Judge with Righteous Judgement
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Well, I did something unconventional this week. In preparing for this sermon, I decided to Google, believe it or not, the words "don't judge me" to see what would come up. Among the thousands and millions, really, of results that Google listed, I found there's apparently a song by the title "Don't Judge Me." I listened to it for about 15 seconds, and I judged him to be a bad singer. There are t-shirts with various versions of the title "Don't Judge Me." One said, "Don't Judge Me, You Don't Know My Life." Another one said, "Don't Judge Me, You Don't Know Me."
And of course, under the images, there are hundreds and thousands of graphics and memes that are no doubt flooded through social media every day by the millions with things that say, "Don't Judge, Just Love," or "Don't Judge Me Because I Sin Differently to You." Someone had said that perhaps the world's most popular Bible verse or their favorite Bible verse is Matthew 7:1, "Judge not lest you be judged." We're living in a world now where judging is held up to be perhaps the worst sin. It's supposedly only self-righteous people filled with pride and hatred who do this, who judge others. And the implication is, of course, that humble, loving people never, ever judge.
At the same time, the very same culture is actually in love with, you guessed it, judging. There have never been more reality TV shows in which people are judged, more beauty contests in which people are judged, more talent shows in which people are judged. More situations in which people are judged, either by a panel or by viewers. You know, food shows where people are judged. And these are not unpopular things. People love them. These are the most popular things.
In fact, the internet thrives on judgment, right? People throughout the web are, what, rating all the time—rating books, movies, places, restaurant foods, tools, instruments, jobs, products, performances, albums. Just about anything and everything is rated and judged, all the time. One star, two stars, three stars, four stars, five. Thumbs up, thumbs down. And then you have, on top of that, user comments, right? The truth is, people are judging everywhere, everywhere. They just don't use the word judge. Instead, they use the word rate or user reviews.
And it's so much a part of our culture that I think I'm like you, that very often when we're thinking about buying a product or a book, we go on and we actually look at all the reviews. You do the same thing with hotels and different things. You look at all the reviews, which are judgments, and we combine these judgments to form a judgment before we buy it or use it. We decide based on how many stars did it get, how many people liked it.
You see, people don't hate judging. They hate being the recipients of negative judgment. People hate being the targets of judgments that find fault with them. They hate having their sin being called as sin. They hate being told that they're morally flawed, right? In other words, they claim judgment is evil, but it's really only evil when it doesn't go their way. But it's in this atmosphere of hypocrisy, muddled thinking, and general messed-up ideas about judgment that we as believers have to live. We live in this world. We have to labor and live in that confusion, that muddled confusion.
I expect probably everyone in this place, in this room, at some point has had somebody say to you or say to someone you know something like, "Don't judge," or, "Don't be judgmental." "It's wrong to judge." And as Christians, when you hear that, as a Christian, when someone says to you, "Don't judge," well, it has a little bit of a sting to it because that's shorthand for what? Don't be mean. Don't be mean. And of course, as Christians, we're not supposed to be mean-spirited, unkind, or cruel.
So there's a little bit of a sting because when they say, "Don't judge," that's really, as I said, shorthand for, "Don't be a mean person, don't be an unkind person, a cruel person." And then, I think, falling off the other side of the horse, if you will, the backlash comes from those people who are so sick of this hypocrisy about judging, so sick of the sentimentalism about judging, that they make a point of going to the other extreme of being what? Offensive, cutting, harsh, cruel, deliberately offensive in the supposed prosecution of righteousness. So they have a knee-jerk reaction in the opposite direction.
They react to sentimentalism, but all they do is react to that excessive emotion. They go all the way over to another excessive emotion, which is brutalism. And when you confront them, they say, "Well, I'm just telling the truth. Don't you want me to be truthful?" Sentimentality and brutality are actually twins facing opposite directions. Either way, what you're doing is having an excess of the wrong emotion.
So what are we to do? What are we to do? We don't want to fall into sentimentalism. We don't want to capitulate to this cultural environment that says, "Don't judge, don't judge, don't judge." We also don't want to become the very caricature of judgmentalism that the sentimentalists are supposedly critiquing and holding up. We don't want to go one way or the other. We don't want to become that person. So how do we navigate all that confusion? How do we work through all this confusion? Well, James has a lot of the answer for us because what James is going to do is, by process of elimination, he is going to show us what kind of judgment we shouldn't have. Beloved, this is an important message for us. It really will help us tremendously when it comes to this matter of judging.
He's going to show us what kind of judgment is actually forbidden to Christians—not simply disliked by our neighbors, not simply unflattering to their egos, not simply a compliment to their sin, inconvenient to sinners. That's not the point. He's going to show us what kind of judgment God tells us, "Don't have this kind. Don't have this kind of judgment." He's going to show us that.
It's a very basic, straightforward passage where really we're going to look at it under two simple headings, two simple headings: the judgment that is forbidden and then explained. So the prohibition, the explanation. The judgment that's forbidden, and then it is explained to us.
Now, James has already driven home the issue of our tongues and their use time and time again in this little epistle. You remember, and I want us to see this because you want to see the connection of these verses with what preceded and how it really fits in the entire epistle. You remember we first encountered this in chapter 1, verse 26, where he says, "If anyone thinks himself to be religious,” if any one of us concluded that our religious activity and actions, our spiritual activity is acceptable to God, “while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion” is what? “Worthless. Worthless." Our tongues, you remember he said there, are a clear indicator of the reality of our faith.
And then, of course, you come to chapter 3, the first ten verses. We looked at those verses extensively at length where he likens the speech, the things that come out of our mouths, to a raging inferno that consumes everything in its path. And then he warns us to control it and to understand that our tongues really control us, and we need to bring them under subjection, and that's really the work of the Holy Spirit. We looked at that in great detail, and so he's already expressed this deep and abiding concern he has for what comes out of our mouths.
But now, in chapter 4, here, verses 11 and 12, he comes back to this crucial theme. The question we need to ask ourselves is why? You would think after what we studied in chapter 3, verses 1 to 10, James wouldn't need to say anything more about this. He's really driven home his point already, so again, why? Why, James? What's the connection of verses 11 and 12 with what we've recently been studying in the previous verses about the need of God's grace in the midst of this world and conflicts? How do these verses relate to the fact that God bestows grace on the humble?
Well, here's the connection to keep in mind. He's already told us we desperately need grace. We desperately need the grace of God every single day. God only gives grace to the humble," he taught us. And therefore, pride is the enemy of our souls, and we need to keep that in mind. And so, in chapter 4, verse 11, running all the way through chapter 5, verse 6, James identifies for us three common examples of arrogance and pride—those things that are the very opposite of the humility that you and I so much need to receive from God. Three common displays, if you will, certainly in his day, no less true in our day, of pride—the enemy of humility that our souls so much need in order to receive the grace of God.
James 4:11-12 identifies the pride of sinfully judging others. In James 4:13 through the end of the chapter, he addresses the pride of presumptuous planning that ignores the providence of God. Then, in James 5:1-6, he deals with the pride of sinfully abusing wealth and power.
When we come to these verses that were read in your hearing, James 4:11-12, we need to understand James' point. It's simply this: if you and I come to our God in true repentance, in true humility, as described in verses 7-10, it will change how we think about and speak about other believers, other Christians.
If we truly have humbled ourselves before God, as we're called to do in the first ten verses, if we've truly come to Him in humility, casting ourselves, as it were, at the very feet of God, saying, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner," if we grieve about our sin and have humbled our souls, then it's impossible to be proud when dealing with others. It will change the reality of how we think about and how we speak about other believers.
Let's now look closely at the text. Having made that connection, look at the prohibition and then the explanation. First, the prohibition. You see there in verse 11: "Do not slander one another, brothers." “Do not slander”. This word translated "slander" in the LSB, katalaleo, is the Greek word, a compound word— kata, against; laleo, to speak—to speak against, to speak evil of. If you were to take this compound word, the two Greek words put together, as we often do in English as well, one of those words simply means "to speak," as I said, and the other simply means "against," to speak against. But it also can mean to speak down to, very similar to our English expression, "running someone down with the mouth." The word, kata, also has that other meaning, "down."
This word can be used to describe many different kinds of sinful speech, and yet, when it occurs in the New Testament, it is most often translated as it is in the LSB, "slander." You can see that in Romans 1:30, 2 Corinthians 12:20, 1 Peter 2:1, and so forth, just to give you references. Here is the command: "Do not slander one another, brothers." Don't do this, brothers, he says. Don't speak evil of one another. Don't speak against each other. Don't slander one another. Don't destroy another person's reputation.
Right after that, this is where judgment comes in. Look at what James does. He says, "Do not slander one another, brothers. He who slanders a brother or judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law." Do you see what he's doing? Slandering one another, speaking evil of one another, judging one another—these are put parallel, side by side, so that the one informs the other, and you know what kind of judgment he's talking about. He's helping us understand what kind of judgment is forbidden, what kind of judgment is prohibited by God.
So what you see here is that the judgment which is forbidden is very close to or identical with slander, katalaleo. Well, what is slander? Webster defines it—if you were to define the word in English, "slander"—and I quote, as "a false tale or report maliciously uttered, tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in the esteem of his fellow citizens." That's how Webster defines it. In other words, this is when you speak about someone, almost always in his or her absence—not exclusively, but almost always in his or her absence—and you construe and interpret their actions in the worst possible light so as to deliberately paint the person as evil.
What makes the judgment evil, mark it down, is its desire. Beloved, the problem here, and we need to keep this in mind, and this is really important, is that the problem is not that the judgment is negative. That's not the problem. The problem is not that the judgment is unflattering. The problem is not that the judgment is critical. The problem is that the judgment here is malicious, and that's the key word—malicious. It comes from a heart that desires to destroy, to hurt greatly, to destroy. The motive is not truth. The motive, rather, is malice—malice.
And if you want more verification of that, step back from—excuse me—if you want more verification of that, step back from this passage and think about the context that we've been looking at. Look at what we looked at last time from verses 6 down to verse 10. What is James talking about? What has he been talking about? Pride, selfishness, worldliness, self-centeredness. And we saw he gave this key appeal, which is the climax of the book: humble yourself, submit to God, repent, believe. And so what he's really saying is, he's dovetailing right off that. He says—he's saying, listen, the kind of judgment that's forbidden to you is the proud, self-loving, self-deceptive, self-righteous judgment that, when you're in the grip of it, you simply want to do one thing, and that is assassinate the character of your enemy.
When you're in this, we saw at the beginning of chapter 4, when you have this kind of pride in your heart, what happens? You remember what happens, right? Desires become what? Needs. Needs become demands, and demands become sources of conflict. Because what's gripping us here is an idolatrous worship of my way, myself, and even if my way was really a good way, it quickly degenerates into something else. Once I mix it in with pride, I distort it, and I pursue it, and so now what's going to happen is my judgment is going to be this kind. What kind? Proud. Proud.
In other words, beloved, there's a kind of judging that is good and a kind of judging that is bad. The problem is not the act of judging—it's the kind. Just like there's a kind of love that is pure, ordinate, a kind of love that is wholesome, and there's a kind of love that is defiled and inordinate. There's a kind of joy that is pure and ordinate, and there's also a kind of joy that is inordinate and impure. So, there's a kind of judgment that is pure and ordinate, and there's a kind of judgment that is impure and inordinate.
So, what kind of judgment is good, to contrast it with the kind of judgment that is forbidden here? To answer that question, bear with me as we go through a mini-theology of judgment, and we need to see that. Three kinds of judgment that we must do in Scripture. Three kinds of judgment we must do in Scripture—the three kinds of judgment God requires of us. So, the first one, first and simplest level, there's the judgment that is really, we can call it just reasoning, simply reasoning. You and I do this all the time. We weigh up evidence in front of us, and we make judgments. You stop at the stop sign—I hope so. You look left and right, and you judge, can I get across without a truck destroying my car? You make a judgment. You put your fork into the potatoes, and you judge, are they done? You look at your budget, and you judge, will it balance?
Paul, in Acts chapter 20, had decided—the word is decided, the verb—decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. The Bible even uses this word when referring to seemingly trivial things, such as in Acts 20:16. It says that Paul had decided—the verb is krino, which is the verb for judging. He had decided, he'd made a judgment call to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. It was just a decision, an act of weighing up evidence and making a judgment call. You always do this. It's unavoidable, and that's the first one. Very basic.
On the second, higher level, if you will, we move from the basic level to a higher level. You and I are supposed to make what? Value judgments. Value judgments. In other words, we're supposed to judge things, people, objects, events, attitudes, and even people themselves to be good or evil, bad or good, true or false. Anytime we are judging things for their truth, for their goodness, for their beauty, we are judging their value. We're judging, should they be loved? Is it a good thing? And the Bible commends us and commends this kind of judgment.
Jesus says in Luke 12:57, He says to the Pharisees, "Why do you not even judge for yourselves what is right?" Our Lord is expecting this. He's expecting it. Every time you discern true or false, good or bad, righteous or unrighteous, what are you doing? You're practicing judgment. You're making a judgment call. And in Hebrews 5:14, we're told that the meat of the Word, solid theology, is digestible only by those who have grown in judgment, who have learned to—and the word is discern, the Greek word diakrisis—judge. That's the word between good and evil, who by reason of use, by reason of training, practice, exercise, they are continually growing in their abilities of value judgment—what is appropriate, inappropriate, good, and evil.
You know, beloved, a Christian should be doing this all the time. You and I should be continually weighing things up for their value, their goodness, their truth, their beauty. In fact, that's why Philippians 1:9-11, Paul prays what he prays. Listen to what he prays in verse 9 and following: "And this I pray"—Philippians 1, verse 9 and following—"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment." And then here's why when you grow in this kind of discernment, this ability to make a judgment call, "so that you may approve the things that are excellent," that is, in other words, you may actually realize in God's reality what is excellent, what is beautiful, what is valuable. And then he says, once you have this kind of good judgment, then you will be sincere. In order to be sincere, he says, "and without fault until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." I think there's warrant to say that if you and I are not doing value judgments, we're being disobedient.
If we're not valuing all things in life—does God love this? Does God love it? Is it beautiful to God? Is it true? Is it good?—if we don't do that, then we're being disobedient. Because Philippians 4:8 tells us that we're supposed to think and focus on what is true, noble, just, pure, beautiful, reputable, virtuous, praiseworthy. Beloved, how would you know what is true, beautiful, praiseworthy, noble, just, pure, unless you're judging it to be so? And unless you are using that standard of what is true and beautiful and reputable and virtuous and noble and just—unless you're judging your music, your movie collection, your magazines, your conversations, your clothing, your spending habits, your associations, your leisure, your words by that standard—then you're not going to be obedient as a child of God.
We have to judge. And we can look at something and say, you know what? That doesn't honor God. I'm just going to get rid of it. I'm not going to be involved in this. You see, it's built into the life of a believer. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 he says, "Examine all things; hold fast to that which is good." “Examine all things and hold fast to what is good.” And what is not good, the implication is what? Discard it. Get rid of it. Don't get involved in it. How many things must you weigh and judge and test and examine? Well, all things, he says. All things. And once you've done that judging, then he says, hold fast to what is good. It's a value judgment. By the way, everyone actually does this. You know, even the person who says to you, "Don't judge," is actually making a value judgment about judging. Because if you say to that person, "Is judging bad?" they'll say, "Yes." "Not judging is good?" "Yes." So you just judged my judging to be bad, and you're not judging to be good? "Yes."
You see, the fact is that everyone in the world has a standard of what they believe is good, and they use that standard to judge the rest of life. It just so happens that the non-judgmentalist has this standard, and the standard happens to be, good people leave me alone, bad people interfere. That's their good, and it's not based on God's Word or anything, but that's their law, and that's their good. And they judged you by that standard. So when you judge, they just refer you to that standard, and they say, you're not being good because good people don't judge. What are they doing? They're making a value judgment as well.
And it's incoherent. It's contradictory. It's impossible to not judge. It's like saying, no statement is true, including that one, right? It's logically contradictory. It's impossible to do. Everyone has a standard of what they think is good, and true, and desirable, and upright, and beautiful. It's just what your standard happens to be. That's why Jesus said in John 7:24, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Hence, the title of the sermon: Judge with Righteous Judgment. Righteous judgment—how do we do that? Well, that's a topic for another time, but it's enough for us to say tonight, all of life should be judged by you and me for its value. Is it good, according to Scripture? Is it pleasing to God, or is it not? You should be judging that all the time.
First judgment: simple decisions. Second judgment: moral judgments. Third judgment is the kind of judgment that we're called to—judging doctrine and behavior as Christian or non-Christian. We're to judge; we're called to judge doctrine and behavior to determine whether it is Christian or non-Christian. This is a more difficult judgment, but this judgment is required. It's how we identify false teachers. It's how we identify false brethren. Sometimes it's clear-cut; sometimes you really have to take time and prayerfully be all the more like the Bereans. In 1 Corinthians 5," Paul said, here's a man who's living in immorality with his mother-in-law. It's flagrant, it's offensive to God, it's public, it's scandalous. There's no way that he's acting like a Christian. Corporately, he says, all of you need to judge that to be true and put him out of the church. Make the judgment. Make that judgment.
In Matthew 18, after the consensus of two or three witnesses, after the consensus of the church led by her under-shepherds, let there be a public declaration that as best as we know, this person's sins are bound to them, they're not saved. Although we don't know for certain, we're making an informed judgment based upon the testimony of many, comparing it with Scripture, and we've determined that this person is not a believer. And we find this throughout Scripture.
In Romans 16:17, Paul says, "I urge you, brothers"—notice the language—"to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and stumblings contrary to the teaching which you learned," and now watch this, "and turn away from them.” “Turn away from them."
And then Titus 3:10, strong language: "Reject a factious man after a first and second warning." A divisive man, you ought to reject after the first and second warning. The whole book of 1 John is a collection of this: this is what Christians believe, this is how Christians behave, this is what Christians believe, this is how they behave. And if you're like this habitually, you're in the faith. If you're not like this habitually, then you're not in the faith. We're to evaluate teaching and practice to see, does it accord with the gospel?
And Paul himself called certain teachers, well, false teachers. Paul said that Hymenaeus and Alexander suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith—1 Timothy 1:19-20. Peter and Jude warn us about false teachers who were denying the Lord they professed to believe in. I think you'd agree this is not a judgment we're going to make quickly; it's not a judgment we're going to make lightly. It should take place carefully, prayerfully, when mature believers compare Scripture with Scripture, but we do have to make this kind of judgment.
In fact, you have to do a version of this judgment on yourself and myself every time we gather around the Lord's table, right? Because at every Lord's Supper, you have to evaluate yourself, I have to evaluate myself: Do I believe the gospel? Have I received the gospel? Am I living the gospel? Have I dealt with sin in my heart? Am I partaking in an unworthy manner? That's why Paul says in that same passage, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Now, these are the three kinds of judging that we always do, we always must do. We've got to make decisions, we should make moral evaluations of all of life, and we're supposed to do, in the household of faith, we're supposed to judge the doctrine and behavior of others to be Christian or non-Christian, especially if they claim that title. They claim, I am a child of God, I'm a Christian.
So then, this brings us back to James. James doesn't tell us to avoid drawing conclusions about each other; it's not what he's forbidding here. It's important for us to understand that. He doesn't tell us to make no value judgments whatsoever on one another; that's not what he's forbidding. And he doesn't even tell us, "Don't judge." Now, mark it down, he's not even telling us, "Don't judge the motives of other believers." We will come back to that, but he's not saying that either. He doesn't tell us to stop judging those who claim to be Christians but don't act like it. We're supposed to do that.
What he says is, do not slander one another with malicious intent. That's the key. Do not slander one another with malicious intent. Do not, from a heart of pride, malign another Christian. Do not say what is false and act as if it is true. Do not exaggerate, do not use half-truths, don't distort the truth to make your own case. Don't misrepresent so as to trounce another, stamp them in the dust, and exalt yourself. He says, that is slander. That is slander.
You say, well, it seems hard for me to tell the difference between a value judgment and what we're talking about here. So what's the difference? Well, let James explain it a little more. James explains it here in verse 11. Look at the text, look at what he says, "He who slanders a brother or judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it." What does he mean here? He says, proud judging is an act of arrogance. Proud judging is an act of arrogance. When you undertake the kind of judging that God forbids, what you do is, you step away from being the plaintiff or the defendant in front of the judge, and you climb up there, you put on the black robe, and you take the gavel, and you sit in the place that does not belong to you. You exalt yourself above the law that governs you, you exalt yourself above God, and you usurp that place.
And so, when we think of it like that, proud judging, beloved, is easily distinguished from the humble kind of judging that you and I are supposed to do. How so? How so? Well, let me give us the four marks of proud judging, the four descriptions of proud, negative, evil judgment, malicious judgment. Number one, proud judging judges from a place of self-righteousness. This is how you discern it. Proud judging judges from a place of self-righteousness. James here says—look at your text—"He who slanders a brother or judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it." In other words, when I get into slander and pride, what I'm immediately doing is, I am leapfrogging over the law. I'm saying, that doesn't apply to me. I can do what I want with my tongue. I can say what I want.
And so, immediately, what you're doing is, you're saying, I am above the law, I am righteous, and I can, therefore, judge from that place of self-righteousness. I'm not a fellow sinner submitting to the law; I'm, in fact, above the law. I can, therefore, perfectly judge others.
And this, beloved, is really what Jesus was talking about in His often-quoted words. Keep your hand in James and look at Matthew 7. Look closely at what Jesus says there. This is the kind of proud judgment, sanctimonious judgment, that's forbidden—judging from a place of self-righteousness. He says in Matthew 7, verse 1, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? “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.”"
Do you see it? Notice—how is it possible for you to remove that speck if Jesus says, don't judge in any possible way? You see how He ends? He says, "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." He doesn't say, don't do that." He says there's a prerequisite before that. In other words, He's saying, take the big beam out of your own eye—where every time you turn, everyone has to duck—get that thing out of your eye first. Then you'll have clarity. And what will you do with your clarity? You can do a very precise operation in someone else's eye at that point. In other words, He's saying, I want you to do the value judgments. I want you to help others, but don't do it from a place of hypocrisy. Don't do it from a place of self-righteousness, where every time you turn your head, you're going to just about decapitate people around you because you have this big beam coming out of your own eye.
Self-righteousness destroys sound judgment. And by the way, how—verse 6—how would you know what it is to "give what is holy to the dogs" earlier in this chapter or later in the chapter unless you judge that to be true or not to be true? How do you make that judgment call? Or the false teachers who are wolves in sheep's clothing, and He said, "You shall know them by their fruit." How would you know if you don't make a judgment? How would it be possible for you to say, "This will be pearls before swine" unless you're doing a moral judgment? You have to do moral judgment. It is contained in this text. But the warning is, don't judge self-righteously.
That's why Paul says in Romans 2, verse 1, "Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same thing." Self-righteous hypocrisy. Humble judgment, beloved, begins with self-judgment. It begins by judging myself first. Isn't that what we read in Galatians 6, verse 1? "Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one.” How? “In a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself, so that you too, will not be tempted." That's the spirit. It begins with self-judgment. And I'm not going to slander another person. I'm not going to try and destroy another person to make myself look better, because I'm starting from the position that says, I know I am a sinner. I'm sick. I need a physician. But God is going to use me in someone else's life, in spite of that, by His grace.
The second kind of judgment that is forbidden, a second kind of proud judgment—turn with me to Romans 14. Romans 14. The first kind of proud judgment comes from self-righteousness. Here's the second kind, and I'm just going to pick out a few verses here so we get the idea.
Look at verse 2, Romans 14, verse 2: "One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats must not view the one who does not eat with contempt, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, for God accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."
Go down to verse 10, "But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you view your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God." So what do we have here? Well, here in Romans, you have a church where he's dealing with conflict in the Roman church over different convictions—over what we call in theology, adiaphora. Adiaphora comes from a Greek word which means indifferent things. These relate to matters that are really indifferent things, things that are morally indifferent in themselves—days and foods and various things. It's not to say that your choice is indifferent. It's not to say that once you make a decision that your decision has no morality—it does. Once you make a decision, it's morally right or wrong, and motives come in here, but the thing itself is morally indifferent. It is indifferent, and Paul says it's possible on these things for one Christian to say no and for another Christian to say yes.
One Christian observes the day, the other Christian does not observe. Both of them, in matters indifferent, can do so for the glory of God. Now, what happens here is Paul says that some of you in the church of Rome are setting up your application of God's Word to be the only standard, and it's become God's standard in your own eyes. And so for you, not observing the day or observing the day has become a law, and what you have done is you've made your own judgment to be the standard of righteousness. You've elevated it to become the standard. This is proud. This is sinful, he says. This is taking one legitimate application of God's Word and elevating it to a place which belongs only in inspired Scripture.
My standard becomes the only standard, and so what am I doing? I stand above God's Word. I'm no longer a doer; I'm a judge, and I judge you by my standard rather than the standards of God. On the other hand, you know what humility will say? It will say, if my brother or sister has biblical warrant for that action, I cannot condemn them. I cannot condemn them. Now, I may disagree with my brother, and obviously, I will. I may even disapprove. I may say, I don't think that's the best conviction to have, but I will not slander. I will not smear. I will not try to reduce that person to a pound of ashes and say, that's not a person who's living in Christ. I'm not going to judge from the place of pride where my standard, my application, has now become the only standard—God's standard.
There’s another way in which proud judging is forbidden. Let me give you a third way. The first way we judge wrongly is when we judge from self-righteousness. The second way we judge wrongly is when we make our standard God's standard and the standard of righteousness. The third kind of proud judgment, the kind forbidden to us, is when we claim to know more than we do—when we claim to know more than we do.
See, when I'm submitted to God's Word, God's Word is the standard, the standard, and I can make reasonable judgments on your behavior and my behavior, on actions and so forth. I can even try to judge intentions, but I submit my judgment ultimately to the omniscience of God. 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and make manifest the motives of hearts. And then each one's praise will come to him from God.” Humility says in the end there's only one person who knows everything. There's only one person who knows every intention of the heart, who knows all that's going on, and I'm not that person. I'm not that person. I'm not.
So I'm not going to claim to know more than I know, but just for the record, I'm not going to claim to know less than I know either. But what I do know, I'm going to hold with the certainty it deserves. Now, just to clear up another muddled thought here, a lot of Christians are very quick to say, yes, yes, but, but, but, but, but we can't judge motives. We can never judge motives. But you know, that's actually impossible—to not judge motives. We judge motives all the time based on the facts that we have, the evidence that we have, the track record that we have.
Look, if someone is walking up here after the service and they trip on something and they splash water, let's say, all over me, and they immediately go, I'm so sorry, I'm so— well, I'm going to judge their motives, and I'm going to judge their motives to have been harmless, accidental, right? On the other hand, if after the service or in the middle of the message, the door opens and a stranger marches up to the front here with an object in their hand, I'm going to duck because I'm judging motives. This is what you do all the time as part of judging, because when we judge, we try to understand what someone is trying to accomplish. And when you try to understand what someone is trying to accomplish, what are you doing? You're judging motives.
Now, it's true, it's true. We should always, as believers, begin—and we need to be very, very careful—we need to begin with the most charitable construction of motives. "Love hopes all things. Love believes all things." And there's a track record that has to be taken into consideration, but we should always, as believers, begin with the most charitable construction of motives. We should always begin with a loving and fair interpretation of actions, and we are all forbidden from imputing evil intentions when there's no justification to do so whatsoever. I'm not allowed, without warrant, to say, I think this person's up to evil.
So that's not to say I can never make that call prayerfully and carefully. And Simon Peter says this about Simon the sorcerer's motives. He says in Acts 8:22-23, “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray earnestly to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.”” But Peter was judging motives, and he had, yes, warrant to do so. John felt he had more than enough justification to say the following about Diotrephes. In 3 John, he says in verse 9, "I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not welcome what we say." He loves to have first place in everything. How could he say that? Because it was true, and the available evidence was there. Diotrephes was motivated by pride. He was motivated by wanting the place of preeminence.
Paul says of Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:10, "You are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?" And Jude says of those false teachers in verse 16, "These are grumblers, finding fault, following their own lusts, and their mouths speak arrogantly," and here it comes, "flattering people for the sake of their own benefit." Motives. Yes, beloved, we can evaluate motives. We do judge motives, but we should do so humbly with the fear of God, and we should do it charitably and carefully. I can interpret actions. I can attempt to interpret motives because that's part of being human, and I can make a judgment. But in the end, I must hold that judgment with the certainty it merits because I don't know everything, and I don't know everything internal and external.
And do you know what pride does? It assumes evil. It's cynical. It imputes evil motives without warrant because it's fundamentally lazy. I'm going to fill in the gaps here with evil intent. Somebody will be careful, sober about what it doesn't know. That's the third kind of proud judging that's forbidden—claiming to know what we do not know. And there's a fourth kind of proud judgment. Look at the end of verse 11, back to James 4: "But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor?" And here's the fourth kind of judgment that we are forbidden to do, and that is—don't claim to have the final verdict on another person.
Don't claim to have the final verdict on another person. Proud judgment claims to have the final say. It claims not the judgment of a fellow pilgrim; it claims the perspective and the right to condemn. And James says you can't do that. There's only one Lawgiver. There's only One with that power. You can't step into that role. I can't step into that role. When I'm in the grip of pride, this is what I do. I no longer bring my moral judgments, my evaluations—I no longer bring them to a higher evaluation. I no longer bring my judgment to the greater Judge. I don't submit my judgment about others, which is in His Word, to Him. Because when I'm proud, when I'm arrogant, puffed up, this is what I want to do. I want to be the judge, the jury, and the executioner. And I'm just going to step into that role, and I'm going to give it.
And from that place of judgment, the verdict will always be the same—always. You are wrong, and I am right—always. You are guilty, I am innocent. You should be destroyed, and I should be saved. And so, I'm exempting myself from God's Word, and I cast you in the role of the evildoer while I sit in the role of blameless, above-the-law, judge. Here's a way to help yourself and myself. The humble man or woman knows that his judgment is always an act of interpretation. If you've ever been judged, let me ask you, have others ever got it wrong about you? If others have got it wrong about you, then the humble man knows, I could just as easily get it wrong about others. So I'm going to make my judgment as best as I can, prayerfully and carefully, but the final judgment rests with God.
So I'm not going to slander. Because what's slander? Fundamentally, it's the act of final judgment. I'm just going to destroy this person because I already know that they are evil, so let me just mince them up with my words. Now, I'm not going to judge humbly, charitably, truthfully, but I leave the final saving or destroying to God. Let me say that again. I am going to judge humbly, charitably, truthfully, but I'm going to leave the final saving or destroying to God. I don't get to punish others with my mouth. I don't get to do that. So I'm going to stop short of that.
So don't judge from a place of self-righteousness. You're jumping over the law, James tells us, and it always leads to slander. Don't judge by making your standards higher than God's standards because you're jumping over the law, and it will always lead to slander. And don't judge from the place of claiming omniscience. You don't have it. I don't have it. You're jumping over the law, and you will always end up in slander. And don't judge claiming to know what the final outcome will be and claiming to have the right to give that final outcome because you're jumping over the law, and you will almost always slander. Humble judgment.
I'll tell you one of the easiest ways to spot proud judging in yourself or another. C. S. Lewis once said, "Some people scratch like a cat, but they bleed at a touch." What he means is a proud person may judge you by his proud standard, but he will demand that you judge him humbly, charitably, kindly, gently. Easy on him. When he slanders, he speaks evil. When he slanders and speaks evil, he's simply reporting the facts. He's just objectively reporting what's going on. But when you judge his actions with good warrant as being evil and wicked, you're slandering. You're bearing false witness. "You're assassinating my character," he says.
And what such people do is they play a little game, and it's the game of equivocation. Equivocation is when I change the meaning of the term to suit myself based on the situation. In other words, when they're on the offense, judgment means objective, clear, factual gathering of evidence—no bias, sheer and interpreted facts. But when you judge them, it's laden down with sinister, subjective motives and bias, twisting and evil intent. You see, it's a game that's played.
Well, here's how to cut through that self-deception as we conclude. All of us judge, all of us. All of us are subjects, and therefore, all of our judgments are subjective, but subjective judgments can still conform to the truth. You can make judgments that are true and right and accord with reality if you humbly submit them to God, His Word. There's only one mind that knows the whole truth and that judges perfectly. So if I want to judge rightly, the first thing I do is put my mind in subjection to His. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of” what? “Wisdom." It's the beginning of good judgment.
And so, what I do is not claim to be this objective, impartial detective. No, what I do is say, oh Lord, God, I know that I'm frail. I know I could be irrational. I could be emotional. I tend to twist things. I interpret them in my favor. I'm partial towards myself. Lord, my knowledge is limited. I often have faulty reasoning. I can be emotional. However, I have to judge according to Your Word. I have to make decisions. I have to judge words, deeds, actions, even motives. But this is what I want to do. I want to put Your Word as my standard, and I want to be under it. And with Your Word as my standard, I'm not going to be self-righteous. I'm going to judge charitably. I'm not going to claim to know what I don't know. I'm going to judge on what You've revealed to me, based on what You've revealed to me and what is obvious by clear reason. But my compass is Your Word. I'm going to do it in the multitude of counsel and seek godly counsel as I do it. And then with that, I give You the final place of judgment. It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to You. You are God. I am not. When we judge like that, beloved, we will avoid what James forbids. In James 4:11, we avoid slandering one another. Let's judge righteous judgment.
Let's pray.
Father, this is a difficult topic, and I pray that You, God, would give us the skill that comes by reason of use—the skill to interpret well, to not impute evil without warrant, to not impute ill motives without warrant, to not interpret as being evil without rational justification. We need Your wisdom. Grant us the grace to avoid self-righteousness, to avoid making our standards the ultimate standard, to avoid claiming omniscience, to avoid usurping Your place.
Help us instead to judge humbly as those who know clearly that we can get it wrong. And help us to do so as those who yield to Your Word and who make Your Word the standard of judgment. And help us, Lord, to examine ourselves first. Lord, You have the final, ultimate place of judgment. You are the Judge of the whole earth, the omniscient God. We submit our wisdom and our judgments to You. So Father, help us simply judge wisely, humbly, as You would have us. Lead us and guide us. We pray this in Jesus' name and for His glory.
And of course, under the images, there are hundreds and thousands of graphics and memes that are no doubt flooded through social media every day by the millions with things that say, "Don't Judge, Just Love," or "Don't Judge Me Because I Sin Differently to You." Someone had said that perhaps the world's most popular Bible verse or their favorite Bible verse is Matthew 7:1, "Judge not lest you be judged." We're living in a world now where judging is held up to be perhaps the worst sin. It's supposedly only self-righteous people filled with pride and hatred who do this, who judge others. And the implication is, of course, that humble, loving people never, ever judge.
At the same time, the very same culture is actually in love with, you guessed it, judging. There have never been more reality TV shows in which people are judged, more beauty contests in which people are judged, more talent shows in which people are judged. More situations in which people are judged, either by a panel or by viewers. You know, food shows where people are judged. And these are not unpopular things. People love them. These are the most popular things.
In fact, the internet thrives on judgment, right? People throughout the web are, what, rating all the time—rating books, movies, places, restaurant foods, tools, instruments, jobs, products, performances, albums. Just about anything and everything is rated and judged, all the time. One star, two stars, three stars, four stars, five. Thumbs up, thumbs down. And then you have, on top of that, user comments, right? The truth is, people are judging everywhere, everywhere. They just don't use the word judge. Instead, they use the word rate or user reviews.
And it's so much a part of our culture that I think I'm like you, that very often when we're thinking about buying a product or a book, we go on and we actually look at all the reviews. You do the same thing with hotels and different things. You look at all the reviews, which are judgments, and we combine these judgments to form a judgment before we buy it or use it. We decide based on how many stars did it get, how many people liked it.
You see, people don't hate judging. They hate being the recipients of negative judgment. People hate being the targets of judgments that find fault with them. They hate having their sin being called as sin. They hate being told that they're morally flawed, right? In other words, they claim judgment is evil, but it's really only evil when it doesn't go their way. But it's in this atmosphere of hypocrisy, muddled thinking, and general messed-up ideas about judgment that we as believers have to live. We live in this world. We have to labor and live in that confusion, that muddled confusion.
I expect probably everyone in this place, in this room, at some point has had somebody say to you or say to someone you know something like, "Don't judge," or, "Don't be judgmental." "It's wrong to judge." And as Christians, when you hear that, as a Christian, when someone says to you, "Don't judge," well, it has a little bit of a sting to it because that's shorthand for what? Don't be mean. Don't be mean. And of course, as Christians, we're not supposed to be mean-spirited, unkind, or cruel.
So there's a little bit of a sting because when they say, "Don't judge," that's really, as I said, shorthand for, "Don't be a mean person, don't be an unkind person, a cruel person." And then, I think, falling off the other side of the horse, if you will, the backlash comes from those people who are so sick of this hypocrisy about judging, so sick of the sentimentalism about judging, that they make a point of going to the other extreme of being what? Offensive, cutting, harsh, cruel, deliberately offensive in the supposed prosecution of righteousness. So they have a knee-jerk reaction in the opposite direction.
They react to sentimentalism, but all they do is react to that excessive emotion. They go all the way over to another excessive emotion, which is brutalism. And when you confront them, they say, "Well, I'm just telling the truth. Don't you want me to be truthful?" Sentimentality and brutality are actually twins facing opposite directions. Either way, what you're doing is having an excess of the wrong emotion.
So what are we to do? What are we to do? We don't want to fall into sentimentalism. We don't want to capitulate to this cultural environment that says, "Don't judge, don't judge, don't judge." We also don't want to become the very caricature of judgmentalism that the sentimentalists are supposedly critiquing and holding up. We don't want to go one way or the other. We don't want to become that person. So how do we navigate all that confusion? How do we work through all this confusion? Well, James has a lot of the answer for us because what James is going to do is, by process of elimination, he is going to show us what kind of judgment we shouldn't have. Beloved, this is an important message for us. It really will help us tremendously when it comes to this matter of judging.
He's going to show us what kind of judgment is actually forbidden to Christians—not simply disliked by our neighbors, not simply unflattering to their egos, not simply a compliment to their sin, inconvenient to sinners. That's not the point. He's going to show us what kind of judgment God tells us, "Don't have this kind. Don't have this kind of judgment." He's going to show us that.
It's a very basic, straightforward passage where really we're going to look at it under two simple headings, two simple headings: the judgment that is forbidden and then explained. So the prohibition, the explanation. The judgment that's forbidden, and then it is explained to us.
Now, James has already driven home the issue of our tongues and their use time and time again in this little epistle. You remember, and I want us to see this because you want to see the connection of these verses with what preceded and how it really fits in the entire epistle. You remember we first encountered this in chapter 1, verse 26, where he says, "If anyone thinks himself to be religious,” if any one of us concluded that our religious activity and actions, our spiritual activity is acceptable to God, “while not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion” is what? “Worthless. Worthless." Our tongues, you remember he said there, are a clear indicator of the reality of our faith.
And then, of course, you come to chapter 3, the first ten verses. We looked at those verses extensively at length where he likens the speech, the things that come out of our mouths, to a raging inferno that consumes everything in its path. And then he warns us to control it and to understand that our tongues really control us, and we need to bring them under subjection, and that's really the work of the Holy Spirit. We looked at that in great detail, and so he's already expressed this deep and abiding concern he has for what comes out of our mouths.
But now, in chapter 4, here, verses 11 and 12, he comes back to this crucial theme. The question we need to ask ourselves is why? You would think after what we studied in chapter 3, verses 1 to 10, James wouldn't need to say anything more about this. He's really driven home his point already, so again, why? Why, James? What's the connection of verses 11 and 12 with what we've recently been studying in the previous verses about the need of God's grace in the midst of this world and conflicts? How do these verses relate to the fact that God bestows grace on the humble?
Well, here's the connection to keep in mind. He's already told us we desperately need grace. We desperately need the grace of God every single day. God only gives grace to the humble," he taught us. And therefore, pride is the enemy of our souls, and we need to keep that in mind. And so, in chapter 4, verse 11, running all the way through chapter 5, verse 6, James identifies for us three common examples of arrogance and pride—those things that are the very opposite of the humility that you and I so much need to receive from God. Three common displays, if you will, certainly in his day, no less true in our day, of pride—the enemy of humility that our souls so much need in order to receive the grace of God.
James 4:11-12 identifies the pride of sinfully judging others. In James 4:13 through the end of the chapter, he addresses the pride of presumptuous planning that ignores the providence of God. Then, in James 5:1-6, he deals with the pride of sinfully abusing wealth and power.
When we come to these verses that were read in your hearing, James 4:11-12, we need to understand James' point. It's simply this: if you and I come to our God in true repentance, in true humility, as described in verses 7-10, it will change how we think about and speak about other believers, other Christians.
If we truly have humbled ourselves before God, as we're called to do in the first ten verses, if we've truly come to Him in humility, casting ourselves, as it were, at the very feet of God, saying, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner," if we grieve about our sin and have humbled our souls, then it's impossible to be proud when dealing with others. It will change the reality of how we think about and how we speak about other believers.
Let's now look closely at the text. Having made that connection, look at the prohibition and then the explanation. First, the prohibition. You see there in verse 11: "Do not slander one another, brothers." “Do not slander”. This word translated "slander" in the LSB, katalaleo, is the Greek word, a compound word— kata, against; laleo, to speak—to speak against, to speak evil of. If you were to take this compound word, the two Greek words put together, as we often do in English as well, one of those words simply means "to speak," as I said, and the other simply means "against," to speak against. But it also can mean to speak down to, very similar to our English expression, "running someone down with the mouth." The word, kata, also has that other meaning, "down."
This word can be used to describe many different kinds of sinful speech, and yet, when it occurs in the New Testament, it is most often translated as it is in the LSB, "slander." You can see that in Romans 1:30, 2 Corinthians 12:20, 1 Peter 2:1, and so forth, just to give you references. Here is the command: "Do not slander one another, brothers." Don't do this, brothers, he says. Don't speak evil of one another. Don't speak against each other. Don't slander one another. Don't destroy another person's reputation.
Right after that, this is where judgment comes in. Look at what James does. He says, "Do not slander one another, brothers. He who slanders a brother or judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law." Do you see what he's doing? Slandering one another, speaking evil of one another, judging one another—these are put parallel, side by side, so that the one informs the other, and you know what kind of judgment he's talking about. He's helping us understand what kind of judgment is forbidden, what kind of judgment is prohibited by God.
So what you see here is that the judgment which is forbidden is very close to or identical with slander, katalaleo. Well, what is slander? Webster defines it—if you were to define the word in English, "slander"—and I quote, as "a false tale or report maliciously uttered, tending to injure the reputation of another by lessening him in the esteem of his fellow citizens." That's how Webster defines it. In other words, this is when you speak about someone, almost always in his or her absence—not exclusively, but almost always in his or her absence—and you construe and interpret their actions in the worst possible light so as to deliberately paint the person as evil.
What makes the judgment evil, mark it down, is its desire. Beloved, the problem here, and we need to keep this in mind, and this is really important, is that the problem is not that the judgment is negative. That's not the problem. The problem is not that the judgment is unflattering. The problem is not that the judgment is critical. The problem is that the judgment here is malicious, and that's the key word—malicious. It comes from a heart that desires to destroy, to hurt greatly, to destroy. The motive is not truth. The motive, rather, is malice—malice.
And if you want more verification of that, step back from—excuse me—if you want more verification of that, step back from this passage and think about the context that we've been looking at. Look at what we looked at last time from verses 6 down to verse 10. What is James talking about? What has he been talking about? Pride, selfishness, worldliness, self-centeredness. And we saw he gave this key appeal, which is the climax of the book: humble yourself, submit to God, repent, believe. And so what he's really saying is, he's dovetailing right off that. He says—he's saying, listen, the kind of judgment that's forbidden to you is the proud, self-loving, self-deceptive, self-righteous judgment that, when you're in the grip of it, you simply want to do one thing, and that is assassinate the character of your enemy.
When you're in this, we saw at the beginning of chapter 4, when you have this kind of pride in your heart, what happens? You remember what happens, right? Desires become what? Needs. Needs become demands, and demands become sources of conflict. Because what's gripping us here is an idolatrous worship of my way, myself, and even if my way was really a good way, it quickly degenerates into something else. Once I mix it in with pride, I distort it, and I pursue it, and so now what's going to happen is my judgment is going to be this kind. What kind? Proud. Proud.
In other words, beloved, there's a kind of judging that is good and a kind of judging that is bad. The problem is not the act of judging—it's the kind. Just like there's a kind of love that is pure, ordinate, a kind of love that is wholesome, and there's a kind of love that is defiled and inordinate. There's a kind of joy that is pure and ordinate, and there's also a kind of joy that is inordinate and impure. So, there's a kind of judgment that is pure and ordinate, and there's a kind of judgment that is impure and inordinate.
So, what kind of judgment is good, to contrast it with the kind of judgment that is forbidden here? To answer that question, bear with me as we go through a mini-theology of judgment, and we need to see that. Three kinds of judgment that we must do in Scripture. Three kinds of judgment we must do in Scripture—the three kinds of judgment God requires of us. So, the first one, first and simplest level, there's the judgment that is really, we can call it just reasoning, simply reasoning. You and I do this all the time. We weigh up evidence in front of us, and we make judgments. You stop at the stop sign—I hope so. You look left and right, and you judge, can I get across without a truck destroying my car? You make a judgment. You put your fork into the potatoes, and you judge, are they done? You look at your budget, and you judge, will it balance?
Paul, in Acts chapter 20, had decided—the word is decided, the verb—decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. The Bible even uses this word when referring to seemingly trivial things, such as in Acts 20:16. It says that Paul had decided—the verb is krino, which is the verb for judging. He had decided, he'd made a judgment call to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. It was just a decision, an act of weighing up evidence and making a judgment call. You always do this. It's unavoidable, and that's the first one. Very basic.
On the second, higher level, if you will, we move from the basic level to a higher level. You and I are supposed to make what? Value judgments. Value judgments. In other words, we're supposed to judge things, people, objects, events, attitudes, and even people themselves to be good or evil, bad or good, true or false. Anytime we are judging things for their truth, for their goodness, for their beauty, we are judging their value. We're judging, should they be loved? Is it a good thing? And the Bible commends us and commends this kind of judgment.
Jesus says in Luke 12:57, He says to the Pharisees, "Why do you not even judge for yourselves what is right?" Our Lord is expecting this. He's expecting it. Every time you discern true or false, good or bad, righteous or unrighteous, what are you doing? You're practicing judgment. You're making a judgment call. And in Hebrews 5:14, we're told that the meat of the Word, solid theology, is digestible only by those who have grown in judgment, who have learned to—and the word is discern, the Greek word diakrisis—judge. That's the word between good and evil, who by reason of use, by reason of training, practice, exercise, they are continually growing in their abilities of value judgment—what is appropriate, inappropriate, good, and evil.
You know, beloved, a Christian should be doing this all the time. You and I should be continually weighing things up for their value, their goodness, their truth, their beauty. In fact, that's why Philippians 1:9-11, Paul prays what he prays. Listen to what he prays in verse 9 and following: "And this I pray"—Philippians 1, verse 9 and following—"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment." And then here's why when you grow in this kind of discernment, this ability to make a judgment call, "so that you may approve the things that are excellent," that is, in other words, you may actually realize in God's reality what is excellent, what is beautiful, what is valuable. And then he says, once you have this kind of good judgment, then you will be sincere. In order to be sincere, he says, "and without fault until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." I think there's warrant to say that if you and I are not doing value judgments, we're being disobedient.
If we're not valuing all things in life—does God love this? Does God love it? Is it beautiful to God? Is it true? Is it good?—if we don't do that, then we're being disobedient. Because Philippians 4:8 tells us that we're supposed to think and focus on what is true, noble, just, pure, beautiful, reputable, virtuous, praiseworthy. Beloved, how would you know what is true, beautiful, praiseworthy, noble, just, pure, unless you're judging it to be so? And unless you are using that standard of what is true and beautiful and reputable and virtuous and noble and just—unless you're judging your music, your movie collection, your magazines, your conversations, your clothing, your spending habits, your associations, your leisure, your words by that standard—then you're not going to be obedient as a child of God.
We have to judge. And we can look at something and say, you know what? That doesn't honor God. I'm just going to get rid of it. I'm not going to be involved in this. You see, it's built into the life of a believer. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 he says, "Examine all things; hold fast to that which is good." “Examine all things and hold fast to what is good.” And what is not good, the implication is what? Discard it. Get rid of it. Don't get involved in it. How many things must you weigh and judge and test and examine? Well, all things, he says. All things. And once you've done that judging, then he says, hold fast to what is good. It's a value judgment. By the way, everyone actually does this. You know, even the person who says to you, "Don't judge," is actually making a value judgment about judging. Because if you say to that person, "Is judging bad?" they'll say, "Yes." "Not judging is good?" "Yes." So you just judged my judging to be bad, and you're not judging to be good? "Yes."
You see, the fact is that everyone in the world has a standard of what they believe is good, and they use that standard to judge the rest of life. It just so happens that the non-judgmentalist has this standard, and the standard happens to be, good people leave me alone, bad people interfere. That's their good, and it's not based on God's Word or anything, but that's their law, and that's their good. And they judged you by that standard. So when you judge, they just refer you to that standard, and they say, you're not being good because good people don't judge. What are they doing? They're making a value judgment as well.
And it's incoherent. It's contradictory. It's impossible to not judge. It's like saying, no statement is true, including that one, right? It's logically contradictory. It's impossible to do. Everyone has a standard of what they think is good, and true, and desirable, and upright, and beautiful. It's just what your standard happens to be. That's why Jesus said in John 7:24, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Hence, the title of the sermon: Judge with Righteous Judgment. Righteous judgment—how do we do that? Well, that's a topic for another time, but it's enough for us to say tonight, all of life should be judged by you and me for its value. Is it good, according to Scripture? Is it pleasing to God, or is it not? You should be judging that all the time.
First judgment: simple decisions. Second judgment: moral judgments. Third judgment is the kind of judgment that we're called to—judging doctrine and behavior as Christian or non-Christian. We're to judge; we're called to judge doctrine and behavior to determine whether it is Christian or non-Christian. This is a more difficult judgment, but this judgment is required. It's how we identify false teachers. It's how we identify false brethren. Sometimes it's clear-cut; sometimes you really have to take time and prayerfully be all the more like the Bereans. In 1 Corinthians 5," Paul said, here's a man who's living in immorality with his mother-in-law. It's flagrant, it's offensive to God, it's public, it's scandalous. There's no way that he's acting like a Christian. Corporately, he says, all of you need to judge that to be true and put him out of the church. Make the judgment. Make that judgment.
In Matthew 18, after the consensus of two or three witnesses, after the consensus of the church led by her under-shepherds, let there be a public declaration that as best as we know, this person's sins are bound to them, they're not saved. Although we don't know for certain, we're making an informed judgment based upon the testimony of many, comparing it with Scripture, and we've determined that this person is not a believer. And we find this throughout Scripture.
In Romans 16:17, Paul says, "I urge you, brothers"—notice the language—"to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and stumblings contrary to the teaching which you learned," and now watch this, "and turn away from them.” “Turn away from them."
And then Titus 3:10, strong language: "Reject a factious man after a first and second warning." A divisive man, you ought to reject after the first and second warning. The whole book of 1 John is a collection of this: this is what Christians believe, this is how Christians behave, this is what Christians believe, this is how they behave. And if you're like this habitually, you're in the faith. If you're not like this habitually, then you're not in the faith. We're to evaluate teaching and practice to see, does it accord with the gospel?
And Paul himself called certain teachers, well, false teachers. Paul said that Hymenaeus and Alexander suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith—1 Timothy 1:19-20. Peter and Jude warn us about false teachers who were denying the Lord they professed to believe in. I think you'd agree this is not a judgment we're going to make quickly; it's not a judgment we're going to make lightly. It should take place carefully, prayerfully, when mature believers compare Scripture with Scripture, but we do have to make this kind of judgment.
In fact, you have to do a version of this judgment on yourself and myself every time we gather around the Lord's table, right? Because at every Lord's Supper, you have to evaluate yourself, I have to evaluate myself: Do I believe the gospel? Have I received the gospel? Am I living the gospel? Have I dealt with sin in my heart? Am I partaking in an unworthy manner? That's why Paul says in that same passage, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Now, these are the three kinds of judging that we always do, we always must do. We've got to make decisions, we should make moral evaluations of all of life, and we're supposed to do, in the household of faith, we're supposed to judge the doctrine and behavior of others to be Christian or non-Christian, especially if they claim that title. They claim, I am a child of God, I'm a Christian.
So then, this brings us back to James. James doesn't tell us to avoid drawing conclusions about each other; it's not what he's forbidding here. It's important for us to understand that. He doesn't tell us to make no value judgments whatsoever on one another; that's not what he's forbidding. And he doesn't even tell us, "Don't judge." Now, mark it down, he's not even telling us, "Don't judge the motives of other believers." We will come back to that, but he's not saying that either. He doesn't tell us to stop judging those who claim to be Christians but don't act like it. We're supposed to do that.
What he says is, do not slander one another with malicious intent. That's the key. Do not slander one another with malicious intent. Do not, from a heart of pride, malign another Christian. Do not say what is false and act as if it is true. Do not exaggerate, do not use half-truths, don't distort the truth to make your own case. Don't misrepresent so as to trounce another, stamp them in the dust, and exalt yourself. He says, that is slander. That is slander.
You say, well, it seems hard for me to tell the difference between a value judgment and what we're talking about here. So what's the difference? Well, let James explain it a little more. James explains it here in verse 11. Look at the text, look at what he says, "He who slanders a brother or judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it." What does he mean here? He says, proud judging is an act of arrogance. Proud judging is an act of arrogance. When you undertake the kind of judging that God forbids, what you do is, you step away from being the plaintiff or the defendant in front of the judge, and you climb up there, you put on the black robe, and you take the gavel, and you sit in the place that does not belong to you. You exalt yourself above the law that governs you, you exalt yourself above God, and you usurp that place.
And so, when we think of it like that, proud judging, beloved, is easily distinguished from the humble kind of judging that you and I are supposed to do. How so? How so? Well, let me give us the four marks of proud judging, the four descriptions of proud, negative, evil judgment, malicious judgment. Number one, proud judging judges from a place of self-righteousness. This is how you discern it. Proud judging judges from a place of self-righteousness. James here says—look at your text—"He who slanders a brother or judges his brother, slanders the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it." In other words, when I get into slander and pride, what I'm immediately doing is, I am leapfrogging over the law. I'm saying, that doesn't apply to me. I can do what I want with my tongue. I can say what I want.
And so, immediately, what you're doing is, you're saying, I am above the law, I am righteous, and I can, therefore, judge from that place of self-righteousness. I'm not a fellow sinner submitting to the law; I'm, in fact, above the law. I can, therefore, perfectly judge others.
And this, beloved, is really what Jesus was talking about in His often-quoted words. Keep your hand in James and look at Matthew 7. Look closely at what Jesus says there. This is the kind of proud judgment, sanctimonious judgment, that's forbidden—judging from a place of self-righteousness. He says in Matthew 7, verse 1, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? “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.”"
Do you see it? Notice—how is it possible for you to remove that speck if Jesus says, don't judge in any possible way? You see how He ends? He says, "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." He doesn't say, don't do that." He says there's a prerequisite before that. In other words, He's saying, take the big beam out of your own eye—where every time you turn, everyone has to duck—get that thing out of your eye first. Then you'll have clarity. And what will you do with your clarity? You can do a very precise operation in someone else's eye at that point. In other words, He's saying, I want you to do the value judgments. I want you to help others, but don't do it from a place of hypocrisy. Don't do it from a place of self-righteousness, where every time you turn your head, you're going to just about decapitate people around you because you have this big beam coming out of your own eye.
Self-righteousness destroys sound judgment. And by the way, how—verse 6—how would you know what it is to "give what is holy to the dogs" earlier in this chapter or later in the chapter unless you judge that to be true or not to be true? How do you make that judgment call? Or the false teachers who are wolves in sheep's clothing, and He said, "You shall know them by their fruit." How would you know if you don't make a judgment? How would it be possible for you to say, "This will be pearls before swine" unless you're doing a moral judgment? You have to do moral judgment. It is contained in this text. But the warning is, don't judge self-righteously.
That's why Paul says in Romans 2, verse 1, "Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same thing." Self-righteous hypocrisy. Humble judgment, beloved, begins with self-judgment. It begins by judging myself first. Isn't that what we read in Galatians 6, verse 1? "Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one.” How? “In a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself, so that you too, will not be tempted." That's the spirit. It begins with self-judgment. And I'm not going to slander another person. I'm not going to try and destroy another person to make myself look better, because I'm starting from the position that says, I know I am a sinner. I'm sick. I need a physician. But God is going to use me in someone else's life, in spite of that, by His grace.
The second kind of judgment that is forbidden, a second kind of proud judgment—turn with me to Romans 14. Romans 14. The first kind of proud judgment comes from self-righteousness. Here's the second kind, and I'm just going to pick out a few verses here so we get the idea.
Look at verse 2, Romans 14, verse 2: "One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats must not view the one who does not eat with contempt, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, for God accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."
Go down to verse 10, "But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you view your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God." So what do we have here? Well, here in Romans, you have a church where he's dealing with conflict in the Roman church over different convictions—over what we call in theology, adiaphora. Adiaphora comes from a Greek word which means indifferent things. These relate to matters that are really indifferent things, things that are morally indifferent in themselves—days and foods and various things. It's not to say that your choice is indifferent. It's not to say that once you make a decision that your decision has no morality—it does. Once you make a decision, it's morally right or wrong, and motives come in here, but the thing itself is morally indifferent. It is indifferent, and Paul says it's possible on these things for one Christian to say no and for another Christian to say yes.
One Christian observes the day, the other Christian does not observe. Both of them, in matters indifferent, can do so for the glory of God. Now, what happens here is Paul says that some of you in the church of Rome are setting up your application of God's Word to be the only standard, and it's become God's standard in your own eyes. And so for you, not observing the day or observing the day has become a law, and what you have done is you've made your own judgment to be the standard of righteousness. You've elevated it to become the standard. This is proud. This is sinful, he says. This is taking one legitimate application of God's Word and elevating it to a place which belongs only in inspired Scripture.
My standard becomes the only standard, and so what am I doing? I stand above God's Word. I'm no longer a doer; I'm a judge, and I judge you by my standard rather than the standards of God. On the other hand, you know what humility will say? It will say, if my brother or sister has biblical warrant for that action, I cannot condemn them. I cannot condemn them. Now, I may disagree with my brother, and obviously, I will. I may even disapprove. I may say, I don't think that's the best conviction to have, but I will not slander. I will not smear. I will not try to reduce that person to a pound of ashes and say, that's not a person who's living in Christ. I'm not going to judge from the place of pride where my standard, my application, has now become the only standard—God's standard.
There’s another way in which proud judging is forbidden. Let me give you a third way. The first way we judge wrongly is when we judge from self-righteousness. The second way we judge wrongly is when we make our standard God's standard and the standard of righteousness. The third kind of proud judgment, the kind forbidden to us, is when we claim to know more than we do—when we claim to know more than we do.
See, when I'm submitted to God's Word, God's Word is the standard, the standard, and I can make reasonable judgments on your behavior and my behavior, on actions and so forth. I can even try to judge intentions, but I submit my judgment ultimately to the omniscience of God. 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and make manifest the motives of hearts. And then each one's praise will come to him from God.” Humility says in the end there's only one person who knows everything. There's only one person who knows every intention of the heart, who knows all that's going on, and I'm not that person. I'm not that person. I'm not.
So I'm not going to claim to know more than I know, but just for the record, I'm not going to claim to know less than I know either. But what I do know, I'm going to hold with the certainty it deserves. Now, just to clear up another muddled thought here, a lot of Christians are very quick to say, yes, yes, but, but, but, but, but we can't judge motives. We can never judge motives. But you know, that's actually impossible—to not judge motives. We judge motives all the time based on the facts that we have, the evidence that we have, the track record that we have.
Look, if someone is walking up here after the service and they trip on something and they splash water, let's say, all over me, and they immediately go, I'm so sorry, I'm so— well, I'm going to judge their motives, and I'm going to judge their motives to have been harmless, accidental, right? On the other hand, if after the service or in the middle of the message, the door opens and a stranger marches up to the front here with an object in their hand, I'm going to duck because I'm judging motives. This is what you do all the time as part of judging, because when we judge, we try to understand what someone is trying to accomplish. And when you try to understand what someone is trying to accomplish, what are you doing? You're judging motives.
Now, it's true, it's true. We should always, as believers, begin—and we need to be very, very careful—we need to begin with the most charitable construction of motives. "Love hopes all things. Love believes all things." And there's a track record that has to be taken into consideration, but we should always, as believers, begin with the most charitable construction of motives. We should always begin with a loving and fair interpretation of actions, and we are all forbidden from imputing evil intentions when there's no justification to do so whatsoever. I'm not allowed, without warrant, to say, I think this person's up to evil.
So that's not to say I can never make that call prayerfully and carefully. And Simon Peter says this about Simon the sorcerer's motives. He says in Acts 8:22-23, “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray earnestly to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.”” But Peter was judging motives, and he had, yes, warrant to do so. John felt he had more than enough justification to say the following about Diotrephes. In 3 John, he says in verse 9, "I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not welcome what we say." He loves to have first place in everything. How could he say that? Because it was true, and the available evidence was there. Diotrephes was motivated by pride. He was motivated by wanting the place of preeminence.
Paul says of Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:10, "You are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?" And Jude says of those false teachers in verse 16, "These are grumblers, finding fault, following their own lusts, and their mouths speak arrogantly," and here it comes, "flattering people for the sake of their own benefit." Motives. Yes, beloved, we can evaluate motives. We do judge motives, but we should do so humbly with the fear of God, and we should do it charitably and carefully. I can interpret actions. I can attempt to interpret motives because that's part of being human, and I can make a judgment. But in the end, I must hold that judgment with the certainty it merits because I don't know everything, and I don't know everything internal and external.
And do you know what pride does? It assumes evil. It's cynical. It imputes evil motives without warrant because it's fundamentally lazy. I'm going to fill in the gaps here with evil intent. Somebody will be careful, sober about what it doesn't know. That's the third kind of proud judging that's forbidden—claiming to know what we do not know. And there's a fourth kind of proud judgment. Look at the end of verse 11, back to James 4: "But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor?" And here's the fourth kind of judgment that we are forbidden to do, and that is—don't claim to have the final verdict on another person.
Don't claim to have the final verdict on another person. Proud judgment claims to have the final say. It claims not the judgment of a fellow pilgrim; it claims the perspective and the right to condemn. And James says you can't do that. There's only one Lawgiver. There's only One with that power. You can't step into that role. I can't step into that role. When I'm in the grip of pride, this is what I do. I no longer bring my moral judgments, my evaluations—I no longer bring them to a higher evaluation. I no longer bring my judgment to the greater Judge. I don't submit my judgment about others, which is in His Word, to Him. Because when I'm proud, when I'm arrogant, puffed up, this is what I want to do. I want to be the judge, the jury, and the executioner. And I'm just going to step into that role, and I'm going to give it.
And from that place of judgment, the verdict will always be the same—always. You are wrong, and I am right—always. You are guilty, I am innocent. You should be destroyed, and I should be saved. And so, I'm exempting myself from God's Word, and I cast you in the role of the evildoer while I sit in the role of blameless, above-the-law, judge. Here's a way to help yourself and myself. The humble man or woman knows that his judgment is always an act of interpretation. If you've ever been judged, let me ask you, have others ever got it wrong about you? If others have got it wrong about you, then the humble man knows, I could just as easily get it wrong about others. So I'm going to make my judgment as best as I can, prayerfully and carefully, but the final judgment rests with God.
So I'm not going to slander. Because what's slander? Fundamentally, it's the act of final judgment. I'm just going to destroy this person because I already know that they are evil, so let me just mince them up with my words. Now, I'm not going to judge humbly, charitably, truthfully, but I leave the final saving or destroying to God. Let me say that again. I am going to judge humbly, charitably, truthfully, but I'm going to leave the final saving or destroying to God. I don't get to punish others with my mouth. I don't get to do that. So I'm going to stop short of that.
So don't judge from a place of self-righteousness. You're jumping over the law, James tells us, and it always leads to slander. Don't judge by making your standards higher than God's standards because you're jumping over the law, and it will always lead to slander. And don't judge from the place of claiming omniscience. You don't have it. I don't have it. You're jumping over the law, and you will always end up in slander. And don't judge claiming to know what the final outcome will be and claiming to have the right to give that final outcome because you're jumping over the law, and you will almost always slander. Humble judgment.
I'll tell you one of the easiest ways to spot proud judging in yourself or another. C. S. Lewis once said, "Some people scratch like a cat, but they bleed at a touch." What he means is a proud person may judge you by his proud standard, but he will demand that you judge him humbly, charitably, kindly, gently. Easy on him. When he slanders, he speaks evil. When he slanders and speaks evil, he's simply reporting the facts. He's just objectively reporting what's going on. But when you judge his actions with good warrant as being evil and wicked, you're slandering. You're bearing false witness. "You're assassinating my character," he says.
And what such people do is they play a little game, and it's the game of equivocation. Equivocation is when I change the meaning of the term to suit myself based on the situation. In other words, when they're on the offense, judgment means objective, clear, factual gathering of evidence—no bias, sheer and interpreted facts. But when you judge them, it's laden down with sinister, subjective motives and bias, twisting and evil intent. You see, it's a game that's played.
Well, here's how to cut through that self-deception as we conclude. All of us judge, all of us. All of us are subjects, and therefore, all of our judgments are subjective, but subjective judgments can still conform to the truth. You can make judgments that are true and right and accord with reality if you humbly submit them to God, His Word. There's only one mind that knows the whole truth and that judges perfectly. So if I want to judge rightly, the first thing I do is put my mind in subjection to His. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of” what? “Wisdom." It's the beginning of good judgment.
And so, what I do is not claim to be this objective, impartial detective. No, what I do is say, oh Lord, God, I know that I'm frail. I know I could be irrational. I could be emotional. I tend to twist things. I interpret them in my favor. I'm partial towards myself. Lord, my knowledge is limited. I often have faulty reasoning. I can be emotional. However, I have to judge according to Your Word. I have to make decisions. I have to judge words, deeds, actions, even motives. But this is what I want to do. I want to put Your Word as my standard, and I want to be under it. And with Your Word as my standard, I'm not going to be self-righteous. I'm going to judge charitably. I'm not going to claim to know what I don't know. I'm going to judge on what You've revealed to me, based on what You've revealed to me and what is obvious by clear reason. But my compass is Your Word. I'm going to do it in the multitude of counsel and seek godly counsel as I do it. And then with that, I give You the final place of judgment. It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to You. You are God. I am not. When we judge like that, beloved, we will avoid what James forbids. In James 4:11, we avoid slandering one another. Let's judge righteous judgment.
Let's pray.
Father, this is a difficult topic, and I pray that You, God, would give us the skill that comes by reason of use—the skill to interpret well, to not impute evil without warrant, to not impute ill motives without warrant, to not interpret as being evil without rational justification. We need Your wisdom. Grant us the grace to avoid self-righteousness, to avoid making our standards the ultimate standard, to avoid claiming omniscience, to avoid usurping Your place.
Help us instead to judge humbly as those who know clearly that we can get it wrong. And help us to do so as those who yield to Your Word and who make Your Word the standard of judgment. And help us, Lord, to examine ourselves first. Lord, You have the final, ultimate place of judgment. You are the Judge of the whole earth, the omniscient God. We submit our wisdom and our judgments to You. So Father, help us simply judge wisely, humbly, as You would have us. Lead us and guide us. We pray this in Jesus' name and for His glory.
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