James 4:11 12 INTRODUCTION Chuck Swindoll said, This particular sin is the most volatile, the most explosive, and the most damaging problem with which the church of Jesus Christ is faced. If this sin is not dealt with it is like a fire that burns up a building, it is like a cancer that consumes a body, it is like an atomic bomb that levels an entire city. This sin will empty a church building faster than a fire in the basement and flu in the pew. What sin are we talking about? Slander! James 4:11-12, Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor? PRINCIPLE #1 BROTHERS, DO NOT SLANDER ONE ANOTHER (v.11a) James 4:11, Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. James uses the word brother twice in verse 11, which indicates that he was writing to Christians. By using the word brother, James is saying that as believers in Jesus Christ we are part of a spiritual family. If we know Christ as our personal savior, God is our Heavenly Father and fellow believers are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And as members of God s family we are commanded to love one another, accept one another (warts and all), encourage one another, forgive one another, care for one another, comfort one another, honor one another, pray for one another, instruct one another, and live in harmony with one another. Now James is commanding us not to slander one another. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SLANDER ONE ANOTHER? We slander one another when we make untrue statements about others in a critical belittling manner in order to erode their position, their reputation and their character. We slander others when we make untrue statements about them in order to influence others against the person being spoken against. The word slander assumes that the untrue critical remarks are made about someone who is absent so, they have no opportunity to defend themselves or correct the untrue statements. The evil lies in the speaker s hostile intent. That is why in the older translations this word for slander was often translated backbite, suggesting that the injury inflicted upon the person was done behind their back. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT SLANDER? Quite a bit Although many Christians overlook the wickedness of slander, it is frequently condemned in Scripture. God commanded the children of Israel in Leviticus 19:16, Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Slander was one of the sins committed by wicked people. Psalm 50:16-20 says, But to the wicked, God says:... You speak continually against your brother and slander your own Mother s son. Sermon 24 May 2015 James 4:11-12 Page 1
In Romans 1, Paul said this about people who God gave over to a depraved mind; Romans 1:29-30, They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips and slanderers, God haters... One of the sins godly people do not commit is slandering others. David says in Psalm 15:1-3, Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow man. The seriousness of the sin of slander caused David to vow: Psalm 101:5, Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence... David also prayed in Psalm 140:11, Let slanderers not be established in the land... Solomon said in Proverbs 10:17, whoever spreads slander is a fool. While Christians are to expect slander from non-christians (1 Peter 2:12; 3:16), slander is unacceptable behavior for God s children. As God s children we are commanded to rid ourselves of slander. Paul told the Ephesians in Ephesians 4:31, Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander... Paul also told the Colossians in Colossians 3:8, now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander... Peter told the believers he wrote to in 1 Peter 2:1,... rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Paul wrote the Corinthians about his upcoming visit, and tells them that he is afraid that slander is a sin which he will find in the Corinthian church. He said in 2 Corinthians 12:20,... I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. It s clear that God in His word condemns slander as a sin. Yet too many Christians have a tendency to engage in it. WHY WOULD A CHRISTIAN SLANDER ANOTHER CHRISTIAN? WHY WOULD A CHRISTIAN MAKE UNTRUE, CRITICAL AND BELITTLING STATEMENTS ABOUT ANOTHER CHRISTIAN WHILE HOPING TO ERODE THE OTHER CHRISTIAN S POSITION, REPUTATION AND CHARACTER? 1. They are envious of the person because the person has something they want; influence, power or prestige. 2. They are vindictive toward the person because of some real or imagined wrong done to them. 3. They are selfish; slandering, making untrue, critical and belittling things about other people is a form of self-exaltation. By putting others down they think they are lifting themselves up. 4. They are proud and arrogant They think they are right and everyone else is wrong, so when they speak about other Christians, criticism comes automatically. Some think that the most effective way to get revenge, or to hinder a rival, is to discredit them by saying critical, untrue, belittling things about them, which, will cause others to stop supporting and helping them, or even begin to work against them. Sermon 24 May 2015 James 4:11-12 Page 2
ILLUSTRATION Slander originated in the Garden of Eden, when Satan said things that were untrue about God s character and motives by implying that God was selfishly withholding something good from Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:1-6, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the free was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband. God s real command in Genesis 2:17 was, you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. So the first act of slander in human history led directly to man s first sin. Once a malicious slander gets started, it is impossible to undo the damage that it causes. ILLUSTRATION A young man came to his father asking how he could stop a slander he had started while he was angry with a friend. His father told him to distribute a bag of chicken feathers one by one on the doorstep of every home in the neighborhood. After he had done this, he came back to his father. Then his father told him to regather the feathers. The boy tried but the wind had blown most of them away. His father then made the obvious application that the wind of gossip had already taken the slander far beyond the reach of the young man to stop it. APPLICATION How does Satan lie to us about our Heavenly Father? He doesn t exist? He doesn t love us? He isn t good? He isn t all powerful? How have people slandered you in the past? How did it affect you? How have you slandered other people in the past? How did it affect them? JAMES CONDEMNS SLANDERING ANOTHER PERSON FOR TWO REASONS. REASON #1 IT IS A TRANSGRESSION OF THE ROYAL LAW THAT WE SHOULD LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES (v. 11b) James 4:11b, Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. EXPLANATION The law teaches that we are to love people. Leviticus 19:18, Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Matthew 22:37-39, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. Romans 13:8-9, Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments... are summed up in this one rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Sermon 24 May 2015 James 4:11-12 Page 3
Galatians 5:14-15, The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. James 2:8, If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. Obviously a man cannot love his neighbor as himself and maliciously slander, say untrue, critical and belittling things about him behind his back. If a person knows that he should love his neighbor as himself and yet continues to say untrue, critical and belittling things about them behind their back, he is setting himself above the law and disobeying it. That is to say, he has made himself a judge of the law, but a person s duty is not to judge the law, but to obey it. APPLICATION The principles taught by the Bible may be reduced to these: 1) We should never believe evil of another, until it is proven to be true; and 2) we should never say anything against another person, unless we are sure that duty obliges us; and 3) if we feel sure that duty obliges us to speak, then we should tell of the evil in a spirit of love and sorrow. The second reason James condemns slandering another person is: REASON #2 IT IS AN INFRINGEMENT OF GOD S RIGHT TO JUDGE A PERSON. James 4:12, There is only one lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you who are you to judge your neighbor? EXPLANATION When a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ slanders another believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is actually guilty of judging that believer. Unfortunately, judgment is God s job and only He judges justly. There are many rights and privileges, which the Almighty gives to us as Christians. But there is one privilege which God has reserved for himself, and that is the privilege of judging people. Jesus said in Matthew 7:1-5, Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother s eye. There isn t a single person on this earth that we cannot find some fault with, if we look carefully enough and most the time we don t have to look too carefully. But the same thing holds true about each of us. If people look at us very long, they will find plenty of faults in us. If we saw ourselves the way God sees us, we would probably be less critical of others. God s judgment is just and true because He alone is all knowing, all wise, all discerning and all just. Only God can truthfully detect a person s actions, intentions and motives. Only God can justly convict, and punish all who disregard and disobey His laws. As the only lawgiver and Judge (v. 12) the only living and true Holy, Holy, Holy God can now turn to sinful human beings who have sinned and deserve eternity in Hell apart from him and save them by His love, grace and mercy from the penalty of their sin through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures say in John 3:16-18, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but Sermon 24 May 2015 James 4:11-12 Page 4
to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him in not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he had not believed in the name of God s one and only Son. As the only lawgiver and judge, God (v. 12) can now turn to people who have failed to repent of their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior and say, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. James 4:12, There is only one lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor? The word destroy does not mean extinction or annihilation, but rather complete loss and estrangement. It does not mean the cessation of conscious existence. It means eternity in Hell. (Matthew 10:28; 25:46, 2 Thessalonians 1:9) 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power... Because God is the only lawgiver and judge who is able to save and destroy, Jesus told his disciples to fear God. Luke 12:4-5 says, I tell you, my friend, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after than can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him whom after the killing of the body has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. James was so disgusted with those who made themselves judges of others that he now turns to them and asks them a very blunt question. Who are you, anyway? Who are you to judge your neighbor? When any Christian honestly looks at his own heart and life, he knows he is a sinner saved by the grace of God. And since he is a sinner in his own heart and life he certainly knows that he is not fit to judge anyone else for not being all he ought to be. James 4:11-12, Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, ask God to give you a love for God and a love for people. Without love you are nothing. The first step in avoiding the sin of slander is not keeping one s lips sealed, but keeping one s thoughts about others right. If we view our fellow believers as those chosen by God before the foundation of the world, for whom Christ died, who are indwelt by the Spirit of God, who are loved and honored by God, and with whom we will spend eternity in heaven, we will seek to honor, love, and protect them, rather than to slander them. If you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to fear God, the one and only lawgiver and judge. He has the power to throw you into hell. Sermon 24 May 2015 James 4:11-12 Page 5