Contempt For God's Court Series

Contempt for God’s Court: The Problem of Self-Appointed Judges - James 4:11-12

Have you noticed the rising popularity of courtroom TV shows? First, there was Judge Wapner on The People’s Court. Then along came Judge Judy. You can also see the professional boxer and boxing referee turned judge – Judge Mills Lane. The newest TV judge is Judge Joe Brown.

I wonder if the popularity of these shows doesn’t have something to do with the fact that people like to dream about being a judge themselves. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit on the bench and pass sentence on people. I know I find myself thinking that way sometimes.

The truth is, there is a part of every one of us that likes to play judge. No, we are not elected by the citizens or confirmed by the congress. We are self-appointed judges. We place ourselves on the bench and pass judgment on our friends and family members. We observe the lives of our neighbors or fellow Christians and we make judgments about them. As someone said, a sport that almost everyone enjoys is jumping to conclusions.

We are like the little boy who was showing his kindergarten picture to a visiting neighbor. He began pointing out and describing each classmate. “This is Robert; he hits everyone. This is Stephen; he never listens to the teacher. This is Mark; he chases us and is very noisy.” Pointing to his own picture he said, “And this is me; I’m just sitting here minding my own business.”

James has some words to say about this tendency to appoint ourselves as judges. In 4:11-12, he warns us against assuming a position that we are not qualified to assume. When we appoint ourselves as judges of others, we are showing contempt for God’s court.

James tells us three reasons why we should not appoint ourselves as judges.

I. Our judgments tend to be slanderous (v. 11).

A. Stop slandering one another.

1. Slander means to speak against.

a. It refers to speaking evil of someone.

b. This could be false accusations or lies about

a person’s character or behavior.

c. This could be malicious gossip about the true

shortcomings of another person intended to

harm them or put them down.

2. The language indicates the cessation of a practice

already in progress. STOP doing this.

B. Scripture clearly condemns slander.

1. Eph. 4:29-31

2. 1 Pet. 2:1

Morris Mandel wrote, “Gossip is the most deadly microbe. It has neither legs nor wings. It is composed entirely of tales, and most of them have stings.”

ILL/APP: Pastor Alan Redpath spoke about a code of conversation that he and some colleagues adopted for their discussions. It was based on the word THINK.

T – is it true?

H - is it helpful?

I - is it inspiring?

N – is it necessary?

K – is it kind?

If we followed such a code of conversation, it would no doubt protect us from committing the sin of slander. James warns us about judging our brother because of our tendency to slander others.

TS – James now gives us a second reason why we should not appoint ourselves as judges of others.

II. We place ourselves above God’s law (v. 11).

A. What does it mean to judge a brother?

1. This is not referring to judging in reference to clear issues of sin. Scripture tells us that the church has

a responsibility to judge and discipline in such areas.

2. Rather, James is speaking of judging the motives and

actions of a brother in areas of personal preference and conviction where Scripture does not clearly speak.

3. James is talking about speaking against a brother on disputable matters.

B. When we judge a brother, we judge the law.

1. We are to keep the law which tells us to love our

neighbor (see 2:8; 12-13).

2. When we speak against our neighbor, we are not

keeping the law but breaking it.

3. Thus, we have set ourselves up as judge of the law

and have independently decided we are above it.

4. So, we have stopped being doers of the law and we

have assumed the position of judging it.

ILL: Back in October of 2000, an interesting baseball game took place in Cuba. During an exhibition game against Venezuela, 74 year old dictator Fidel Castro grabbed an aluminum bat and walked to the plate. When Castro approached the batters box, Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela came to the mound to pitch. After five pitches the two heads of state were locked in a full count. Castro watched as the 3-2 pitched sailed through the middle of the strike zone and listened as the umpire called him out. “No” Castro said, “that was a ball.” He proceeded to walk to first base. No one argued. President Chavez said nothing. The opposing team said nothing. The umpire said nothing. Later Castro joked about President Chavez saying, “Today just wasn’t his day.”