James 4:11-12

Brethren Should Not Judge One Another

The verb James used in 4:11 is in the present durative tense and actually means "stop speaking evil of one another". Evidently, they had already been doing such speaking. Woods notes that evil listening should also be stopped since that encourages evil speaking. Gossipers do not like to talk to empty rooms or dead telephone lines. Remember, the law of love would require us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us (Matthew 7:12).

To harshly judge the motives of our brother's actions and speak against him out of that harsh judgment is to speak contrary to the law of love and judge it an unworthy one. This displays a lack of love for our brother and thus for God. John wrote, "He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes." He went on to write, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 2:10-11; 1 John 4:20).

God gave Jesus authority to deliver commands to the people of this age and his words will be the standard in judgment (James 4:12; Matthew 28:18-20; Hebrews 1:1-2). He told his disciples, "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day" (John 12:48). God has authorized Jesus to execute judgment. After he had healed a man on the Sabbath and called God his Father, the Jews sought to kill our Lord. He responded by saying, "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man" (John 5:26-27). Realizing the truth of what has just been said, who are we to act as judge against our brother or the law Christ delivered?