SUMMARY
To speak evil of others is to offer a judgment against them. Judgment of others is not for humans to do.
ANALYSIS
James exhorts humility before God (see 4:10) and then offers specific circumstances in which humility is called for. The first, in James 4:11-12, concerns members of the community speaking ill of one another. James argues that to disparage a sibling in Christ is to take the law into one’s own hands, as it were. It is to imagine oneself better at discerning good or evil than the law (that is, TorahThe Torah is the law of Moses, also known as the first five books of the Bible. To many the Torah is a combination of history, theology, and a legal or ritual guide. More) is. In today’s language we might make a similar point about someone’s arrogance by saying they are acting as “judge, jury, and executioner.” Meanwhile God, who gave the law, is the only one qualified to pass judgement on human beings.
In addition to breaking the commandment against bearing false witness, slander undercuts the trust needed for individuals to live together as a community in Christ. Related to this example of arrogance is the more subtle but similarly damaging activity of grumbling about one another (see James 5:9). Humility before God offers a check on the temptation to make and voice judgments against others.
