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Law and Judgement (James 4:11-12)
"Who are you to judge your neighbour", asks
James. Well, we may as well shut up shop and go home. Reachout has
lost its mandate. After all isn't judging what we do? Don't we judge
this group and that to be in error about this, that and the other,
and dare to act as a corrective to them? There are those who would
say amen to that, those who wish we would stop, and those who believe
we should stop. But what is James talking about here?
The NASB is least helpful here in beginning v.11, "Do
not speak against one another brethren".
The text uses a Greek word meaning "slander" or "traduce", meaning
misrepresent, or defame, to damage someone's reputation. The NIV
translates, "Brothers, do not slander
one another", and the NRSV has, "Do
not speak evil against one another." James
is not prohibiting the proper and necessary discrimination, or discernment
that every Christian should exercise. Paul, in his letter to the
Romans, wrote:
"I urge you, brothers, to watch
out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way
that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. For such people
are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth
talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people" (Ro.16:17/18)
In 1 Corinthians 5&6 Paul charges Christians to appoint people to
judge a dispute between believers rather than take fellow believers
to law. He writes:
What business is it of mine to judge
those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God
will judge those outside. 'Expel the wicked man from among you'"
(1 Co.5:12/13)
We are clearly meant to exercise discernment, even among ourselves
as believers, otherwise how are we to know the wicked man to expel
him or those who cause division by false teaching?
Two Christians had a history of bad feeling, both were at fault
to one degree or another but one had a conciliatory attitude while
the other was judgemental. The first said, "You know, we must try
and get along. One day we will be in heaven together and may be
neighbours". The second replied, "I doubt very much whether you
will be in heaven the way you are going!" This is what James has
in mind, i.e. ultimate judgement.
Paul deals with this in Romans 14 where believers were in dispute
over dietary customs. They were judging each other, one group seeming
to insist that special dietary observations made them better Christians
while others seemed to think that their exercising freedom to eat
what they wanted put them on a better footing with God. Paul writes:
"Accept him whose faith is weak without
passing judgement on disputable matters...The man who eats everything
must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not
eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted
him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master
he stands or falls." (Ro.14:1-4)
As well as "disputable matters" James has in mind perhaps a number
of offences, such as questioning legitimate authority, e.g. when
Israel spoke against Moses they spoke against God (Nu.21:5); slandering
someone secretly, with "a haughty look and an arrogant heart" (Ps.101:5);
bringing false accusations (1 Pe.2:12;3:16), all sins of speech.
To judge in this way, writes James, is to put ourselves above the
Law because, while it is not wrong to bring wise judgement in a
matter, ultimate judgement belongs to God.
As we stand before the experiences of others, even those not of
the faith, we should do so with respect, even awe, because we are
not in a position to judge them ultimately. Like us, their lives
are a complex of thoughts and actions, fears and misgivings, hopes
and aspirations, triumphs and failures and only God can read the
heart, judge its intentions and put a true value on a life. As we
witness lets by all means discern truth from error, telling the
one and exposing the other, but let's remember also that only God
can judge and give thanks for it because he alone, and no one else,
will be our ultimate judge.