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Introduction
We just finished a section dealing with true humility.
We now are looking at a section that teaches us how to have this humility.
We see in this text this morning that James tells us to not speak evil or degradingly towards fellow believers.
If we do we become the judge against them and the royal law.
But as that we do not practice what we preach but become the Perfect Christian.
But being the perfect Christian is not possible because there is only one who truly knows the truth completely, and we are not Him.
I read this week a story from Chuck Swindoll.
He wrote of a time when he was in seminary and a missionary spoke at chapel.
This missionary delivered a terribly poor message.
After it was over Swindoll and a few other students stood at the back and ripped the man and his poor delivery apart.
He was grabbed by another underclassman and was told he did not know all the facts.
Swindoll retorted that it was a pitiful message and did not understand what the underclassman was talking about.
The underclassman then told him that two hours before the service the missionaries wife called and told him his youngest son had been killed.
That three months before that his wife had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, but he still came and delivered the message.
Swindoll said he was ashamed and by this rightful confrontation.
He said he had judged a fellow believer for a poor message he had delivered under unimaginably difficult circumstances.
A man who was being faithful to the Lord.
He finished this with saying,
Far too often, Christians criticize others before we get all the facts.
We observe an event, catch a few words of a conversation, or gather a handful of random facts.
We then leap to conclusions and start flapping our jaws about it.
The jabbering catches on and spreads, and before you know it the “gossip” becomes “news.”
He further stated there is nothing more “contagious than a negative spirit.”
This is what James is telling us in this section.
We are not capable of being the judge over our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We try, we fail, but we continue to do so because they are not as Perfect a Christian as we are.
If we say that is not what we think when we do this, we are only lying to ourselves.
We only judge others on what they have done because we desire to be better and we want to demonstrate that we are better.
Now, before we get too far into this I want to say here that we must discern whether someone is living in sin or not.
That is not judging but coming to them in love to try and help.
Judging comes when we make statements like, “I would never do that.
They must have major problems to be acting like that.
How pathetic they are to be living like that.”
Or the worst of all, “I have a prayer request today.
So and so is doing xyz and they need prayer.’
We shelter our judgmentalism in the form of prayer and act like we are The Perfect Christian.
Yet, we are not and that is why James wrote this section we will look at now.
James 4:11-12
This begins with a strong command to not speak evil of one another.
James starts this way because...
We Become Degrading Critics
Do not speak evil against one another.
The words speak evil carry the connotation of speaking in a degrading slanderous way.
Slander is not just false statements like we think today when someone has been slandering someone.
We see slander and automatically place it as someone speaking ill of another by lying to get them in a bad spot.
Yet, slander here means people trying to undermine another’s authority by asking the right questions in the right way to the right people.
This is envy working out to place you above them because well, being the perfect Christian requires knocking people out of your way.
So “Slandering or speaking against another is a practical outworking of the envy and pride James addressed in 3:13–4:10.”
(Samra, Jim.
James, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude, p. 58).
We become degrading critics so we can have the authority and power and prestige that another may have.
No different than when Israel began to question God and His ability to provide for them in the desert in Ps. 78:19 “They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?”
They slandered God’s character because they thought they knew better.
That is why we slander or criticize others.
We think we know better and we want the power.
We want control.
We want what we want and we will do and say what we need to get that.
James says, “No! Do Not do that!
Stop speaking in critical slanderous ways against fellow believers.”
But we need to not speak this way about unbelievers either.
We need to let our Col. 4:6 “speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
Or as another eminent theologian of red dirt music, Stoney LaRue, sang in his one chord song, “You Catch more flies with honey, More with a whisper than a shout.”
Take for example a dog.
If you come at them talking in a threatening tone and acting like you are going to hurt them, they run and hide from you.
Or at least they stay wary of you until you change your methods.
But when you approach them with a calm and quiet demeanor, they usually stay and probably run to you.
That is what James is saying to us.
We can draw more people to Christ and have healthier discussions with each other if we stop prejudging one another.
We can build one another up if we stop the pride and desires of our hearts and look at the desires of God for others.
We will have more people come to us than run from us.
But if we do not stop the slander we are...
Acting Like Your Above the Law
When we speak against a brother or sister, we judge them and we speak evil against the law.
Now this law is not the Mosaic law.
James does not speak of the Mosaic law but the royal law, the law of liberty.
This being “Love the Lord with your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And love your neighbor as yourself.”
He focuses primarily on the latter part.
So, if we judge and critique fellow believers we have judged this law as wrong.
We have because when we judge another we are not living out what the law says we need to do.
We are not even supposed to judge ourselves.
Paul wrote in 1 Cor.4:2-5 “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.
In fact, I do not even judge myself.
For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.
It is the Lord who judges me.
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.
Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
This is quite refreshing isn’t it?
We see that we are not to even judge ourselves.
That gives freedom because we are not to hold our own failures over our own heads.
We have freedom in Christ and our failings are covered.
We need to press forward.
So, who are we to place a judgment on another?
We are no one to do so.
Yet, we act like we are above the law when we condemn another for a failing they have.
Just like the missionary from the story from Swindoll, we do not have all the facts yet we judge.
We deem the royal law as wrong.
This is something we need to stop doing and something we can stop doing.
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