The Epistle of James
Part 14
In our last lesson, we discussed the first 10 verses of chapter 4, a rather complex portion of scripture that contains 10 of the 54 commands found in the Epistle of James…submit, resist, draw near, cleanse, purify, don’t be double-minded, lament, mourn, weep, and humble yourselves. The last of these commands summarizes all the other nine. A person who is humble before God will find themselves in compliance with all the other commands.
Let’s look at our verses for today:
Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?
(James 4:11-12)When medieval monks compiled a list of the seven deadly sins, they included pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and laziness. Conspicuously absent from that list was the sin of slandering others. Nor, in all likelihood, would slander rank very high on any contemporary list of serious sins.
What does it mean to slander a person?
Writing in the 1828 edition of his dictionary, Noah Webster defined slander as "a false tale or report maliciously uttered, and tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in the esteem of his fellow citizens, by exposing him to impeachment and punishment, or by impairing his means of living." Although modern definitions are less wordy, they carry the same thought.
How is this command of James reconciled with what Jesus said:
If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17)James does not forbid confronting sin in the life of a brother, but careless, derogatory, critical and slanderous accusations against others. The purpose of confronting sin is to correct, restore and build up.
Why does James see this as speaking against the law or judging the law?
Those who speak evil of other believers set themselves up as judges and condemn them (cf. 2:4). They thereby defame and disregard God’s law, which expressly forbids such slanderous condemnation. By refusing to submit to the law, slanderers place themselves above it as its judges.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
(James 4:13-17 NASB95)Is James against business planning?
With all his emphasis on "doing the right thing", it’s difficult to believe that James is against business planning. James is against business planning that does not include God. Success is not doing what I want, it’s doing what God wants! If I insist on "plowing" ahead with my own plans, God will often allow it, but the results will never be what they could have been if I had chosen His path instead of mine.
Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Is it not sin if I don’t know the right thing to do?
The law approach defines sin differently than the grace approach. Paul says in Romans 4:15 that where there is no law, there also is no violation. The grace approach says that anything apart from total dependence upon God is sin. The law approach draws our attention to what we do or don’t do…our focus becomes egocentric. If we’re not careful, the grace approach can draw our attention toward ourselves as well if we are focusing on the quality of our surrender instead of the faithfulness of God. Our confidence before God is based on His faithfulness and mercy, not the quality of our surrender. We’re justified before God even when our surrender is not total! Nothing about behavior makes God less available to us…He will never leave us nor forsake us!