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?
James 4:12 NIV
James 4:11 warns us against slandering fellow believers, speaking against them, or judging them. It is tempting to read this verse and think that I am OK. I seldom speak judgmental words against other people. But what about the conversations that are going on in my head? Conversations that are never verbally expressed? Am I not just as guilty?
To be clear, I am not saying that I cannot hold some actions to be right and others to be wrong. There are many things that I can rightly judge to be wrong. The issue in this passage is about judging people, not their actions.
To Love, Or to Judge?
The Scripture tells me I am to love my brothers and sisters in Christ and seek to do what is best for them. So why am I sometimes unwilling to do that? It may be that they have offended or hurt me in some way. It might be that I do not approve of something about them. Or it may just be that they are in some way different than I am.
But, whatever the reason, when I fail to love them, am I not sitting in judgment on them, deeming them in some way to be unworthy of my love? While my spoken words are not often judgmental of others, my failure to love as I should all too often tells another story.
Lord, help me, rather than sitting in judgment of others, to learn to love in the same way Christ loved me, giving his life for me, as unworthy of it as I am.
