James 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.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
Some might suggest that I should heed these words. They are right. I do need to heed these words. The question is: what is “speaking evil”? The context helps us to understand what this is talking about. James is using the law as the standard. The entire book is based on the law. The entire Bible is based on the law. The law is the Word of God. When a brother is seeking to live by God’s law, and another brother wants to judge that person against the law, that is wrong.
What we have been doing in all our devotionals is teaching the law. I have used many illustrations to demonstrate the problems we are facing in our world today. The main problem we are facing is with those who seek to corrupt God’s law. There is no benefit in doing that because in the end, we will all stand before the “LawGiver”. Even if a person chooses to corrupt God’s Word now, that person will stand before the incorruptible God soon. God gave us many warnings about corrupting His Word. Adam did not gain from accepting the corruption of God’s Word. Cain did not gain from trying to corrupt God’s Word. The thousands of people alive at the time of the flood of Noah’s day, did not gain from corrupting God’s Word.
The pride of man causes him to set himself up as the standard of righteousness. It is important that we remember that God’s law is righteous. It is unchanging and it is our only true authority. It is quite obvious, when a saved person takes God’s Word as their authority, to determine which church is right and worthy of support and attendance. The critical point here in this text is that we not set ourselves up as judges of God’s law. Jesus stated:
John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
As we look at New Evangelicalism or the Emergent church movement, we can readily see they are growing, sometimes very rapidly. We can also see why they are growing. They are not speaking the truth. They are scratching the itching ears of the masses of people. Many people want to be religious. They want to know a god. They are just like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They wanted to know a god. They assumed their god was the true God. Jesus exposed them often. The apostle Paul, formerly Saul, was trained as a Pharisee. He assumed he was doing the will of God. He thought he was a monotheist. He thought He was believing in the One true God. He was vehemently opposed to those who were teaching and believing that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and the Saviour of mankind.
He knew better, but he had actively suppressed the truth in his heart and life. The Lord Jesus Christ stopped him on the road to Damascus and confronted him with his sin. Saul was seeking to stop the spread of the truth. He saw that very clearly at that moment and was converted. He was chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ to be the twelfth apostle, the replacement for Judas. He wrongly judged saints before he was saved. He rightly judged false teachers after he was saved. James was doing the same thing in this letter. Neither one of them was in the flesh in what they were doing. They were using the Law for Its’ intended purpose.
In verse 10 we are reminded there is one lawgiver. That is an important point to note. Since there is one Lawgiver, we would expect a consistent and coherent law. In our current world we know there is a double standard in the secular law. The governments are held to a certain standard of law, which is always changing. Those who disagree with the governments are held to a different standard of law, which is also always changing. The government is trying to make it so that it is not possible to stand for truth. They want to be the standard of truth. This is becoming more and more evident all the time.
In religious terms, humanism is the standard of truth for most religious people. That standard is a fluctuating standard, depending on who is involved. The Catholics have their standard of truth. Most other religions fit somewhere under the umbrella of Catholicism. The Catholic hierarchy does not care if their followers use a different standard, as long as it does not interfere with the desire for the Catholics to rule over all.
In our text, we are told there is one Lawgiver. This Lawgiver has the power to save and to destroy. The Catholics cannot save a single soul and they cannot destroy a single soul. They can destroy bodies, but not the soul. They will be judged and destroyed themselves. It is important that we not pull verses, like our text, out of context and make them say what we want. The false teachers want to protect their domain by suggesting that men like myself should not be exposing them as frauds. We should not be warning people to reject the New Evangelical/Emergent church philosophy. There is a lot of money to be made in deceiving people. Gullible people want an easy road to heaven. They do not consider the thousands of dollars they give to frauds. They only read verses according to the interpretation of the false teachers. Occasionally, one of them will actually listen to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and be saved. We do not see this often because most people are using the perversions as their source of truth. There is no power in those perversions. God is not in them and He is not blessing them.
Every person who reads these devotionals is judging the writer. Every person has an opinion. The question is, how did you develop your opinions? Are you saved? Do you understand the importance of the sure word of God? Are you attending a church that is teaching the truth, not just from the pulpit, but in all its practices? God does not want us to be vulnerable to the whims of men. He wants us to know the truth. He gave Adam the truth. Adam chose to believe a lie. Cain knew the truth but he chose to believe a lie. Lamech knew the truth but he chose to believe a lie. We can look at any Biblical character given, and we know they all knew the truth, but many chose to believe a lie.
Those who are true saints will not always believe the truth. David was a man of God, but he sinned. Peter was a man of God but he sinned. The important factor is that sin did not define the men and women of God. Sin did define the ungodly people that God mentions. What defines you? Be sure to take the Bible as your authority and do not try to justify your sin. Take the Word of God as THE authority and ask God to show you who you truly are. God is doing that for all people. The danger is when a person tunes God out.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pastor Bartel
