11Brothers, 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. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge; the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? James 4:11-12
Will Mr Matt get in trouble this week? Stay tuned...
What is slander? It is to say something unkind or untrue about someone else, especially when they are not around. It is to criticize or blame them for wrongdoing behind their back. It is to find fault and judge others by our own standards. When we say slanderous things, we do not love our neighbor as ourselves.
Think of a judge in a court of law. Judges first of all listen carefully to both sides of the argument, consider the facts, think long and hard about what is heard, and then make a fair decision according to the law. A slanderer, on the other hand, usually only listens to one side of the argument, ignores the facts, does not think carefully about what is said, and makes judgments that are unfair. That’s why it is not right in the sight of God to speak against fellow Christians, or anybody.
Unfortunately, we Christians have a reputation for knocking down our wounded. When fellow believers struggle, instead of reaching out to them, holding them up, encouraging them, and believing the best about them, we tend to step on their fingers while they dangle on the ledge, discourage them, and jump to the worst possible suspicion.
But wait a minute—didn’t Jesus say that people would know that we’re his disciples by the love we show each other?
Oops.
You mean we’re not supposed to add our two cents worth concerning the situation?
Oops.
We’re not supposed to stand up on our soapbox and state our disapproval of the other person’s behavior?
Oops.
We’re not supposed to use these people as an example, publicly humiliate them, then have what’s left of their reputation for dessert after church?
You mean that’s not how we’re supposed to act?
No.
Look at how Jesus acted when people tried to put the law over grace.
Remember the woman caught in adultery? (John 8:2-11) The religious leaders brought her before Jesus (but where was her fellow adulterer, the man?). They asked Jesus to judge what should be done with her. The Law, after all, said she deserved stoning. What did Jesus say? “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” They all left silently one at a time.
Remember the woman with the alabaster box, who poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet? The disciples complained that she should have let them sell the ointment and give the money to the poor, instead of “wasting” it by pouring it on Jesus.
His reply? “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.”
Remember the repentant thief on the cross? Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The gospel is about grace. It’s about restoration. It’s about forgiveness. It’s about imperfect people and a perfect God.
(adapted from “If the tongue’s a fire, who needs salsa?” by Martha Bolton)
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7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:7-10
James doesn’t mean to make us depressed in our verses this week. What he does want to do though, is help us feel sorrow and grief over the things in our lives that make God sad, our sins. Our fighting and quarrelling, our bitter envy and selfish ambition are all things we need to turn away from. That is what “repent” means—to turn away (like a U-turn). If we submit to God and come near to him, then God will come near to us.
How do we repent of those things? James says we need to purify our hearts. That is like taking your heart, turning it wrong side out (like when you fold clothes), and cleaning all the gunk out of your life. James says our attitude when we repent should be one of grieving, mourning and wailing; we need to genuinely feel sorrow for what we’ve done, for what we’ve been like. When we repent, our superficial laughter, laughing just because, needs to be changed to mourning—that deep sorrow we experience when someone dies.
When we repent, we need to come before God humbly. “Humble” means to put yourself in a low, humiliating position. This would be like entering into the throne room of the king as a defeated enemy of the king. You would enter the throne room bowing low, maybe on your knees, with your head down. That is humble. James wants us to take our sins, and our turning away from our sins, very seriously. And when we do, God will be there to meet us. Our last verse this week says to humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up.
Jesus told a parable about this once…
Two people went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of their day; they followed every part of the law and were nit-picky when other people didn’t keep the law as well as they did. Pharisees were like the religious police—if you didn’t do something right, they were sure to tell you about it. The other person was a tax collector. Tax collectors were hired by the Romans, who occupied Israel at that time. Nobody liked the tax collectors because they collected money for the enemy. And most of them also cheated and took extra money for themselves. Nobody liked them. They both went up to the temple to pray.
The Pharisee went right up to the front, stood with his hands in the air, his head held high. Meanwhile, the tax collector stayed at a distance, fell to the ground and wouldn’t even look up. The Pharisee, with his arms high, prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”
The tax collector, with his head bent low, beat his chest. He cried out over and over, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”
Now Jesus said, I tell you the truth, this man rather than the other went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.
Which prayer do you think pleased God? Why?
How do you think the tax collector felt when he went to pray?
Which person do you think you are more like, the Pharisee or the tax collector? Why?
God loved the tax collector and the Pharisee and God loves us so much, too! God doesn’t want us to be self-righteous, but to be humble. Humbleness is an attitude. What are some ways we can show a humble attitude?
4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:4-6
How can we listen to God when the TV is on??? Are we friends with the world or with God?
So much of what we’ve been learning in James this year is about choices. Choices about what our tongue is going to say, or not say. Choices about what kind of fruit our lives bear. Choices about how we show concern for widows and orphans and those who need our help. This week, James gives us another choice. At first glance, it’s a pretty simple choice: will you follow the ways of God, or be friends with the world? I think most of us would raise our hands and say we try to follow the ways of God. But if you stop to think about it, this choice is a lot harder than it first appears. Because, you see, the things of this world are awfully nice. We like them.
Let me tell you a story. [from Luke 15:11-32] It’s probably not a new story for you, but it’s still a good one… Once, long ago, there was a man who had two sons. The younger son saw the things of the world and liked them. So, he went to his father and said, “Dad, you know all that wealth I’m going to inherit when you die? Well, I was wondering if I could just have it all now, instead of waiting for you to kick the bucket.”
You can imagine that the father was hurt by this request. The young man was so fixed on going out to enjoy the offerings of the world that he wanted right now the wealth he was supposed to get after his father died!
The father, however, agreed, and gave the son his inheritance. The son, in turn, did something that lacked wisdom (he must not have read James yet!). The son took all that he had, left his father’s home, and took off for a distant country. And the son continued to make poor choices. In that distant land, he spent all his wealth on wild living. I am sure he had a good time while he was doing it—he probably bought lots of nice clothes and ate as much food as he wanted—and only the food he liked; no vegetables for him! He probably spent all his time hanging out with new friends and being entertained. In his mind, he was “living it up,” doing everything he wanted to do, and nothing that he didn’t enjoy. He probably stayed up late at night and slept until late in the morning. He probably spent a lot of time around some unsavory people. But he thought, “ahh, this is what life is all about!” Little did he know that his poor choices were about to lead him into some serious consequences.
He ran out of money. Without thinking about the future, without thinking about earning more money, he suddenly found that he didn’t have any left! And suddenly, his party friends were nowhere to be seen. And all of his nice clothes couldn’t feed him—maybe he sold some of them for food, until they, too, were gone. And all that nice food he’d been eating, it was now a distant dream. And the staying up late and sleeping in late—well, he stayed up late because he didn’t have a place to stay anymore. But he couldn’t sleep in late in the morning because he didn’t have a place to sleep! Maybe it was still summer and he slept out under the stars for awhile, but it was going to get cold soon—what then? But most of all, he was just hungry. After awhile he stopped complaining about losing his access to good food, and wished he could just have any food at all. His stomach continually reminded him of this; it started talking to him and sounded like Jonah’s whale.
The young man had never worked in his life—remember he took all his inheritance from his father, instead of working to earn money? Now, he went looking for a place where he could earn some money to buy food. No one wanted to hire him—he didn’t have any skills! “What are your skills?” someone would inquire. “Well, I can dance late into the night and I can make an incredible 6 layer sandwich.” “Hmmm, do you have any references?” “References? Uhhh…. my friends have all taken off and my father… well, no, I don’t have any references.”
“Young man, it looks like the only work we have available is feeding pigs. Tossing them leftover food scraps. Oh, and cleaning out their pens.”
“I’ll take it!” he shouts, thinking about filling his stomach with those food scraps.
After a couple of weeks eating pig slop though, he starts reminiscing about those days back in his father’s house, when they would have roasted lamb once a week, lots of fresh vegetables (suddenly, fresh veggies sounded good again!), and bread as far as the eye could see. His dreams grew bigger and bigger, until, shaking himself out of his dream, he remembered he was shoveling pig manure.
What am I doing here, he wondered. “If only I were back in my father’s house. If only I hadn’t wasted all of the inheritance he gave me. He’ll never forgive me; I’ll never be able to go back. But wait! What if I returned, on my knees in humility, and ask my father to hire me? It would be better than taking care of these pigs! At least my father’s servants are fed real food! And at least I could wear a servant’s robe instead of these rags. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll return to my father, ask his forgiveness, and request to become one of his hired hands.”
Do you all remember what happened next? The son returned to his father’s house. But instead of him coming to his father on his knees, his father saw him returning, ran out to meet him, gave him a huge hug, and called for a feast to be prepared in his honor! Did he deserve something like that? Certainly not! But the father was so happy to see his son again, his son who was more interested in his wealth than his life, that he forgave him and welcomed him home.
Our verses in James this week give us a choice. We can choose to walk in the ways of the Lord, or be a friend of the things of the world. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be friends with people that are in the world, or who aren’t believers. What it does mean is that we need to choose to fill our lives with things that don’t distract us from being with God and listening to him. Just like Matt R Horn in the skit—if we have the TV on, we can’t hear the birds on the trail singing God’s praises. If we are focused on the things of the world, we won’t be able to hear God.
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:1-3
A soft lightweight air mattress-- don't you wish you had one as nice as this??
Remember that last week we learned about some of the fruit of wisdom that comes from heaven? Do you remember what some of that fruit was? [let them list]
Do you remember from a couple of weeks ago that false wisdom that caused disorder and envy? This week we discover some of the fruit—some of the results of that false wisdom. We discover fights and quarrels— both physical and verbal conflicts. We discover our tongue being misused. We discover that our selfish ambitions lead to wounding others and coveting what they have.
James was writing this letter to a group of first century Christians. We don’t know what these fights and quarrels were about. It seems like James is bothered more by their selfish spirit and the bitterness of their quarrels than who was right and who was wrong. What do you think James would think about us twenty-first century Christians? Would he be bothered by our selfish spirit, our quarreling, our coveting what other people have, our impure motives? And did James know that our choices affect other people and not just ourselves?
There is a story in the Old Testament about someone who let his selfish desires and covetousness control him. And his poor choice led to some very serious problems for many other people…
Most of us have heard the story of the battle of Jericho. Remember that God told Joshua to have the Israelites march around the huge wall of Jericho one time a day for six days? And on the seventh day, they were to march around the wall seven times, blow their trumpets and shout, and the walls would fall down. Well, the Israelites obeyed God on this one and did exactly what he said, for this part anyway. Once the wall fell down, God told the Israelites to enter the city of Jericho and destroy it completely. They were not to leave anything alive or to take any plunder from the city, but to set it all aside for God. Well, this is where they messed up.
Well, not really they, but only one person. Achan. All of the Israelites obeyed what God told them to do, except Achan. Achan decided that some of the gold, silver and clothing from Jericho were worth keeping. He didn’t destroy them for God; instead, he hid them in his tent. “Out of all the treasure of Jericho, who would notice this little bit missing?” he thought. “I am just one man, taking just a tiny amount, what difference does it make? God will get most of it,” he justified. And so he told no one what he did.
So, the Israelites got ready to attack the next city, called Ai. It was a small city, more of a town really, and they weren’t too worried. Except, they didn’t win the battle! In fact, not only did the Israelites not defeat Ai, but many of their own men were killed! Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, couldn’t figure out how this could have happened! He sought the Lord’s answer.
The Lord replied that someone among the Israelites had kept part of the plunder from Jericho. He told Joshua to gather all of the Israelites and God would narrow them down to the guilty person. The next day, all of the Israelites gathered before Joshua. They each came before Joshua by tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Levi,… until the tribe of Judah was chosen. Then the tribe of Judah came before Joshua by clans, and God picked the clan of the Zerahites. Then the Zerahite clan came forward by families, and Zimris family was chosen. Zimris family came one at a time, and Achan was chosen.
Joshua told Achan that the guilt was narrowed down to him. Was Achan ready to confess? Achan did confess that he had taken some of the things devoted to God at Jericho. “I have sinned against the Lord!” he declared. “I coveted them and took them. They are hidden inside my tent.” Joshua sent people to Achan’s tent and sure enough, they found the stolen items!
Achan and all of his possession were taken outside the camp and stoned. Then, God told Joshua to take the army and attack Ai again. This time, they defeated Ai.
Unintended consequences. When Achan stole some wealth from Jericho, he was only thinking of himself. He coveted what he saw and disregarded God’s command. He certainly wasn’t thinking that what he did would affect other people. But his choice to seek his own pleasure caused the death of many fellow Israelites at the first battle of Ai. His choice caused the death of his entire family. And Achan’s choice led to his own death. Like Achan, so often we base our own decisions on what would make us—ourselves—happy. We covet—we wish we had what other people have. We fight and quarrel because of our desire to have more than we have. We ask things of God for the wrong motives. And we think only about what would make us happy, instead of considering others.
Wow, James sure convicts us here! What should we do? Let’s go back and remember what true wisdom that comes from heaven looks like. If we ask God for wisdom that is pure, peace-loving and considerate, and fill ourselves with true wisdom, then these results/fruits of our false wisdom won’t have any room left in our lives.
