The Danger of Criticism

The Danger of Criticism

“The Danger of Criticism”
(James 4:11-12)
Series: Living the Faith (James)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

•I invite you to join me this morning in James, chapter 4 (page 813; YouVersion).

We are preaching our way, verse-by-verse, through the Book of James. The book is actually a letter, a letter meant to be read to churches, to believers. James is writing with Christians in mind.

A recurring theme in this letter is the truth that what is in a Christian’s heart is what comes out. Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” And James has been noting that truth especially in chapters 3 and 4. Wrong thinking within leads to wrong conduct without. Evil thinking within leads to evil speaking without.

It is this notion of evil speaking that is foremost on the mind of James in our small text this morning. We’re looking at verses 11 and 12 in chapter 4.

•Please stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God.

11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

•Pray.

Introduction:

In this tiny paragraph James addresses the matter of speaking evil against a fellow Christian, to speak evil or to “slander” one another as the NIV has it. Slander.

My reflections upon the word slander this week led me back to my undergraduate studies at Georgia State University years ago where I majored in journalism. And so I was recalling the difference between slander and libel. Libel is to defame someone’s character in print whereas slander is to defame someone’s character by speaking.

And these popular tabloids that we so often see at the checkout lines in the grocery stores with the splashy newspaper kind of look about them, have these sensational pictures and big, bold print headlines that are meant to grab your attention by reporting some juicy and salacious tidbits of gossip. They often get away with what they write because they argue that they are merely reporting what others have said.

When I was running this past week—and some of you know that I will listen to sermons and study while I run—I was reflecting on this matter of slander. And I was using the “Notes app” on my phone that converts audio to text. So I recorded a note about this matter of tabloids’ “merely reporting what others have said,” and I spoke into the microphone and it converted what I said into writing but, as it sometimes happens when using this feature, it misunderstood what I said. I was trying to make a note to myself about tabloids’ “merely reporting what others have said,” and it converted the word “merely” to “merrily” sot that it had that tabloids are “Merrily reporting what others have said.” And as I read that I thought that is probably a more accurate description!

Tabloids take great delight in spreading gossip. They are merrily, happily reporting what others have said—and they do so with little to no concern for how this may defame the person who is the target of such slander.

To gossip, to slander, is often just that: taking great delight in defaming another’s character or reputation.

James instructs us as to the danger of slander, the danger of an unhelpfully critical spirit, the danger of evil speaking. So there are two verses here with two main actions. First—remembering that James is addressing Christians—he says, number one:

I. Allow the Bible to Determine Your Communication (11)

If you are a Christian, you must allow the Bible to provide the framework for the way you speak, the way you talk. Look at verse 11 again and note this with me:

11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren (brother or sister; fellow Christian). He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Let’s break this down. First, the verb translated by the words “speak evil” conveys the idea of slander, namely that of speaking in a demeaning way of people when they are not present to defend themselves.

It is the idea of “talking down” another Christian, not “talking down to them,” but “talking down” in the sense of tearing down, demeaning, belittling, destroying another. And again, it is especially the idea of doing so when that person is not present to defend himself or herself.

So it is the idea of talking to others about others in a way that does not help, but rather hurts. It is, as William Barclay notes, “The sin of those who meet in corners and gather in little groups and pass on confidential tidbits of information which destroy the good name of those who are not there to defend themselves.”

And it may be that the substance of the things said is true. Slander is not necessarily a lie. In fact, in this context, James could have used a different word to convey lying, but he does not. He is addressing bad communication that is, in essence, the speaking about another brother or sister in an unhelpfully critical way especially when that person is not present to defend himself.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever spoken about another Christian, a member of this church for example, speaking about them to another person when they weren’t there to defend themselves? And you spoke in a way that in some way demeaning of that person? You placed your self in a morally superior position over the person about whom you were speaking evil. “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren.”
When I was small someone shared with me the legend of the dandelion. You picked a dandelion and blew the dandelion and those little seeds go everywhere. They’re nearly impossible to retrieve. The legend of the dandelion was that if you made a wish and then blew upon the dandelion and all the seeds disappeared from it, then your wish would come true. It’s just a legend. But speaking evil of another Christian is like picking up a dandelion and blowing upon it. Your evil words go everywhere and it is nearly impossible to retrieve them once they’re out.

Have you ever listened to someone speak evil of another Christian? Have you? We must take care to help an erring brother out by telling them to not speak to us if they are going to speak evil of another brother or sister. We must take them to passages such as this in James 4:11 and tell them they are wrong. And then we must take them to passages such as Matthew 18:15 where Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”

Do not lend a hearing to those who speak critically of other Christians especially when those others are not present to defend themselves—which incidentally brings to mind the helpful guide to much of our conversation: if you are going to speak about someone who is not present, always speak in a way as thought that person were right there. Doing so makes one far more likely to speak fairly, and in a positive way, a way that helps rather than hurts.

One of the reasons James says that speaking evil of another Christian is wrong is because this person is a family member—a brother or sister.

11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother…

Just as it is wrong for you to speak evil of a brother or sister in your nuclear family, so it is wrong to speak evil of a brother or sister in your spiritual family—in fact, it is arguably even more wrong as your spiritual family is a family of those united in Jesus Christ, children of God, our Father.

As God’s children, then, we are co-equal brothers and sisters. None of us is even firstborn! Only Christ is the firstborn (Romans 8:29) so no one has the right to “talk down” another brother or sister. We are all of equal height or stature. As one person (Motyer) said, “we have no ‘altitude’…from which to ‘talk down’ to anyone!”

Your Christian brother or sister is your family. You don’t speak evil of your nuclear family—your husband, your wife, your parents, your children; at leas you shouldn’t—You don’t speak evil of your nuclear family, so you don’t speak evil of your church family. There are so many implications here for church membership. You wouldn’t be unfaithful to your nuclear family, so you won’t be unfaithful to your church family. You don’t get angry and walk away from your nuclear family, so you won’t get angry and leave your church family.

11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

James argues that when Christians speak evil of other Christians they are, at that moment, being judgmental in their criticisms, having a judgmental spirit, placing themselves in a morally superior position over their brothers or sisters. That’s the idea here.

When James warns about “judging” a brother or sister, he is not saying that Christians are never to make moral evaluations. He is not saying that Christians are never to judge between right and wrong. James himself, in writing this letter, is making moral evaluations throughout his letter. James is clear about what is right and wrong. He frequently makes moral evaluations: Do this. Don’t do that.

Just as when Jesus says in Matthew 7, “Judge not that ye be not judged,” Jesus is not forbidding any judgment at all. In the very same passage where Jesus says, “Judge not that ye be not judged,” He warns about false teachers. He says that the way we may know whether teachers are false is by judging the fruit of their teaching. Good fruit or bad fruit? It requires a moral evaluation; a judgment.

It is never right to take a verse out of context and doing so often proves disastrous. For example, some people wrongly say, “Well, we’re not supposed to judge” and wrongfully dismiss so much ungodly and unmoral behavior. The Bible does not tell us to look the other way when people sin. The Bible calls for addressing sin.

The idea in passages such as this one in James 4 is one’s having a judgmental attitude or a judgmental spirit. It is not so much that of judgment of truth as it is being judgmental. It’s an attitude of moral superiority, thinking more highly of ourselves than others. Someone does something with which we disagree and we’re like, “Well, I would never do anything like that,” or, “That person is so domineering,” and so on.

By the way, often what happens when we speak in an unhelpfully critical way about others who are not present to defend themselves, often what happens is that we are drawing attention to that person’s supposed failings in order to draw attention away from ourselves.

And, you can be sure that if someone attempts to talk to you about another person who is not present to defend themselves, that this same person probably talks about you the same way when you are not present.

Recently, I heard someone put it this way: “Whoever gossips to you, will gossip about you.”

11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Speaking in an unhelpfully critical way about another person makes oneself judge and jury. In speaking evil of others, not only are we placing ourselves in a high position of moral superiority over another Christian, but we are also placing ourselves in a high position of moral superiority over the Bible.
“He who speaks evil of a brother…speaks evil of the law and judges the law.”

So we believe we know better than the Scriptures such as where we read in Leviticus 19:16, “Do not go about spreading slander among your people (NIV).” And we’re like, “Well, I can do that if I please. I know better than the law. I know better than the Bible. I know better than ‘the royal law’ which is to love your neighbor as yourself (James 2:8) and so I don’t really need to do that. It doesn’t apply to me.”

Wrong thinking within leads to wrong conduct without. Evil thinking within leads to evil conduct without.

One commentator (Motyer) puts it this way: “Defamation begins and lives in the mind. It is something we say to ourselves long before we pass it on.”

So what if the right stuff were in our minds? What if love lived in our minds? If defamation of another person’s character is something we say to ourselves long before we pass it on, what if love for another Christian were in our minds first? Do you think we would we be more likely later, when speaking about that person, to speak in a loving way?

As Christians we must allow the Bible to determine our communications. Secondly, from verse 12, we must:

II. Allow the Bible to Disclose Your Limitations (12)

Forgive the allusion to Clint Eastwood’s character in the Dirty Harry movies, but a memorable quote from “Magnum Force” is where Eastwood’s character Harry Callahan says, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

While I couldn’t recommend the movie for family viewing, I can say that that particular line is essentially what James is saying here in verse 12: We’ve got to know our limitations.

We are incapable of placing ourselves in a high position of moral superiority over others because we’re not that smart, we’re not that good, we’re not that fair—in a word, we’re not God.

When we have a judgmental spirit, we are acting as God. We are acting as we are the ones who lay down the law. Look at verse 12:

12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

James is incredulous: “Who are you?!” Who do you think you are in placing yourselves in a high position of moral superiority over others? Just who do you think you are?

Do you think you’re sinless? Do you think you’re never done anything wrong? Said anything wrong? Made an unpopular decision? Do you really think you’re that good? Who are you to judge another?

There is one Lawgiver. That is God. He is the only one—verse 12—“who is able to save and to destroy.” Only God can both save and destroy in an ultimate sense; eternally save, eternally destroy.

God is the only one who is in a position of moral superiority. That’s why God lays down the law. “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.” In other words, only God has the right to write the laws because God alone is always good, right, fair, and knows all things.

Would any one of us dare to claim that we are always good, always right, always fair, and that we know all things? So if not, where do you get off judging others? “Who are you to judge another?” Again, the idea is being judgmental, placing ourselves in a position of high moral superiority over others.

James is like, “Frankly, you’re not that good a person! You’re not that smart. Know your limitations. You don’t know everything about that person you are criticizing. You don’t have all the facts.”

See, when you judge another person by being critical and demeaning, you are acting like you have all the information about that person’s situation. You’re acting like you know and have all the facts.

James is warning against jumping to conclusions and judging before all the facts are in.

Someone gave me ways I could pray for them each day. One of their requests was that I pray that they purpose to never assume that they understand or know the motives of others. This person wrote this down on a piece of paper. They wrote: “I purpose to never assume I understand or know the motives of others.”

That’s a good statement. James is warning here against doing that very thing. By saying there is but one Lawgiver and by asking, “Who are you to judge another?” James is reminding us that we don’t have all the information about a person’s situation. We don’t know that person’s motives. We don’t know why the acted the way they did or why they said what they said. We don’t know that. We’re not that smart; we’re not omniscient.

So here is a helpful motivation for our not speaking evil of a brother or sister. There is very likely some information we know nothing about. That should give us pause before we even think of opening our mouths.

It’s like Solomon warned in Proverbs 18:17, “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.” In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.

I’ve shared with some of you before about Chuck Swindoll’s speaking once at a conference in California. A man came up to him and said, “Oh, Dr. Swindoll, I have waited so long for this week, I am going to [soak up] everything you have to say.” Swindoll thanked him.

Sunday night, the man was sitting on the front row, and he had started nodding off. And Swindoll figured that the man had had a long drive and was probably just tired. Tuesday night, the man started nodding off again. Wednesday night the man nodded off again. Swindoll was now getting a little upset. Here is this man on the front row, sleeping away.

As a preacher who had prepared well for this ministry opportunity, it didn’t feel good to see someone sleeping on him. He was getting frustrated with this guy. Thursday night, the man nodded and slept again.

On Friday morning, the lady who was sitting next to him came to Dr. Swindoll and said, “I want to thank you for the ministry this week. Oh, and by the way, I am sorry about my husband sleeping on you…He has terminal cancer and the doctors have given him just two weeks to live. When we talked about what he wanted to do before he died, he said, ‘I want to go hear Chuck Swindoll.’ But you see, Dr. Swindoll, the doctors gave him medicine to keep away the pain, and the medicine makes him sleep. I wanted to apologize to you that he has been sleeping, but I wanted you to know you made this the best week of the last part of his life.”

Swindoll later said he could have crawled under a rock, because he had been so judgmental. He had formed an opinion and a conclusion before all the facts were in.—[this popular account is largely as reported by Tony Evans in his Book of Illustrations].

There is one Lawgiver. We’re not that smart. We don’t have all the information. We don’t know everything.

So we’re back to humility. Immediately preceding these verses, we read in verse 10: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.” A position of lowliness reminds us that, “We have no ‘altitude’…from which to ‘talk down’ to anyone!”

Humility also means we are aware of our own failings. In the words of Derek Prime, “The knowledge of our own failings makes us more and more hesitant about expressing any form of criticism of others. The man who knows himself learns an increasing silence before others’ faults.”

That’s a good statement worth hearing again: “The man who knows himself learns an increasing silence before others’ faults.”

•Stand for prayer.

Conclusion:

Alexander Whyte, the great Scottish preacher, once stood up in his pulpit in Edinburgh and said: I have discovered the most wicked man in Edinburgh … ” Then he paused, while the congregation too eagerly awaited the name; whereupon the preacher pointed to himself and said, “Alexander Whyte.”—Eugene A. Hessel

•Pray.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name. The author intends to provide free resources in order to inspire believers and to assist preachers and teachers in Kingdom work.