Who's The Judge?
Text: James 4:11-12
Introduction
1. Illustration: Whether or not to judge others is a hot topic in the Church today. Most of us would say that we are not the judge of our fellow Christians. However, is that what we are practicing? Do we pass judgment on others without even noticing it? C.S. Lewis wrote about this in Mere Christianity. He said, "One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons ”marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning." My friends, Scripture is clear, God is the judge and we are not!
2. It's easy to say, "I'm not judging you," but when their back is turned we judge them six ways to Sunday.
3. In our text today, James poses the question...
A. Who Are We Really Judging?
B. God Alone Is Judge
4. Let's stand together as we read James 4:11-12.
Proposition: Our job is to be concerned with where we are in our relationship with God, and let God worry about others.
Transition: First James asks the question...
I. Who Are We Really Judging? (11).
A. Criticizing And Judging God
1. In my 20 + years of ministry I cannot begin to tell you how many people who I've met who stopped going to church many years ago because of the way they were treated by church going people.
A. Some were mistreated by people in church.
B. Others we looked down upon by church people because of their past.
C. Still others were rejected because of the way they looked, the clothes they wore or who their parents were.
D. If we were to try and figure out just how many people were turned away from Christ by others in church the list would incalculable.
2. There must have been some similar reason behind what James writes in the two verses. Probably they was a particular incident, or perhaps several, that James is dealing with in this text.
3. Look at what he says in v. 11, "Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you."
A. With an abrupt shift from describing an appropriate attitude toward God, James turns to the proper relations between believers.
B. We love God by being humble before him; we love our neighbor by refusing to speak evil.
C. To speak evil can take many forms. We may speak the truth about a person and still be unkind, or we may spread gossip that others have no business knowing.
D. We may be questioning someone’s authority or nullifying their good work by backbiting. Obviously, this hurts the harmony among believers.
E. The verb is katalaleo ("speak evil"), which could include destructive verbal attacks, gossip behind another person's back and false accusations. Such offenses are not to be practiced among Christians.
F. Then James repeats this first verb in if you criticize but adds a second verb or judge each other to make clear that the speaking against is a form of judging.
G. Judging then becomes the real focus of these verses, and the remainder of the two verses is explanation of why judging is so wrong (Stulac, 152).
H. The tense in the Greek reveals that James is forbidding a practice that is already in progress. So James is dealing with a real situation here. The people were in the habit of criticizing one another.
I. This verse includes the sixth and seventh times in his letter that James has mentioned God’s law. It is the royal law—the law that frees or convicts, the law that must be kept. Here the law is under attack.
J. The specific problem being confronted violates the ninth commandment: “Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.” It also violates the more fundamental law of Christ, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). In addition...
K. Leviticus 19:16-18 (NLT)
16 “Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. “Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the LORD.
17 “Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin.
18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
L. Jesus called this the second greatest commandment (12). If a believer speaks against another believer, he is criticizing and condemning the law because he is not showing love and is not treating others as he would like to be treated.
M. His disobedience shows disregard for the law, for he is passing judgment on its validity. By doing so, he is putting himself above God. When we judge one another in this slanderous way, we are clearly failing to submit to God (Barton, 1087).
4. So I ask you, when we criticize or judge others who are we really judging? As James states we are judging God's Law, and if we are judging God's law aren't we really judging God? Aren't we really saying, "God you messed up, but let me fix it for you!"
B. And You Will Not Be Judged
1. Illustration: Judging others isn’t easy.
In his little book Illustrations of Bible Truth, H.A. Ironside pointed out the folly of judging others. He related an incident in the life of a man called Bishop Potter. "He was sailing for Europe on one of the great transatlantic ocean liners. When he went on board, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After going to see the accommodations, he came up to the purser’s desk and inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship’s safe. He explained that ordinarily he never availed himself of that privilege, but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who was to occupy the other berth. Judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person. The purser accepted the responsibility for the valuables and remarked, ’It’s all right, bishop, I’ll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man has been up here and left his for the same reason!’"
2. The Bible is clear, judging others is not our job, it's God's.
A. Matthew 7:1-5 (NLT)
1 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.
2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?
4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
B. You see James is not the only one who tells us not to judge. Paul says it. Peter says it. John says it. Most importantly, Jesus says it!
C. He tells us not to judge other or we will be judged. In fact, he goes so far as to say the say standard we use to judge other will be used to judge us! Think about that the next time you criticize someone else!
D. Jesus also tells us to take care of our own issues before we go trying to fix someone else's problems.
E. Judging is not our job, and when we make it our job we are, in essence, making ourselves God.
F. When we do this we are judging God by saying he is not up to the task.
G. So why don't we let God be God and we'll work on being ourselves. After all, aren't we all sinners saved by grace?
H. So rather than judging others let's first look in the mirror and fix what we see in ourselves.
Transition: This brings us to the central point in this passage...
II. God Alone Is Judge (12).
A. God Alone
1. Chuck Swindoll told of his being at a pastor’s conference where he would be speaking. The first day there a man approached him and said how greatly he had looked forward to hearing Dr. Swindoll speak and his delight at now finally being able to realize that desire. That evening Swindoll noticed the man was sound asleep only a few minutes into of the sermon. Swindoll thought to himself that perhaps he was tired after a long day’s drive and couldn’t help himself - but this continued to happen night after night. Dr. Swindoll soon became very upset in his spirit with this man! On the last night the man’s wife came up and apologized for her husband’s inattention to the messages. She then explained that he had recently been diagnosed as having terminal cancer and the medication he was taking to ease the pain made him extremely sleepy. But it had been one of his life-long ambitions to hear Dr. Swindoll speak before he died, and now he had fulfilled that goal. Source Unknown.
2. The point is this, we cannot see inside other people's hearts, only God can. We are unqualified to judge.
3. That's James says in v. 12, "God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?"
A. God is also the sole judge: unlike mortals, God is God, uniquely, divine One, the original fountain as well as the ultimate arbiter of law, who, unlike human judges, is completely impartial (Adamson, 177).
B. God alone is both the source and enforcer of the law. We who are accountable to God’s law cannot place ourselves in God’s place. God rewards those who obey the law and destroys those who disobey.
C. James also takes away any rights we might claim for criticizing our neighbors. Behind the critical spirit is an attitude that usurps God’s authority and is full of pride. There should be no critical, harsh faultfinding in the body of Christ.
D. The principle in this verse does not prohibit the proper action of a church against a member who is acting in flagrant disobedience to God.
E. Rather, James is concerned with the critical speech that condemns or judges others’ actions and their standing with God.
F. He is confronting individuals who might be tempted to set themselves up as personal watchdogs on other believers.
G. We might think that just criticizing a church member or spreading a little interesting gossip is not that serious—especially when compared to other sins. But the Bible sees it as a sin of utmost seriousness because it breaks the law of love and it tries to usurp God’s authority.
H. As we saw in chapter 3, the tongue is a tool of deadly sin. We dare not minimize its danger (Barton, 1087-1088).
4. When we fail to love, we are actually breaking God's law.
A. Examine your attitude and actions toward others. Do you build people up or tear them down?
B. When you're ready to criticize someone, remember God's law of love and say something good instead.
C. Saying something beneficial to others will cure you of finding fault and increase your ability to obey God's law of love (Life Application Study Bible, 2120).
B. The Only One Qualified
1. Illustration: There was once a little boy who excitedly told his mom that he had just measured himself and he was six feet tall. Mom was a little skeptical, so she asked him to measure himself again while she watched. She discovered the problem when the boy took out not a 12-inch, but a 6-inch ruler.
He had calculated well: he was six-ruler-heights tall – he just had the wrong ruler, the wrong standard
We often fall into the same problem ourselves. We often judge ourselves by a very different standard than even the one we judge others by.
2. Because God is the only one who is all-seeing and all-knowing only He has the right to judge.
A. Romans 2:1 (NLT)
1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.
B. When we look at people to judge them there are certain things that we can see.
i. We can see what they wear.
ii. We can see what they do.
iii. We can hear what they say.
C. However, there are many other things we cannot see.
i. We cannot see what their day has been like.
ii. We cannot see the struggles they are dealing with.
iii. We cannot see the obstacles they face.
iv. We cannot see the hurt they are dealing with.
v. And, most importantly, we cannot see their hearts!
D. We judge only by what we can see, but God judges by what only He can see.
E. We need to stop and recognize that they may be going through things that we have no clue about.
F. We need to stop and take into consideration what that person may have been through.
G. We need to stop and come to the realization that we are not qualified to judge someone else because we are not God!
H. Rather than judge we need to pray for that person.
I. Instead of judging we should ask God if there is anything that we can do to help that person.
Conclusion
1. In our text today, James poses the question...
A. Who Are We Really Judging?
B. God Alone Is Judge
2. A number of years ago, Bruce Carrol wrote a song called, "Who Will Be Jesus?" Here are some of the lyrics to that song...
He came home from work last night,
To find that she is gone,
Now He's spending his first Sunday
Sitting in the pew alone,
There are whispers all around him,
His heart breaks in two,
He's wondering who will reach out
And help him make it through,
Who will be Jesus to him?
Who'll show the love that restores him again?
Oh he does not need a judge, he needs a friend.
Who will be Jesus to him?
3. TWO THINGS TO REMEMBER...
A. WE ARE NOT QUALIFIED TO JUDGE OTHER PEOPLE
B. WILL YOU BE JESUS TO THEM?
