James 4:11-12
Okay, James chapter four, verses
10 through 12. Verse 10 begins this way, humble
yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. 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 one judge. He who is able to save and to
destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor? Amen, the word
of the living God for us. I can remember as a kid, helping,
I guess helping is a loosely used term, helping dad change
the oil in the cars. And this was back before the
bottles of oil, you had cans of oil. And you had to take a
spout and punch a hole in the thing. I think chocolate milk
was that same way, too, wasn’t it? Chocolate syrup for your
milk. Yeah. Yeah, don’t get them confused.
Yeah. I’m not very old, but I can remember when motor oil came
in cans. And if you wanted to get the
oil out of the can and into your engine, you had to attach the
spout. You had to have the spout in
order to get the oil from the can. And I think there’s a great
parallel in our passage tonight and Jesus in the gospels helps
us see this parallel when he says, out of the abundance of
the heart, the mouth speaks. Our hearts are full of so many
things and our mouth is the spout from which the things inside
our heart come out. And Jesus goes on to say, good
people bring good from a treasury of good. Evil people bring evil
from a treasury of evil. And so the spout of our heart
is our mouth. And as we’ve studied James, we’ve
noticed that he wants us to be a people of the character of
those who truly love God. And one of the ways that we’ll
put our character on display is by what comes out of our mouth. Much of our character is displayed
by what we say. What we say reflects our hearts. And James, so far, in our study
of the entire book, has said a lot about the mouth. He says
we stumble in what we say. He says we both bless and we
curse at the same time. We boast of great things. We
quarrel when we do not get what we want. and we fail to use our
mouths for prayer. So, so far, James has been stepping
on our toes when it comes to our mouths, and he’s gonna do
it again. He’s gonna show us once again,
our mouths have destructive capabilities. Our mouths, particularly tonight,
verses 10, 11, and 12, really 11 and 12, tell us something
about slander. Slander is an inappropriate behavior
for the Christian. Slander is an act. It’s a sin
against God. It’s against God’s law and it’s
against God’s creation. We’re going to see James take
a deep dive into the subject, the topic of slander. And I want
us to see four things about slander. This poor use of our lips. this
sinful use of our tongues from the passage of James. The first
thing that I think our passage shows us is slander shows disregard
for the other person. Slander shows disregard for the
other person. How would you define slander?
Well, it’s an act of speech. In 11 Verse 11 tells us exactly
how it’s an act of speech against another person. Do not speak
evil against one another. Do not speak evil against one
another. Literally in this New Testament language, speaking
against or speaking harshly of another person is slander. It is mindless, it is thoughtless,
it is careless, it is critical. It is generally derogatory, and
sometimes it’s true, and sometimes it is untrue. And James, remember,
is speaking to the church. He’s speaking to Christians.
He’s addressing the covenant community of God’s people and
saying, slander, speaking against other people, should not be part
of our fellowship. And so apparently that’s the
one of the big issues there continually. There’s an ongoing slander issue. Um, the part of speech he uses
you, you’re continually speaking against one another and maybe
like a fed up parent, maybe particularly you moms when you’ve had the
kids all day and you’re, you’re, you’re just done and you just
stop it. Quit. Right? No more. That’s
what James, seems to be saying here. Well, what does slander
do? Well, slander is often a statement
of condemnation. It’s a very harsh judgment against
another person. In fact, the Bible tells us the
one who speaks against a brother judges his brother. We’ll see
that in our next point. But slander is often a statement
of condemnation. It lessens the esteem of one
person in the eyes of another. It’s destructive of another person’s
dignity, their character, and even their reputation. And it
can cause a person to lose income. It can cause a person to lose
reputation or their ability to live. Now notice his use of brothers. He’s speaking into the covenant
community. It can destroy a church. It can
destroy a Christian community. In fact, Paul says to the Galatian
church, in Galatians 5.15, he says, but if you bite and you
devour one another, take heed, lest you are not consumed by
one another. Slander can consume a body, a
fellowship of people until there’s nothing left. No one left. There’s a church that I know
of, know of it very well, and they’re closing soon. And they’re
closing soon because they had a group of people who went on
a Facebook campaign to slander others. And it destroyed that
church’s credibility. And it has now destroyed that
church’s ability to even exist as a fellowship. That church,
I think, had about a 20-year run in ministry, but it has come
to an end. And at a day and time when a
church, like it was in its heyday, like it was in its good days,
a church like that is so desperately needed. But sin, particularly
the sin of slander and destructive words, I was going to say they bit and
they devoured one another. When I was a senior in high school,
There was a party one weekend, I think, early in the school
year, and lots of misconduct goes on with these sorts of things.
And later, a girl accused a young fella in our school of rape. This person who was accused was
a very well-liked guy, and everybody supposed that this accusation
was not true. Well, this young lady’s family,
in an attempt to save her reputation, she was pregnant, slandered this
fellow up and down the neighborhood, up and down the community, up
through the school, and all around. The slanderous talk spread everywhere. It was the talk of the town,
as we say. She came to school for six months,
very justified in her behavior, her accusations. One weekend,
maybe towards Christmas after three, four months of this. The
young man disappeared one weekend. No one knew where he was, where
he went. Time passed. The rumors continued on. The girl and the family more
steadfast in their discussion of his supposed behavior. And
you add the disappearance of the accused, oh boy, they seem
justified. He’s guilty. He’s gone. Well,
he hiked into Linville Gorge, one of his favorite places, and
he took his life. And as the winter, fall came,
the next spring, his badly decomposed body was found and the slander
and the ruin of his reputation weighed too heavily on him. It
was too much to bear. And guess what? The girl and
her family, the truth came out and they had to leave town. All
that for nothing for this poor young guy. Slander shows disregard
for the other person. We don’t see it when we’re doing
it. We feel justified in it, but it shows utter disregard.
for the other person, but it also shows disregard, our passage
tells us, for the law of God. James is sort of a black and
white guy. He sees the brothers and the sisters in the church
slandering one another, and he says, quit it, stop it. It’s
not good, shows disregard for the other person, but now he’s
gonna add a little extra weight here. It also shows disregard
for the law of God. Verse 11, do not speak evil against
one another, brothers, for the one who speaks against his brother
or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges
the law. What is James doing here? What is he saying? He’s saying
that we show disregard for the law when we slander other people. We’re essentially saying I am
above the law The law is wrong at this point or that point.
Jesus sums up the law this way. You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. The sum of the law includes the
ninth commandment. Do not bear false witness against
others. And so when we bear false witness
against others, We’re saying, I’m above the law. I can disregard
the law. God here regarding this particular
person are the things I feel I need to say about them. God
is not wise. I am wiser and I’ll take care of what needs to be
done here. And so we speak against another
person, but we speak, James says, against the law. One of the things
we have to remember is not even Jesus, Not even Jesus was above
the law. He submitted himself to the law.
Or I think of the example of the apostle Paul, when he was
under one of his trials and one of the high priest, there was a little tussle between
him and the high priest. And Paul, though he was in the
right, was careful not to speak against the law or the interpreters
of the law. Well, let’s be practical for
a moment. We’ve said from James that to slander a person is to
disregard the person, but it’s also to disregard God’s law. And there’s some other practical
things that we should think about when we hear slander. What do
we do when we hear it? Usually we jump in. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah. This is juicy and I want in on
it. I mean, that’s, that’s really how we are, isn’t it? If you
want to be honest, um, we want in on a piece of the discussion,
but do we remain honorable with our own tongues? Do we ever stop
others and say, you know, that slander, that’s not promoting
the peace and the purity and the prosperity. of the congregation. This is a brother or sister in
Christ you’re speaking of. Let’s be careful with our words.
No, we love the juicy stuff, right? We get involved on Facebook
and we jump in, we pile on as they say. So what do we do when
we hear slander? Or what do we do if we ourselves
have been slandered? I’ve always been encouraged,
don’t defend yourself. Let time pass. and truth will
be revealed. God will judge, God will avenge. And after all, Jesus says this,
if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him
something to drink. For by doing so, you will heap
burning coals on his head. So do not be overcome by evil.
That’s usually how we get, we’re overcome by evil. And so we go
on a campaign to defend ourselves, but overcome evil with good. So slander is never justifiable. It could be truth, but it’s never
justifiable. And if you think you’re ever
justified in slander, think about what we’ve seen so far. It disregards the person. It
disregards God’s law. But there’s a third and even
weightier thing. It disregards the law giver.
who is none other than God himself. Verse 12 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? And I think what we see James
doing here is probing in our heart. Slander is an offense
against another person. It’s a judgment by you of the
law. Now it’s a judgment by you of
the law giver. That’s God himself. He’s ramping it up. He’s piling
on you. And he’s saying, God almighty
must have supremacy. The first commandment, you shall
have no other gods before me. The book of Proverbs says that
God hates lots of things. And there’s even in one place,
a list of God hates six things. No, it’s seven. And the seventh
thing is a lying tongue, a slandering tongue. I think tonight as we
read Proverbs 10, I counted at least four Proverbs of those
little couplets that spoke specifically of slander. And so brothers and
sisters in Christ, We’ve already been an enemy of God. Don’t speak
evil against his people. Don’t take up judging the law
and definitely don’t take up judging the lawgiver, God himself. Through the blood of Christ,
we’ve been brought near. Through the redeeming work of
Jesus, we’ve been reconciled and said, don’t make yourself
an enemy. of him again by taking up against
his law and even against the law giver. So God is God. We understand that. God is the
law giver. God is supreme. And guess what?
We are not. And so we can sometimes play
God and do a very bad job of it and feel fully justified. But it is God and God alone who
has the power to save and destroy. So slander shows disregard for
the person, it shows disregard for the law of God, it shows
disregard for the law giver, who is God, but it also shows
disregard for God’s call to humility. Remember verse 10, we squeezed
it in here tonight. Verse 10, humble yourselves before
the Lord and he will exalt you. But it brings up a question,
is it ever appropriate to make judgments? judgments of other
human beings. You know, we hear people say,
oh, the Bible says, judge not, judge not, judge not, don’t judge
me, judge not. But there are places and times
where we are to judge others. We’re to make judgments of whether
we believe a person who, hey, we read it tonight in the Belgic
Confession on church officers. We should make a judgment of
whether a minister, an elder, or a deacon is fit for office.
You know, how’s their family? What do they know? Do they have
the Spirit of God? Should they be serving us in
the church? That’s an appropriate time to
make a judgment. The Bible says in Galatians chapter
six, if anyone in the church is caught in a sin, there’s a
judgment call. Those of us who are mature in
the faith should rescue them and gently restore them. That’s
an appropriate time for judgment. Or, we see someone’s life out
of accord with the scripture. Maybe we go to them quietly and
respectfully and say, hey, the scripture says this, your life
reflects that, what gives? But here, slander or making judgments
and destroying others with our tongue is not rescuing, it’s
not redeeming, and it is not redemptive. And so we ought to
take great care. Maybe you say to yourself, I
don’t slander, not me, never ever. Never speak evil of other
people. Here’s some examples. Mom and
dad. Does one of the parents ever
speak evil of the other parent to the children? I’ll get little
Johnny and Susie on my side. And so I’ll run down mom or I’ll
run down dad. So they’ll like me. I’ll be the
good parent. They’ll be the bad parent. Not a good thing to do. Or we remind others of their
shortcomings. in public. Oh, you’re so bad at this. You’re
so terrible at that. Remember when you failed in this
way? Not a good thing to do. Or we draw a conclusion about
someone based on weak facts. And we tell others our findings
as if it’s true. We can do that. Or this is the
best one. I perceive, therefore it is true.
Right? That’s the greatest one in our
culture today. I perceive therefore it must
be true. And so we go on to tell about others, the things that
we perceive that therefore must be true. Or maybe we make an
accusation. We make an accusation, we announce
it all before it’s proven in the right setting. Guilty until
proven innocent. Well, there’s never a chance
to prove innocent. Or we shut the door. This is
how it happens at church. We shut the door. Well, there’s
two ways it happens at church. I’ll tell you the other one in
a second. We shut the door, we whisper, you know, that still
small, hushed voice, you know, it sounds more godly. Um, we
need confidence here. We need confidence here only
to walk two doors down, shut the door and still small voice,
hushed voice. I need to tell you something
in confidence. The best though is at prayer prayer time. You
know, I have a prayer request, you know, so-and-so’s a bozo
and they need prayer because, um, they’re a bozo. And so we,
we, we slander through the, the prayer, the prayer time. Um,
Well, a good reminder of Jesus’ words is necessary. Whoever causes
one of the little ones to stumble, who believes in me, be better
for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck, drowned
in the depths of the sea. We need to be careful how we
speak, who we speak to and how we spread things about others.
It’s hard to pick up the pieces and correct slander. I think
our biggest mistake we make, and this may be another area
where we fall short and don’t realize it. We tell everybody
else what’s wrong with somebody, except the person we have a problem
with. And doesn’t Matthew 18 give us a way if somebody’s done
something against you, go to them, tell them, perhaps Jesus
gives them repentance and they are restored to you, and if that
doesn’t work, take another brother, take a sister. If that doesn’t
work, tell the church. You might be saying to yourself,
though, I always tell the truth about others. No, you don’t.
You don’t. Did you ever think that telling
the truth about others is damaging? We love giving news out, don’t
we? We love announcing things. And have you ever thought that
sometimes the things you say might actually be damaging to
another person’s reputation. I think about the whole COVID
thing these last couple of years. We probably shouldn’t be announcing,
you know, so-and-so’s got COVID, because they’re never really
welcome back in the fellowship. Oh, did they come too soon? Right? You know, we got to get our skull
and crossbones. You know, we spill stuff about
people so quickly. And I think most of it is not
out of care and concern. I got something to tell. And
at least for a moment, I’ve got an audience. And so others need
to hear what I have to say, even if it’s at the expense of others.
This is a rather serious thing I think we ought to think about.
Every one of us is a follower of Jesus. We are living by God’s
grace through the forgiveness of sins. And each of us are sinful. Each of us are weak. Each of
us are finite. Each of us are growing in grace
and in the process of redemption. And sometimes our sanctification or lack thereof
is rather public. And so our living before the
body of Christ is rather public, but not everything is for general
consumption. And so we ought to be careful
to give people room, especially in the body of Jesus, to not
have all their dirty laundry aired. The elders meet every
month. We look at our list of people
in the congregation. We talk about them and we pray
for them, but it stays in that room. That’s why you elect to
the office of elder or the office of minister or deacon those who
have tight lips. They have the ability to know
things and not broadcast it around. There are things that come across
our desk that will never come out in the congregation. Yes,
God needs to hear about it. God needs to know about it through
our prayers, but it’s not for general consumption. But we point
out other’s faults at times. And yes, it could be true, but
it’s very damaging. Christian love covers a multitude
of sins. And sometimes there are things
that just ought not be brought up. They may be true, they may
need to be dealt with, but that’s for a private place and a private
time. James chapter four, verse 10 says, humble yourselves before
the Lord and he will exalt you. We should live in deep and utter
humility, but we’re so quick to slander. We’re so quick to
speak what’s on our minds, what’s in our hearts. And even as evil
as we know it is, sometimes it’s just too juicy. And we don’t
realize what utter humility we have before God. You know one
of the greatest things I think about our future in heaven that
scares most people? is that every one of our deeds
is written in a book. And Jesus says, I’m going to
open the book and I’m going to read it. That scares people.
Thankfully, it’s covered under the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, here’s an interesting thought.
Usually it’s the godly. It’s the humble who are slandered.
It’s those who are seeking to walk with God and serve others.
We’re all in need of God’s rich mercy. We’ve all slandered his
good name by calling him your Lord, but have disobeyed his
word, his law. But Jesus has set a very good
example for us. And that example comes to us
from Paul in the form of a command in the book of Philippians. Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. He,
though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men.
He humbled himself and he became obedient to the point of death,
even death on the cross for us. Humble yourselves before the
Lord and he will exalt you. He did so with Christ and he
will with you. Whether you have been reckless
with your tongue or someone else has been reckless with their
tongue against you, we run to Christ. We run to the cross and
run to his humility and our Lord will bless us and care for us. Let’s do God in prayer. Pray
with me. Lord, we are very mindful that our tongues are fires set
by the fires of hell. We use our tongues to destroy
when we ought to use them to redeem and to bless. And your
scripture tells us that there is no perfect man who can restrain
his tongue. But we thank you that we have
your grace and your power and you can help us keep our tongues
from evil for the sake of others. And through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, it’s in his name we pray. Amen.