In James 4:8b-12 he challenges us to deal with our sinful ways. “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” As we draw near to God, we will be convicted of our sin. It should break our heart and cause us to desire to clean up our life. Barclay explains “The word used for sinner is hamartolos, which means the hardened sinner, the man whose sin is obvious and notorious.” Sin should cause us to be wretched and mourn and weep under the conviction of our sin, and we should be compelled to find cleansing at the cross. “Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
That’s why Jesus went to the Cross – because we all fall short and are sinners. The words James uses to describe how we should feel and react are terms of repentance. Our hearts should be broken with our sinful behavior, and we should run to the Cross and the forgiveness Jesus offers us if we will repent. That means we have to accept our status as sinners, and are willing to humble ourselves and receive His gift of grace on the Cross. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” If we’ll do that, we’ll be lifted up. As we come as sinners before the holy God (not as self righteous people claiming power through religion, we appropriately humble ourselves before Him. Then He will lift us up, because God resists the proud, but grace – the unmerited favor of God – always lifts us up.
When we humble ourselves and get right with God, there comes a second result – we have to get right with other people. When we are right with other people, it will show in the way we talk about them. So we must not speak evil of one another and not judge our brother. “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.” When we judge our brother, we put ourselves in the same place as the law, in effect judging the law. This is something that we have no authority to do, because there is one Lawgiver – so who are you to judge another?
When we have proper humility before God, it just isn’t within us to arrogantly judge our brother. Moo wrote “However high and orthodox our view of God’s law might be, a failure actually to do it says to the world that we do not in fact put much store by it.” “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” Poole made clear “Who art thou; what a sorry creature, a man, a worm, that thou shouldest lift up thyself into God’s place, and make thyself a judge of one not subject to thee!” We’re not God. We should not judge anyone other than ourselves and we already know we are sinners!
“Portions of this blog post have been taken from the Enduring Word commentary, (c) 2023 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – ewm@enduringword.com“
“Scripture (bold and italicized) has been taken from the English Standard Version, © ESV.org – www.esv.org”
Arlin Sorensen's Thoughts on Scripture 