Verse 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.
Now James would not want us to speak evil against anyone but James is specifically writing about speaking evil against a fellow brother or sister in Christ. The idea of speaking evil is to slander someone, ridicule someone, participate in gossip toward someone, and speak maliciously against someone.
When we read the phrase “speak evil” it can be easy for us to say, wow, I would never do that. But the idea of speaking evil is speaking in any manner in which we are tearing someone down.
I think James uses the word evil to get our attention. He wants us to know that when we use our words to hurt people, this does not reflect the holiness of God. This is not proper for God’s people.
One of the ways people can justify speaking against someone is by saying, “well, I am not slandering them (meaning making false statements) because I am saying what is true. Well, typically what we are slandering is the character or heart or motives of someone else. And that can become very subjective. What someone believes is true about someone’s character may simply be their opinion.
But even if something is true about someone, someone can speak that truth in a manner that disparages someone. We call that gossip. And so whether we are describing slander or gossip, this act of speaking evil is anything that is tearing someone else down.
One of the natural bents of our sin nature can be to tear down people. And we can find ourselves speaking critically of people and we might not even see anything wrong with it. Because it is become so natural in our speech.
One writer suggested 3 reason WHY we criticize or tear down others
- We criticize others in order to build ourselves up. Criticism makes us feel that our own lives (morality and behavior) are better than the person who failed. I am not like them.
- We criticize to get revenge. You hurt me, I am going to hurt you.
- We criticize because we enjoy it. In our sinfulness we can actually take pleasure in gossiping and tearing someone down. We can actually do it because we find it enjoyable.
And so James calls out this behavior and says, “stop it” – this is evil.
James continues in the second part of verse 11 and writes, “But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”
When James speaks of the law, he is not calling them to once again live under the law but rather he is saying that when you speak against someone, you are sinning. This type of behavior does not please God.
Now it seems strange that James would have to write these words. But James sees what we still see and experience today. That there are some Christians who don’t think there is anything wrong with gossip, there is nothing wring with insults, there is nothing wrong with verbally attacking someone.
When he uses the phrase “judges the law” he is saying you are now putting yourself in a position of determining what is right and wrong, good and bad.
When we gossip, we are saying there is nothing wrong with that. When we tear down someone, we are saying there is nothing wrong with that. And James is saying you have made yourself a judge of God’s truth.
He goes on to say: “But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”
What does it mean to be a doer of the law? It means to live out the truth of God, to walk in obedience to the word of God. If you remember in James chapter 2, he talks about the royal law. In chapter 2 verse 8 he writes, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
This is not a call to put yourself back under the Old Testament, but rather James is pointing them back to the law that reveals God’s moral law, it reveals how we should relationally treat one another in a way that brings glory to God and reflects the heart and character of God.
Levitcus 19:16 says, “You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people…”
may we let God’s word transform. May we let God’s truth impact how we treat each other. When we stop being doers of the law, we might become finger pointers and condemners. We became as James writes in verse 11 – judges.
When we become people who are not loving others, serving others, walking in humility what do we have a tendency to become? We become condemners. We critize and tear down. And we elevate ourselves at the expense of others. We place ourselves over someone else as their judge.
Now when the Bible tells us not to judge others, we can sometimes get confused about what the Bible is commanding us not to do. Jesus himself says in Matthew 7, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
This is a verse that our culture loves to throw out to Christians who speak against sin in our culture. And people says, hey, Jesus himself said, “Do not judge others…”
And this becomes an anthem verse for people to say, “we need to accept everyone’s choices and lifestyles. We should never judge how anyone chooses to live. The problem is they simply stop at verse 1 and don’t continue. In Matthew 7:3, Jesus gives an example of judging and says, “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? 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? 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.”
One of the points that Jesus was making in saying don’t judge, that you not be judged” is don’t be a hyprocrite calling out sin in other people’s lives when you haven’t addressed it in your own life.
The type of judging that is being addressed here is judging for the sake of simply condemning. There are situations and there are relationships in which we are to judge behavior for the purpose of helping someone come back into a right relationship with God.
Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
Notice that the verse doesn’t say harshly condemn them but rather gently restore them. When we address sin in a fellow Christian’s life, the purpose is not to tear down, to make light of or publicly shame but to restore.
Chuck Swindoll adds these helpful words, “”Remember, in his own letter James confronts fellow Christians about their sins. But there’s a difference between confrontation for the purpose of building up and condemnation for the purpose of tearing down.”
If we chose to confront for the sake of building up, this is something we do one-on-one and privately. This is not something we do publicly or in a group setting. If we see a behavior that needs correcting, we need to be very careful and very humble and very gentle. Those are situations where we must lead with grace and kindness.
And so we come back to James and he addresses the attitude of using words to tear down.
Verse 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?
Verse 12 is a convicting verse. There is only One who has established truth and there is only One who judges the hearts of men and women according to that truth. And yes, God has called us to proclaim his truth. And he will use us in the lives of fellows Christians to gently convict each other of sin in order that we come back into a right relationship with God. But in general our role is not to be lawgiver or judge in people’s lives because 1) we are not God, that is His role. 2) we don’t know the hearts of people.
How quickly is it that we judge people and we don’t even know the full situation or we have misunderstood a situation. How often have we served as judge and jury in some relationship and then later learned that we did not have all the facts. We heard something or assumed something and then make a judgment and it impacted our view of that person, impacting the relationship with that person. Maybe we even then slandered that person to others not knowing the full information.
And James says, “you are not the lawgiver and judge.”
That is not your role.