Words for the Wise
Notes
Transcript
James is a skilled counselor. In chapter 3 he warned us about the dangers of the tongue in terrifiying and poetic terms that we could feel and understand.
Then he unpacked over the last few weeks why the tongue is so dangerous and what motivates us to use it to sow such destruction. Bringing us in the end to exactly where we need to go- humbly to the foot of the cross to be restored by the great grace of Christ. And only after doing that does he return to the problem at hand and deals again with the tongue. To tell us what we have been actually do wrong.
Why? because James wants us to pursue transformation from within. To be changed to be more and more like Christ.
Not just to follow another rule. Or have another rule that we tell other people to follow!
Which brings us to today’s text.
Read
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Now you might be noticing that this seems like a rather small piece of text for us to focus on for a WhOLE sermon. Well it is.. But I I think that it is also a very helpful piece of text.. Because it provides an essential guide for Christian relations in good times and in troubled times.
This is because this short little text tells us not only how we are supposed to speak about each other. but how we are supposed to feel about each other. How we are supposed to feel about God and his Law and by extension how he feels about us.
In other words with text is full of “feels.”
Outline:
The command Do not speak evil against (11) is, more specifically, ‘do not defame’ or ‘do not denigrate’. A defamatory word may be perfectly true: we do not have to tell lies in order to defame. But the fact that it is true gives us no right to say it.
So often people say as long is it is true I can say it. Stunning how often gossips go that route to justify their poisonous tongues. James challenges this- when we say words that put others down, true of false inorder to make ourselves look good We are doing this.. and this is wrong.
Denigration is different from good discipline. One of the forgotten marks of the church.. desperately needed and constantly confused.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
We are called to gently challenge and encourage those in sin to repent and return. Just a james is doing with us.. But doing that is an act of humility and love. Not something to rejoice in…
Why is that.. Because we are a family.
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
We share our honor and our reputation. You can’t hurt one of us without hurting all of us. This was the way it was in the 1st century.. A family’s honor was to be defended because you shared your brother and your sister’s reputation. When they did well you did well. When they broke the law you carried that shame as well.
Christians are Brother and sisters.. one family with Christ as our head. Our compassion and patience for each other is telling in a world of brokeness. Indeed it is supposed to be one of the signs of God’s power in out midst.
And the fact that we are a family is also a part of the problem. That means that we import broken patterns from our earthly families into our church families. We bicker as they bickered. We are jealous as they were jealous. And we blame, complain and gossip as our earthly families do. But there is not place for this in the church. Christ has changed all that. We are part of a new family now with a new Father and that father’s love is perfect and his law is also perfect.
And James says that is the problem with us Judging our brothers or sisters. In doing so we are changing our relationship with the law. Before we choose to Judge someone we are under the law with them. Striving with them to keep the law and to bring glory to God. But when we decide to judge their behavior is so public a way that us repositioning ourselves not as being under the law but Judges of the law. One of the jobs of a judge is to interpret the law and to pass judgment.
A story.
Suppose just suppose when I was a kid at home with my siblings.
Doing chores home alone typical 90’s kids. And a plate was to be dropped in the kitchen.. And one of us passed judgement on the other.. You are grounded because you broke that plate.
Would that judgment stand? no.. Would there be agony, shame, anger and possible a lot more laws broken.. Absolutely!
By far the better route would be for us to commiserate with our guilty sibling and to let the judges do the judging.
We are all together under the law. We do not keep the law as individuals but as a family. So we make it our business to life each-other up.
Because one thing that we all have in common is that we have all been lifted up. We could have been destroyed. But we have been spared.
That is why James says:
There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Because we know this particular Judge- we know that he understands the law better than anyone because he wrote if for us.. And to top it off he made us.. The Law is made for us and we were made to flourish with it.
Now we know as well that this Judge who gave us the law is far greater than our greatest minds.
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
All of these verses are intended to remind us that that God is far more than the sum of these words in the bible. He is far more than we can conceive. His persons and purposes are far greater that humankind can comprehend.. And that is Okay.. As long as we remember our place.
He is the Judge his is the Law.
And he is the one who created all of this. He is the one who saves and he is the one who will destroy..
All of these things mean that the judges bench is rather big. and none of us can fill his seat.
But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Here James ends this argument with a simple reminder we are ruled by a simple law. And a powerful one. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
In other words carrying out this simple law should keep you so busy for the rest of your life that you won’t really have time to bother with building your own kangaroo court.
The implications of all this are pretty astounding to me as I reflected on it all this week.
I love the idea that we as Christians need to pursue a brotherly care for the honor of our community. We are not alone.. Far from alone we share all our honor and shame.
And if that doesn’t sound fair to you.. I want to remind you of something else.
This is exactly what Christ has Done on our behalf.
Paul’s words
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus Descended and became part of the messiest and most broken family around.. Creator became created. The Judge became the accused.
And because he who was sinless took our sin.. We are attributed a profound righteousness that is not our own. And our family name is transformed. Once the worst of sinners we are covered with a glory. empowered with a spirit and given a future greater than any of us can conceive.
We get all of that through simply believing in Christ and trusting him!
So if Christ has done this for us.. Paul says that we are to do the same thing..
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
How beautiful would the people of God become as we grow in this practice.
Exercise in mutuality.
Friends, look to those who are around you.. those to your right, to your left. And now think of those that you know and love who are not here today but watching from home. And those at home think of those who are here.
Now say,
In Christ I have been adopted into the family of God!
You are all my family and my honor is your honor.
Your happiness is my happiness.
Please forgive me when I fail you.
And please help me to live for the Glory of God.
Lets pray!