Page 48 - book_james

Third, the “laughter” and “joy,” which are to be turned around, are the outward façades
the members have used to cover their knowledge of sin. These are to be erased and
replaced with genuine emotions of repentance before true laughter and joy can return.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

After they are restored to fellowship, a different attitude should control them. This attitude
is a product of grace thinking. This is not a self‐effacement and dejection but a true humility
that knows that self can produce nothing and only the Lord can produce everything.
Nothing is impossible with God. This again is something a person must do to himself. God
cannot and will not do it for us. When we do our part of humbling ourselves, God will do
his part to lift us up and exalt us (1 Peter 5:6). This principle is taught in both the Old
Testament (Job 5:11; Psalm 113: 7‐8, 147:6; Ezekiel 21:26) and the New Testament.

B. Warning Against Judging Others

Jas 4:11 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.

Speak not evil one of (mekatalaleite: against) another (aggos), 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.
This is the “wars and fightings” (4:1) which were happening between believers in the
church. To “speak evil one against the other” actually means, to speak down to a brother
or sister. These believers were running each other down and were critical of the family of
God. Whether or not the faults were genuine was not the issue; the attitude used by the
person speaking was the issue. The term is also used in 1 Peter 2:12 and 3:16 for the
persecution of the Christians by non‐Christians.

To run down a fellow believer is to set yourself above the law. The fulfillment of the law
was found in Leviticus 19:18: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” James called this
the “royal law” (2:8). Maligning a fellow member of the body of Christ is the opposite of
love, and therefore infringes into God’s territory of judging and revenge (Romans 12:19;
Hebrews 10:30). James wants them to know how deep their sin has gone in the eyes of
God. They have put themselves on God’s level and are actually judging the Word God has
put into the forming of the law. God has asked them to obey the law by loving their brothers
and sisters, but instead they have made themselves judges of the law by disobeying it.

Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that
judgest another?

There is one lawgiver, who is able (dunamao: capable) to save and to destroy: who art thou
that judgest another?