deserve judgment, too.

You have received mercy

remember also that you have received mercy.

James 2:13 (ESV)

13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Even though we deserve destruction, God has shown us mercy.

He sent Jesus into the world to take away our sins and bear the punishment we deserved.

If you’re not in Christ this morning, place your trust in Jesus.

He alone takes away sins.

All your violations against God’s law will be forgiven.

He spoke words that lifted us out of the pit of despair when we had slandered others.

Luke 6:36 (ESV)

36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

He has shown us mercy, and that is the fundamental motive to show mercy to others, even with our words.

You are family

Finally, you are family.

Did you notice that he uses the word “brother” three times in verse 11?

James 4:11 “11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, ...

That’s the fifteenth time for “brother” in this short letter.

I think he’s trying to make a point.

When we are in Christ,

we’re family;

and the bond we share in Christ is greater than anything else on earth.

We are brothers and sisters united in Christ.

And that means Christ stands between me and how I speak about anybody else.

Don’t hurl words at anybody else that Christ himself wouldn’t pass on.

Even when somebody in the church wrongs us,

it’s not our place to condemn them.

We cannot condemn with our words those whom God has chosen to save from condemnation.

Our attitude cannot be, “You go to hell,”

if God has spared them hell at the cost of his only Son.

Who are we to climb on his throne with our words,

and tell him whom he can and cannot love?

Or who can and cannot be part of his family?

We were all orphans without hope,

and we’ve all been adopted by the same Father

who gave up his only, one-of-a-kind Son.

None of us have rights to the inheritance.

Only Jesus is the firstborn from the dead.

Only Jesus has the rights.

That means that all of us are in the same boat:

we’ve got nothing apart from union with him.

But in union with him, we all become sons and daughters and heirs with Christ.

Now we should speak of each other as fellow heirs.

We cannot talk down on those that God has raised up to reign beside us.

And when we consider how to walk together,

we all go to our one Father’s word to determine what’s right and wrong.

We don’t create our own household rules;

we follow his rule spelled out here in Scripture.

So, who are you, really?

Take that question to Scripture.

Turn away from the idolatry of harmful speech.

Humble yourself before the true Judge.

Remember that his law is good, and its goal is love.

Stand in awe of the mercy you’ve received.

And then walk alongside your brothers and sisters who’ve received the same mercy.

Speak of them in ways that match these gospel realities.

Let’s not try to live above these gospel realities. We cannot top them.