James 4:11-17
Do Not Judge a Brother
11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
Do Not Boast About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Godly humility causes us to speak well of others and not with evil slander or harsh judgment that condemns. We are not the judge who condemns a brother; that task is God’s alone. Though we are to judge within the church of what (1 Corinthians 5:12, 6:5) is good or evil, we have no right to pass condemning judgment on others. By condemning others we end up judging the word of God as we try to take on the authority of God and stand in His place while we understand that only He is our Lawgiver and Judge who passes eternal sentences on us all, either for eternal condemnation or salvation. Such humility also does not boast about what we are going to accomplish in our own supposed ability and efforts. We are rather to admit all we have comes from the Lord, whether wisdom, knowledge, skills, finances, or any other tools we leverage to forge our way through life. If the Lord wills, that should be our driving saying in all our pursuits in life. It is by His grace that we are able to do anything at anytime to gain or lose profit of any kind. Humility confesses these truths and carries us accordingly in all we do as we consider the tenuous nature of our lives which are so transitory and fragile. Our time on this earth is precious and short so that we can reflect on the eternity in our heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and see that we make the most of all we are entrusted with in light of that eternity. This should change our attitude to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that” as it is written here to remind and encourage us to reliance on our Lord in all we do instead of trying to take the credit for ourselves. Such lack of humility in assuming all we do is by our own strength and wisdom is mere arrogant pride and boasting of it is truly evil as we deny the one who enables all we do. The underlying principle of truth here is that we do good according to what we are given and without condemning others because if we fail to do so then we are sinning. We are called to trust God, give Him all the glory, and see one another as fellow debtors who answer to Him that we exhort and correct in love and confess all we are and can do comes from our Lord by grace.
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