Judging Others

Memorial Day
I want to say thank you to all of those men and women who have given up so much to serve our country and us, keeping us safe. Let's not forget their families who give up spending time with their loved ones who are serving in our military-thank you isn't enough.
I want to remember those who gave their life/and or limbs in preserving our freedoms. So many wars have been fought by Americans to fight the enemy. Thank God we still live a fairly free country, where we can worship, pray, read the Truth-Bible, without persecution.
My own father lost a leg during WWII, but said he'd go fight again if he could.
As Christians, we are in a war against sin and evil, fighting for our families, marriage, purity of life, Christian values, praying for darkness  to be held back.
Enjoy your holiday, dear friends in Christ. May God bless your family and our nation as we stay faithful to Him.

528.  " Judging Others"                              May 28, 2012
James 4-Part 2
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?  James 4:12 NIV

LET IT GLOW

I recall the days in high school, during social studies classes, we would be given a senerio and then debated it. We were not allowed to choose which side we were on, but it was appointed to us. Usually, they were current events in our world. We set ourselves up as judges of the matter at hand. It seems like those issues later became matters of importance in our society as we voted on them when we became of age. Now we are the generation that is involved in making the laws of our land. In the spiritual realm, do I find myself continuing to judge, only to judge peoples' ways and actions, spiritual condition?  James gives me advice on the matter.
Only God is qualified to be Judge. He is the one who gave us the Law, moral and spiritual laws to live by.

God is designated as author, interpreter, and executor of the law. If He alone holds these functions, then who are we to judge another? (Falwell)
Only God has the ability to to save and destroy, which proves that only He is qualified to judge. (Swindoll)
The question is: Do I try to take His place as judge of others?

LET IT GROW

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. when you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. James 4:11 NIV

Does this mean that when I put down someone, I am making myself superior to other Christians?
Speak against means to talk down. It's the idea of talking about one person to another with the goal of lowering your listener's estimate of that third person.
Judge means to pronounce condemnation upon someone. In order to judge someone rightly, however, we must know all there is to know about that other person. It requires the kind of complete understanding about a person's thoughts and motives that only God possesses.
Didn't Jesus tell us to get the log out of our own eye before we get the speck out of our brother's eye?
(Matt. 7:1-5)
When I critize others, I speak against the law and judge it. Probably, the law which James is referring to is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (2:8). Do I then change position from being a doer of the law to a judge of the law?
Isn't God supposed to be the final authority over my life? Do I depend on Him? Or am I "playing God" with myself?
[Swindoll's Study Guide on James]

I remember that the beginning of this chapter discussed strife. The solutions for strife is to get right with God and to get right with other people.

Wehn I'm right with other people, it will show in the way I talk about them. So I must not speak evil of one another and not judge my brother/sister.
1 John 4:20 says, If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (NIV)

When I have the proper humility before God, it just isn't within me to arrogantly judge others, is it?

Friends, I have some homework to do with this lesson.


LET IT GO

Stop judging others. Stop critizing them.

Start loving others as Christ does-accepting us as we are.

Pray for others and myself.