"Judging the Law"
James 4:1-10

“19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (Jas 1:19-27)

“10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” (Jas 2:9-13 AV)

I. Presuming to add or subtract from the law of God; making ourselves judges over the consciences of others.
II. Presuming to know what the future will be.
III. Presuming that we do not need to do the good that we know to do.

A. It is certain that slander and evil speakings of all kinds are an affront to God and condemned by the 9th commandment and many teachings of the Scriptures in all its parts. It is such a common a vicious sin that it is treated everywhere in Scripture. The whole of James 3 deals with the subject of the lawless tongue, set on fire of human wisdom, set on fire of hell.

B. But this is not what he is speaking of here: he is speaking of a special kind of slander that sets people aside because they do not follow our own self-legislated pattern of conduct. Calvin comments on this passage, after speaking of slander in general, he says:

There is also another disease innate in human nature, that every one would have all others to live according to his own will or fancy. This presumption James suitably condemns in this passage, that is, because we dare to impose on our brethren our rule of life. He then takes detraction as including all the calumnies and suspicious works which flow from a malignant and perverted judgment. The evil of slandering takes a wide range; but here he properly refers to that kind of slandering which I have mentioned, that is, when we superciliously determine respecting the deeds and sayings of others, as though our own morosity were the law, when we confidently condemn whatever does not please us.

C. This takes a very wide range of attitudes and behaviors: What mostly divides reformed churches are not the creeds or the law, but what we have interpreted the law to be. We pick and choose applications that please us, or have done us good, or have done others good, and we don’t consider that the law does not specifically speak to this or that, but it is a private interpretation that we have made of the law. I grew up in a church where there was a Wednesday Night prayer meeting. I didn’t know that the Wednesday night prayer meeting was representative of the Prayer Meeting movement in American revivalism, and was a comparative new development in church history. We also had altar calls, sang choruses [some good, some bad, some just silly], and looked down on those who didn’t. Evening services on Sunday were standard, but we didn’t look down on those who didn’t have them. That wasn’t in our arsenal. I could go on and on about the extra things that cause people to condemn others. We sing many Psalms in this church. But we don’t an mustn’t condemn those, including ourselves, who sing other gospel songs that a biblical. We have a piano; we have had harps and guitars and other instruments played reverently and modestly as becomes good worship. Shame on those who would forbid it! Are they judges of the law, which commands me to do everything in the name of Jesus?

D. It is arrogance to presume that you can set aside other Christians because you fancy that you have seen some duty in the law that you like and set aside a whole body of truth in terms of that one idea. Very often this rests upon some obscure and private interpretation of an obscure passage of Scripture that there has never been agreement among the holiest of men in the church. But you have figured it out and set yourself up as a judge over the rest of God’s people.

E. I said that this passage was very convicting to me, because I see much of myself, especially in my youth, in these words.

F. There is only one lawgiver and only one law, and we all are under and bound to obedience to all parts of the law. I repeat again what James wrote in chapter 2: “10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” (Jas 2:9-13 AV)

A. Our ignorance. Ye do not know what will be tomorrow: God alone has the future in His hands, because He alone knows what He has decreed for the future.

1. It is not wrong to plan, for this is commanded: We are to count the cost before we go to war; we must foresee evil and hide ourselves the bible says; we are to trust God for the future always and not fret. We have to mark our calendars and plan events and activities, but not in presumption and arrogance. Death and sickness and other things come without warning often, and disrupt our lives and our plans.

2. Some times are appointed, and we know the reasons for them: for worship; for doing good; for mercy. Sunup; sunset; seedtime, harvest. To fix the roof. To service the car. Medical checkups, etc.

3. What is wrong is the arrogance that assumes that the future is in our own hands. The rich fool, planned his future, when he didn’t have one. God has our times in his hands.

Ps 62:8 Trust in him at all times; [ye] people, pour out your heart before him: God [is] a refuge for us. Selah.
Ps 31:15 My times [are] in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

B. Our frailty. “What is your life…”

Ps 39:4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it [is; that] I may know how frail I [am]. [This word is most commonly translated “cease” to “leave off” to “forbear”]

2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Mt 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak.

Ps 6:2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I [am] weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

C. Our complete dependency upon God: “If the Lord will….” You do not know what the decree of God is. It is tempting God to make decisions based upon presumption of knowledge that you do not have. It is “boasting in arrogance.” The fact that we do not know it is arrogance, doesn’t turn it into humility. We are absolutely dependent upon the Lord for our:

1. Being
2. Knowledge
3. Will
4. Consciousness and thought
5. Affections, the fruit of the Spirit.

III. Presuming that we do not need to do the good that we know to do.

A. Our arrogance in all these things will keep us from doing the good we ought to do, that lies right before us. Pr 17:24 “Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.”

1. We set aside people in unrighteousness judgment for whom we could do much good, or that might do us much good. We rend the body of Christ. Joh 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Judgment not only requires us to see the evil, but more importantly to see the good.

2. In our mad scramble to secure our future, we trample on the present, and overlook the good that is right before our eyes: Ec 9:10 “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

3. Knoweth to do good: Study the Scriptures, feed your soul; pray without ceasing; do all to the glory of god; take care of your family and loved ones;

4. Remember all those sinful desires that he speaks of in the first part of the chapter—they get in the way of doing good. We want people to do good to us; we arrange our lives so that good will come to us; we pray for blessings upon ourselves and our things; but we forget to do the good. We want the good, but we do not do the good and fall far short of the glory of God.

5. How different is this spirit from the wisdom of the world described in chapter three.

B. How do I know the good. What can I do. What is that in thine hand.

1. What is before you today. What are the needs of those around you. Get out of yourself and your needs. Paul put it this way:

2. Philippians 2: 3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

See notes from Calvin below:

11. Speak not evil, or, defame not. We see how much labor James takes in correcting the lust for slandering. For hypocrisy is always presumptuous, and we are by nature hypocrites, fondly exalting ourselves by calumniating others. There is also another disease innate in human nature, that every one would have all others to live according to his own will or fancy. This presumption James suitably condemns in this passage, that is, because we dare to impose on our brethren our rule of life. He then takes detraction as including all the calumnies and suspicious works which flow from a malignant and perverted judgment. The evil of slandering takes a wide range; but here he properly refers to that kind of slandering which I have mentioned, that is, when we superciliously determine respecting the deeds and sayings of others, as though our own morosity were the law, when we confidently condemn whatever does not please us.

Thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. This sentence ought to be thus explained: “When thou claimest for thyself a power to censure above the law of God thou exemptest thyself from the duty of obeying the law.” He then who rashly judges his brother; shakes off the yoke of God, for he submits not to the common rule of life. It is then an argument from what is contrary; because the keeping of the law is wholly different from this arrogance, when men ascribe to their conceit the power and authority of the law. It hence follows, that we then only keep the law, when we wholly depend on its teaching alone and do not otherwise distinguish between good and evil; for all the deeds and words of men ought to be regulated by it. Calvin on James 4