We stood there thinking, "What have you done?" We were looking for a house several years ago. We were in the living room of a great, old, Philadelphia stone home, a bit shocked at what we saw. This home had been adorned with things that just didn't fit. Above us were plasticized, fake wood beams. The wall to our right was covered with mirrored tile. The color of the living room was garish beyond imagination, festooned with a chandelier that I will not take the time to describe. You couldn't help but stand in the middle of that wonderful house and say, "What have you done?"
What Have You Done?
I would wonder, this evening, if our Lord, at points and at places, would stand in the middle of the house of His Gospel and say, "What have you done?" How is it that we've taken a message, a humbling message of need, and weakness, and failure, and sin, and turned it into an occasion for pride? How is it that we've taken a message of awesome, transforming love and made it an occasion for condemnation and judgment? How is it that we've received the hope and the promise of ever-patient grace and yet can respond in ungracious criticism and judgment?
Could it be that there are ways in which the Lord would stand in the middle of the house of His Gospel and say, "You've adorned My house with things that do not fit. You have marred the beauty of My grace. What have you done?" Turn with me, if you will, to James 4, verse 11, there in your bulletins. I want to read these verses again with you. They're in the bold: Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law.
But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12, ESV) Perhaps in James's pastoral zeal to point us to this beautiful, righteous life that God has called us to, this wonderful new paradigm of living that blows our lives way beyond the border of what we would normally be satisfied with, that expands our lives literally to the awesome size of the Kingdom of God--maybe in James's zeal to lay that out, he can't resist, can't avoid, talking about what is a subtle, abiding sin and struggle in the body of Christ.
Hear the call, "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers." What James is about to address is not really a problem of the mouth; it's not a problem of vocabulary; it's not a problem of communication technique; it's a problem of the heart. It's our tendency even though the core message of the Word of God is that we've received a gift that we could never have earned, we could've never achieved; we could have never deserved - that God has every reason for judging us and driving us out of His presence into eternal punishment.
He turns to us in Christ in gorgeous love and in patient grace; and yet in the face of that message, how easy it is for us to have a critical spirit toward one another. When James says, "Do not speak evil against one another, brothers," perhaps he's pointing us to three places where that is done. A critical heart will first mean that I will speak evil about you to myself. I'll silently watch you; I'll critique you; I'll pick up on your weaknesses and your failures. I'll notice the gaps in your righteousness and your theology, and I'll talk about you to me.
Maybe it's a second domain where that takes place. I'll speak in critical and unloving judgment about you to you. I can't tell you how many marriages I've sat with that are no longer locations of love, and appreciation, and grace, and joy. They've become minefields of bitterness, and criticism, and judgment, where records of wrongs are more regular than initiatives of grace. I wonder if much of what we call 'Christian parenting' doesn't descend down to harshness, and condemnation, and judgment, words spoken that never should be spoken and attitudes that never should be expressed.
I wonder how much of our conversation with one another is blessed with encouragement and comfort, stimulation of one another to love and good deeds, pointing one another to the grace, and the presence, and the promises the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's a third area. Sadly, we speak against one another to others. We talk about one another's weaknesses and failures and sin. There is some kind of seductive delight in sharing a failure with someone else. Why is this such a struggle for us? Well, the first thing you could say is that we've got plenty of material to work with.
There Is Much Material to Work With
You're never going to be around perfect people; you're always in close proximity with plenty of weakness, and plenty of failure, and plenty of sin. There's much material to work with. There is another reason why this is such a temptation to us, it's clearly true, "Judgment is easier than mercy." It's easier to stand apart from somebody and point a finger than it is to patiently walk alongside of them, to love them, to forgive them, to get your hands dirty as you help them bear the burden of change.
But perhaps this third reason that this is a struggle for us is the one we ought to attend to the most. Wouldn't you agree with me, brothers and sisters, that the sin of pride is deep within us and captures us all? It is so easy for us to forget who we are; it's so easy for us to buy into the delusion that we're wiser than we actually are; we're more righteous than we actually are; we're more disciplined than we actually are; we're less needy than we actually are. It's easy to sit in a service of worship and hear a convicting sermon and be thankful that somebody you know is there to hear it and forget that, by God's sovereign grace, He has placed you in the pew because you need the words you are about to hear.
"Don't speak evil against one another." Brothers and sisters, the problem is not the problem of the tongue; the problem is the problem of the heart. Now look with me at what James says next as he analyzes this struggle. The second half of verse 11: The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. (ESV) Well, there are some things that we need to examine here. What is this law that James is talking about?
Well, you know if you've thought about the way Scripture uses language, that words are not always used the same way in every context. How is it that James is using this term law; what does he mean by law? Well, I would propose to you that when James says, "The one who speaks evil against a brother or judges a brother, speaks evil against the law," he is talking about the royal law, God's call to love. That is clearly a theme in James we've already looked at. You see it there in James's discussion of partiality, verse 8 of chapter 2, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the (neighbor)
Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well." Remember that Jesus, in His summary of the law, reduced the law down to these two powerful commands, these life shaping commands: "Love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself." Hear this: the Kingdom of God is, at its epicenter, a Kingdom of love. The new way is a way of remarkable, self-sacrificing, patient, faithful, gentle, giving, serving love. That's what we've been called to. John says in his first letter, "How can you say you love God who you cannot see when you don't love your brother who you can see?"
Perhaps Paul addresses this even more radically when he says these words, "The entire law is summarized by a single command, (are you ready for this?) love your neighbor as yourself, serve one another in love." The new paradigm, the new way, the call of God is to a life of giving, serving, sacrificial, patient, Christ-incarnating love. That love is the most powerful force of change and transformation in the universe. Now, James is not arguing that it's wrong to bring a gracious and loving assessment of the Word of God to somebody who needs it.
It's not wrong to hold the mirror of the Word of God before somebody. It's the way that you do that that James is addressing. Have you submitted to God's call of love? Have you believed that that love is His way of working change in us and others? Or do you stand above that law and think that you have a better way, think that by the logic of your argument, think that by your tone of voice, think that by the force of your personality, you can work change that only grace can accomplish? Every time you're wrongly critical, wrongly condemning, legalistic and judgmental, you are saying, "My way is better than God's way."
A Regretful Experience
One of my most regretful experiences was sadly with Luella's father. I was part of the pastoral staff of a church, a Presbyterian Church in Coral Gables, Florida. He happened to be one of the elders of that church. I thought of myself, in those days, as an amazing theologian. I think I was more amazed by my theology than anybody was. I enjoyed the wisdom that was me, and I, one afternoon, had begun to have a conversation with my dear father-in-law, an elder in this church, one who had committed himself to the teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and I judged that he did not really believe in the sovereignty of God in the way that he should.
I went after him. I told him that he was inconsistent, and that to remain an elder of that church would make him a hypocrite; loving words of a humble son-in-law. By God's grace, I was able to face that sin. But by God's grace, I was allowed to get to know this man, to learn to love this man, to learn to respect this man. We were on a sabbatical in Florida as Luella's father was dying of cancer. I sat with him one day and with other family members, and he was a man at peace. He was a man at rest.
This man understood the sovereignty of God; he lived the sovereignty of God. And he laid there with a broken body ravaged by cancer, and what he spent his time doing was ministering to the suffering of the people who were around him because he was absolutely at rest in the sovereignty of God, I walked away thinking, "I hope that someday I will understand that doctrine in that way." I felt so blessed that that man was part of my life. It's so easy to condemn and every time you do that, you are not sitting under the call of God's law.
You're standing above it. You're saying, "Your way is a better way." As I reflect on this passage, I reflect on an experience of my son, Ethan. I thought the contrast between these two experiences would be helpful. Ethan's an artist, always been a bit of a Bohemian. And when he was in high school, Ethan liked to wear baggy pants. I may have mentioned this to you; he could take three steps before his pant legs would move. And he was, sort of in those days, a messy, unorganized kid, and he got to the point where he really wanted to be more disciplined.
And one of the things that he kept doing is losing his house key. Ethan was regularly locked out. He spent, during high school, I think, more time outside of the house than inside of it. And he came to me and said, "Dad, is there something that you can do for me that will help me not lose my keys all the time?" Well, I found an old dog collar, and cut a certain length out of that. And it had a ring at the end, and I put a ring at the other end, and I said you can hook one ring around your belt loop, and you can hook the other ring through the key.
Your key will now be attached to your body; I think you'll be okay. Well, he wore that little chain with the key in his pocket to his Christian school that next day. He got called into the office. One of the administrators said, "Lose the gang chain, Ethan. This is a Christian school." Ethan pulled it out and showed the key that was on the end of it said, "My dad made this for me so I wouldn't keep losing my key, and he made one for him too." That administrator looked at him and said, "Stick it in your pocket and go back to class."
Ethan came home and he was crushed. How quickly we can judge, even just by appearance; no information, just a quick sight, and we've made our assessment. Brothers and sisters, I want to turn for a moment and be evangelistic with you. We're called to this city. We're called to people who have messy lives, lives that are broken. If God blesses the ministry that He's called me to, you are going to be around people who will scare you, whom you won't understand, who won't be comfortable for you in the way they dress, and the way they speak, and the things they stand for.
Praise God if those people come into this room. Praise God if somehow His Spirit opens their hearts to the sound of the Gospel. But we have to determine that this place will be a Christological community of love. And for that, we need help. Do you stand above God's call to love, or do you stand underneath it, admitting your need and striving to be that agent of love that God has called for you to be? But look where James ends, "There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.
Who Are You to Judge?
But who are you to judge your neighbor?" I think in these last couple sentences, James points us to what is our problem. Perhaps it's the problem of every sinner--it surely is the epicenter of the fall in Genesis 3. It is this scary propensity to put ourselves in the position that God alone should have. Brothers and sisters, hear this truth; "There is but one judge, and He is not you." His judgment is worthy of your trust; and His judgment, unlike yours, will always, in every situation, and every location, be utterly righteous.
But we aren't Him, and He is not us. There's a way in which, when I allow myself in a prideful, self-righteous heart to ascend to the throne of God, I take His position three ways: I ascend to the throne of Creator, and I judge you based on your hardwiring. So intellectual, analytical people, who are given to theology, look down on organizational, mechanical people as being less spiritual. Leaders look down on could-be servants. Men maybe don't respect women in the way that they should. Women maybe have quiet disrespect for men.
One race condemns another. Oh it's easy for us to sing with joy, "This is my Father's world," and yet deny His creative glory in the way that we respond to that creative glory and whom He's made the people to be who are around us. Perhaps we then also ascend to the throne of sovereign, and we question the story of a life that God has written for this person. The Bible says God determines the exact place we will live, the exact length of our days. You've not just been formed by His work as Creator; you've been formed by His work as sovereign.
And all those developed values, and instincts, and culture, and ways of doing things--it is so easy to set myself up as the ultimate standard--my way is the best way, and I struggle with the other ways that people do things, not saying, not thinking that so many of the differences that we struggle with in one another reflect the amazing glory of a Sovereign God who can write billions of stories all at once. And every one of them is written just as it should be. And then I ascend to the throne of Savior, and rather than looking at you and seeing the glory of His mercy and His grace, when I look at you, I see more of your weakness, your failures, your inadequacy, your sin.
I point it out to you way too much. I speak down to you. I don't look for places to comfort, and encourage, and serve and love; it's easier to be critical than it is to serve. I would ask you this evening as your pastor; where have you, with your loved ones, your friends, fellow brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, where have you ascended to the throne of God and taken position that only belongs to Him? I can't end these thoughts with you without once again pointing you to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was willing to face cruel and consistent criticism. He was willing to face rejection and injustice. He was willing to face mistreatment. Brothers and sisters, here's why: so we, in our pride and self-righteousness and critical spirits, could go to Him unafraid and say, "Oh, Lord, won't you please forgive us? Oh, Lord, won't you please help us?" We are not yet the community of love that You have called for us to be. We stand at places above Your call. There are times when we forget who we are, and we take Your position, and we come one more time to You and say, 'Oh, Lord, of love and mercy and grace, forgive us; rescue us; deliver us.' We want to be a community that those outside would look at and say, 'These must be the Disciples of Christ for they are known by their love.'"
Let's pray: Thank you, Lord, again for the searching light of Your Word. And thank you that we do not have to fear living under that light because we have been forgiven; we have been healed and made whole, restored, empowered by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you! In His name, Amen.
