Living with your Brother
Living Your Faith • Sermon • Submitted
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· 16 viewsWe have no right to speak evil of one another.
Notes
Transcript
Intro
The Bible frequently speaks of the church as God’s family. Jesus’ favorite name for God is Father. And we are part of that family, too:
50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus considers his disciples - the ones following him - as his family. In fact, we believe that we are God’s family so strongly, that it’s our mission statement:
We Are God’s Family: Adopted by Faith in Jesus Christ, Belonging Together through the Holy Spirit in Love, and Making Disciples of All Nations beginning Right Here in Prattville
Now, when it comes to family, we treat each other differently. We go the extra mile for family, when we wouldn’t be as willing for others.
ILL: Broken Down at Night
When you truly care for someone, you are willing to go much further to help them. When it comes to family, you do what it takes for them.
Now, if we are the family of God, then we ought to be willing to do whatever it takes for one another. In fact, Jesus makes clear the nature our divine family relationships should have:
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Let’s break this commandment down real quick.
The Realm of the Command
Notice first that the command is not something we feel, but something we do. We love. It’s not a passive feeling we experience, but an active commitment that we perform. In other words, love exists in the realm of action, not of emotion.
The Reason of the Command
Notice second the reason for the command. The justification behind loving each other, according to Christ, is because he has first loved us. His love for me and you provides the impetus of our love for each other. John got this message loud and clear: listen to how he instructs believers in his first epistle:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
The Result of the Command
Now notice third the result of Jesus’ command: our love for others is the primary means of identification of believers in a world so lacking in love. “By this,” Jesus says, “will they know you’re mine: if you love one another.” Our love for each other is the defining characteristic of God’s family. The result is that everyone will know we belong to him.
So the nature of our relationships with each other, as God’s children, should be defined by love. The problem is that we don’t always live up to that ideal.
Now we’re ready to go to James. James 4 includes two verses that at first just look like another exhortation in a list of many. Remember that last week, we looked at verses 1-10 and saw that the only way to win victory over our passions is unconditional surrender to God. We must be willing to surrender everything to Christ completely, otherwise we cannot win the war within. Verses 11-12 are a continuation of this idea, but with specific application to our relationships within the body of Christ:
11 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.
12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James begins with the command: “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.” The idea here is to speak a falsehood against another based in hostility and malice (TDNT IV, 3-5). This idea isn’t new: God had commanded the Israelites through the prophets on numerous occasions. Zechariah tells the people of God:
16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;
17 do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”
God takes this kind of talk very seriously:
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.
Look at things from God’s perspective: he created that individual. He loves that brother of yours, that sister of yours. They are image bearers of God: they are beloved by the King of Kings. And when we speak against one another, we are denigrating the imago Dei within our brother or sister. We are denying them the value they have as a child of God. We might as well spit in their face.
But what’s more is that we are not merely spitting in their face, we are really spitting in God’s face. Look back at James 4:11:
11 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.
When we speak against one another, we are really speaking against the one who created that other: we are speaking against God and against his law. What’s more: we are not just speaking against God - we are judging God.
Now that is backwards. Can you imagine a player making a referee or umpire change his call? Can you imagine a defendant overruling the judge’s verdict? Can you fathom the possibility that a student ever override the grade a teacher gives on a test? Of course not! Those things are unthinkable.
Yet that’s what we do to God. We strut up to the throne of the Most High God and demand that he step aside for us to take his place as judge. Psalm 96:13 tells us God “will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.” And we tell the righteous, faithful Judge to “take a hike” because we can do better.
MAJOR POINT!
Who do we think we are? When we talk bad about our brothers and sisters, when we judge them from our own twisted, demented view of things, we spit in the very face of God and call him incapable of measuring up to our standards. It is the grossest form of sinful pride and we ought to be absolutely ashamed to ever dare to approach that depth of depravity.
We Have No Right to Speak Against or Judge Each Other
We Have No Right to Speak Against or Judge Each Other
Malachi brings the point home:
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
When we speak against our brothers and judge them, we are turning our backs away from them - we become star witnesses as the accuser of believers attempts to smear and condemn that brother or sister before God. We have no right to do that: we cannot justify being false judges of one another.
How do I know that? Because I deserve judgment:
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
That’s me! And that’s you, too! We are so quick to judge others based on all sorts of perceptions while we totally ignore our own guilt. Think about family - if you had brothers or sisters growing up, how often did you point the finger at them for doing something that you were doing, too?I’ve seen some of you with your siblings, and you still do it today, so don’t pretend you’re innocent!
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of making someone else look worse so we can look better. Sometimes, it’s how we portray ourselves as “always sacrificing for others” who impose on us constantly. It’s that initial breath of exasperation any time someone asks us to do something for them (I know because I are one). It’s that way we talk about how someone else messed it up (again), but we fixed it right.
There’s pride rearing it’s ugly head - and it’s really just showing how guilty we are at this. You see, any time we fail to love our neighbors as ourselves, we are failing to live by God’s standard. And how much more should we love our own family in Christ! We are failing to love God right, too. Paul reminds the Roman believers:
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
We do well to remember that we cannot judge others because we deserve judgment ourselves. God is the only one qualified to judge. Thank God he is a merciful judge! I remember the story Jesus told of two men praying. One, a Pharisee, standing in the middle of the temple grounds arrogant and proud, “Thank you God that I’m not a sinner like all these other people!” The other, a tax collector, who recognized his sins. Remember what he said? “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Then, Jesus gave his assessment:
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Can I nerd out for a minute here? This word justified is dedikaiōmenos. It is a perfect, passive form; you could translate it here as “this man went down to his house having been justified.” He came pleading for God’s mercy, a sinner undeserving of God’s grace. He went away a grateful recipient of that mercy, justified by that grace he could have never earned.
So who are we to judge our brothers? Who are we to speak against one another? No, instead we should judge ourselves. As Jesus told us:
5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Only when we address the pride issue within us can we speak the truth in love to each other. Only when we recognize the rightful judge can we truly love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Only when we surrender our own glory can we see God glorified in his family.
Transition to Invitation
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