Watch What You Say

James 4:11

11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

How do you like those verses?

? God corrected me on something with them. I bet He has done the same with you. Remember James’ discourse on the tongue in chapter 3 where James says our tongues are set on fire by hell? James is getting back to correcting the speech of the folks to whom he was writing.

As you notice in these verses James has written, he is being really tough on the people he is writing to. They had to be just like our generation for him to need to make all the corrections and give all those admonitions to them. Those folks were just as guilty as us today of "speaking evil one of another."

Now when James is speaking of "speaking evil", he is not necessarily saying, ‘don’t say bad things about your neighbor or brother, making up tales to make everyone see them as awful.’ No, when James says ‘don’t speak evil’, he is talking about saying anything that could be critical of the other person, and that can range from making fun of a person to really downgrading them. It can be as little as saying, "He always being stubborn" to "What a slob he is." It can be as little as complaining how someone likes to do things, being critical of them for the way they do things, to being critical of their understanding of God’s will where it differs from yours. James is not saying that you can’t say something if it is not true, he is saying, don’t say anything even it if is true. This does not apply to when you might have to testify against someone, but it does apply to general conversation between you and the next person or persons. In other words, you don’t go around defaming the next person just because you may have a low opinion either of them or of what they do. If your ways and someone else’s ways differ, only the Word of God, God’s Law can judge which is right or wrong. The Greek word used in the verse translates "to slander or speak against."

Have you thought of this? When you have contempt for someone because of either what they believe and do, have you realized that this is a form of judging? And when you have contempt for someone, you are judging them in your mind. Did you realize that? Lots of people don’t make the connection between their judging of folks and the contempt they feel.

Someone may tell you not to judge them when you may be trying to correct them. Are you judging them or their actions? If you are judging their actions, you need to be able to point out from the Word of God, where their actions are wrong. When you are judging someone, you are looking down your nose at them. When you are judging actions, you don’t have that attitude of them being awful people.

This is a rather difficult and sticky and sometimes even confusing issue that we are dealing with here. You see there is a difference between judging the person and judging their actions. Sometimes you must judge the actions of the person-you must actually declare that what they are doing is wrong. And this has to be done to their face, not to all your neighbors and friends. You see when you are telling all your friends and neighbors about it, you are merely gossiping. Jesus said, go to the person yourself first. See Matt.18:15. If that person does not listen, then you can let someone else in on the issue and you both go to the individual. If that doesn’t work, then you go to the church to have them confront the person. If they decide to confront the person and that person still doesn’t listen, then everyone is to treat that person as an outcast.

For you see, if someone is actually doing something wrong, and you have been offended, then the person doing the offending has to be confronted. But if you are just offended by the way someone does something or something someone says, going around and telling about it to others putting that other person in a bad light -you are just gossiping and speaking evil of someone. James is telling us, don’t be guilty of this speaking badly of others for you are setting yourself up as judge of the law-you are setting yourself up as judge when the scripture says don’t judge. Do you see the connection? When you break the Law of "Don’t Judge," you are already sinning against the law and making it as though it does not apply to you, so that makes you a judge of the Law. To give possibly a clearer picture, let me give you this illustration.

Suppose a person gets arrested because he decides that it is perfectly ok to write a bad check. He is doing it because he needs the money, say for instance to pay some bill. Well, that individual is then in prison for theft. That prisoner has by his very actions set himself above the law by writing that bad check and assuming that it is ok. The law says you can’t write bad checks. The prisoner on the other hand has thought there is nothing wrong with writing bad checks if it helps him to pay his bills. That prisoner has broken the law by thinking he can live above it, by thinking he can go ahead and disobey the law -by thinking it does not apply to him. Hence, in thinking the law does not apply to him, he is judging the law -judging it to be non applicable to him. Not only is the authority of the law ignored, but also it is treated as to be obeyed only when one feels it applies. Law is Law, whether it be from God’s Word directly or not. You don’t go pick and choose what is to obey and what not to obey any more than you pick and choose what is God’s Word and what isn’t in the Bible.

Are you imposing your "shoulds" or expectations on someone else? Time to stop that. Since they don’t answer to you, you need to give up expecting or even demanding they live up to your ideas and standards, regardless if your standards and ideas are godly.

Now I am not saying by the above, that you should not stand up for people obeying the laws of the land or laws of God. I am not saying you should let people go around doing everything they want regardless of it being right or wrong. I am saying that you need to operate in your sphere of authority only. You need to operate in your particular sphere of responsibility and not in someone else’s. And you need to know what is your sphere of responsibility and authority first.

One of the responsibilities of the average person in the old Testament times was to blow the whistle on people breaking God’s laws and when that was done, a judgement or sentence had to be pronounced and carried out.. That is a wholly different thing than judging your brother by words and opinions. To judge another includes many times passing sentence and punishment on that person and James says that must be stopped too. Only those who are supposed to pass judgment -the ones given the authority to do so - have the right to do so.

Now as a parent, you can do so with your children-because they are under your authority. But the Bible no where says to speak evil of them. Because to do so would be judging them the wrong way. As a parent you have the responsibility not only to teach them what is right but to punish and correct wrong behavior. You don’t have that responsibility with your neighbor or friends, not unless you are an elected judge in a community. God gave the people judges to judge when people did wrong and they were able to pronounce the judgment and punishment and had the authority to make sure it was carried out. James’ verses above are not covering this type of situation. He is dealing with attitudes between brethren in Christ. He is dealing with the tendency Christians have to speak those things about people that are no one’s business, whether they be true or not. He is dealing with correcting gossip, correcting self-righteous attitudes and behavior. He is dealing with folks like us who may judge a person by his clothing, his or her way of keeping house, his or her diet, etc.

So next time you open your mouth about someone, ask yourself this-what kind of light are you shedding on the person you are referring to. Also ask yourself if you are obeying the following verse-

Eph 4:29

29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.(RSV)

If what you are saying imparts grace to the hearer, and edifies the hearer, you are not going to be speaking wrong things about others. Your talk will be wholesome, not corrupt. Let Eph 4:29 guide all your speech today. And where you have been guilty of speaking evil of someone-true or not-you need to go ask forgiveness and ask God’s forgiveness. Then get your minds on

Phil 4:8

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.(KJV)

May God bless you and cleanse you by His Word. The Good News Lady