James told his readers to stop speaking evil of one another (James 4:11). The Greek is an imperative together with a negative particle, which means that he was telling them to stop doing something that was already in progress. He went on to say that he who judges his brother judges the law, but which law is that? Certainly not the Mosaic Law! James couldn’t have been referring to the Law of Moses or the 10 Commandments, which are part of the Law of Moses. That law was added to the Old Covenant because of the transgressions of Israel, in order to show what sin was. It was to serve only until the coming of Christ (Galatians 3:19). Thus, the Law served as a kind of teacher that would bring God’s people to the time when they would serve him through faith, i.e. until the time of Christ, wherein men would be justified, not by the law but through faith (Galatians 2:16; 3:11, 23-24).
Which law? James had to have been speaking of the only law Jesus gave to his disciples, that we should love one another (James 13:34-35; 15:12, 17), the same law which he mentioned in James 2:8, there called the royal law. The point of James’ argument is: if one slanders his brother, he is judging him. If he judges his brother, he is taking exception to the law of love. To take exception to the law of love means that one is judging the law doesn’t apply to this brother. If one judges his brother, he cannot be a doer of the law, i.e. he cannot be loving his brother, for love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and in short, love never ends (1Corinthians 13:7-9). Instead of loving his brother, such a one has set himself up as a judge, and that in the place of God, because there is only one Judge (James 4:12; cp. Matthew 7:1-5)!
Many folks who read James believe he is simply speaking of the general behavior of Christians, but, while such a thing could be applied to what James says, this misses his point entirely. The controversy in James 4:11-12 was a conflict over leadership and how the Gospel should be preached in this or that city (James 4:13). The legitimate leaders of the local bodies of believers were being slandered by wanabe teachers (James 3:1; cp. Jude 1:4, 10, 16). James wasn’t speaking of doing the business of the world in verse-13, but, rather, the business of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 25:14-18). In Matthew’s narrative, he who dug into the earth and hid the Lord’s talent was serving him in the flesh, not the Spirit, i.e. through the strength of man and not by faith. So, the buying and selling that was done in a particular city and the gain that was acquired was for the Kingdom of God, not a human business venture, as so many suppose. Where does it state in the New Covenant text that the Lord is interested in men’s business affairs? Rather, he is interested in men’s hearts and the spread of the Gospel, and James speaks of both.
Referring to Proverbs 27:1, James tells his readers that a man’s life is nothing more than an invisible vapor that vanishes away after a little time (James 4:14), and we don’t know how long or short a time we have to live. How, then, could we possibly predict what we would do for the Lord, or if, in fact, it is the Lord’s will that we do the thing we hope to do (cp. Acts 16:6-7)? Rather, we need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God, as was Paul in the text above. If we live, and if it is the Lord’s will that we should do this or that, all will be well (James 4:15). Nevertheless, we need to allow the Lord the freedom he gives to us. Let God be God, for he is the Lord of all, and we need to seek his pleasure.
I often think of how a church I used to attend sought to preach the Gospel for a particular venture. I led a prayer group who prayed, while another group went out to canvas the targeted community. The idea was, if you knock on X number of doors, one could expect Y number of folks to respond favorably, but this is nothing more than looking to the laws of chance![1] It has nothing to do with seeking the Lord’s will, although the good people involved thought they were doing his will.
To boast of what we will do, presumes upon the Lord’s liberty and keeps him from participating in his own creation. Man was created to be his image, i.e. be as he is, do as he does etc. If we don’t consider the Lord’s will in a matter, we choose not to allow him his right of participation in the matter at hand, and, if it happens to be the business of the Kingdom we have in mind, it is doubly imperative that we allow for the will of God and his participation in the work. Otherwise, we miss the mark, and to understand these things and do as we please anyway, makes the act deliberate (James 4:16-17).
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[1] In ancient times the laws of chance were governed by the goddess Fortuna. In ignorance the church, in reality, served the goddess for that undertaking.
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