Part 8 of James: Don’t Try to Play God

James 4:11-17 (CSB)

11 Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 

12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 

14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 

16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 

17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

We have been studying the Book of James for the past 7 weeks, going slowly, looking closely at one admonition after another. Last week, we went through the first half of Chapter 4, where James warns us not to be friends with the world. We also read the well-known verse, which says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James continues that theme, warning them of more ways pride might cause them to sin. Specifically, he addresses two ways in which their pride might cause them to play God.

Let’s start by reading verses 11-12: “Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?”

I think this section is often misunderstood. There are a handful of verses in the Bible that people love to quote out of context when they want to argue that people shouldn’t judge other people, and this is one of them. Usually, people quote one of these verses when they want to silence someone who is pointing out sin in another person. A prime example is Matthew 7:1, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged.” What Jesus is saying is far more nuanced than how some people think, though, and it actually fits in with James’ text.

Later, we will look closer at what Jesus said about judging and how that relates to what James is saying, but first, let’s look at what many scholars think James is talking about. Many commentators believe James was warning these Jewish Christians not to judge the Gentile Christians who were not keeping the ceremonial laws. For example, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says, “Those who regarded the obligation of the Mosaic law as still binding, would of course judge their brethren, and regard them as guilty of a disregard of the law of God by their conduct.”

That’s certainly one way of looking at these verses; however, I don’t see James mentioning the ceremonial or Mosaic law in his letter. All throughout, he’s been talking about God’s moral laws and how we must follow those in order to prove our faith is alive. And as he said in James 2:8, the royal law prescribed in Scripture is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That makes me think this passage is about something deeper than disputes over customs.

To understand what I think James is talking about, we need to look more closely at a particular word James uses. The CSB translates the word as “criticize,” but I don’t think that’s quite right. The Greek word is katalaleó, and according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, it means “to be a traducer, i.e. to slander — speak against (evil of).” It’s a much stronger word than criticize. A traducer is someone who makes false statements about someone else in order to harm that person’s reputation. Unlike criticize, which doesn’t imply lying, katalaleó would be better translated as slander.

I think James is saying that if we slander a fellow believer, we are defaming and judging the law because lying and attempting to hurt others is not loving our neighbor. Because if we choose to disobey the command to love one another, then we are judging that law and are saying it is wrong or not worthy of obeying. That means we’ve become a judge instead of obeying the law like we are supposed to. 

Our job, as James has been saying over and over, is to be a doer of the law. We are to do good works that testify to our faith. We are to follow God’s law of freedom, which tells us to love one another. Slander clearly violates the law of love which James emphasized earlier. That’s why James says, if you do this, you’re not just breaking a law, you’re judging that law and acting as if you are above it. It’s like saying, ‘I know the law says to love my neighbor, but this time, I don’t think it applies to me. I’m going to tell lies about my neighbor instead.’

James goes on and says in verse 12 that there is only “one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy” so who are we to judge our neighbor? Only God is both lawgiver and judge. Our job is not to make up rules and place ourselves in the role of lawmaker or judge. That’s not our job. And if we think we don’t have to follow God’s law, then we essentially are saying that we know better than God. That’s nothing short of pridefulness, is it not? Aren’t we just trying to be God?

Because not only are we acting as judge, but when we violate God’s law, we slander the law, because we aren’t representing God’s law accurately.

Think about it. If we say we are a Christian, but we don’t follow God’s primary law to love one another, then how does the world know what the law of God is? As Christians we are supposed to be representatives of Christ­—that’s what our name means. If we tell lies about one another, seeking to harm each other, we are slandering — or misrepresenting — God’s law.

So how does that fit in with what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount? You may have noticed as we’ve gone through this sermon series that nearly every week I have pointed out that James is echoing something from Jesus’ sermon. I don’t think that is coincidental. James seems to be showing us how to apply the Sermon on the Mount in very practical ways. It’s proof of how consistent the Bible is in its message. So, it is worth examining what Jesus said about judging to see if James is echoing it again.

Let’s read Jesus’ statement in context. He says in Matthew 7:1-6, “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye. Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.”

This goes right along with what James said, doesn’t it? If we are making up lies or assuming the worst about a fellow believer, we are judging them unjustly. And we are hypocrites because then we’ve broken God’s law, and we’ve placed ourselves in God’s seat and said that we are above God’s law.

Not surprisingly, in Ellicott’s Commentary, he makes the same correlation between these two texts. He says, “’He that speaketh evil of his brother, judgeth his brother; speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law.’ In this way the cumulative force of St. James’s remarks is best preserved. Hearken to the echo of his Master’s words. ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged’ (Matthew 7:1). But the apostolic condemnation is in no way meant to condone a vicious life and leave it unalarmed and self-contented; for boldness in rebuke thereof we have the example of John the Baptist. All that he reproves is the setting up of our own tribunals, in which we are at once prosecutor, witness, law, lawgiver, and judge; not to say executioner as well. Prœjudicium was a merciful provision under Roman law, and often spared the innocent a lengthier after trial; but prejudice—our word taken from it—is its most unhappy opposite.”

It’s not that we aren’t supposed to judge, it’s that we aren’t supposed to “set up our own tribunals.” The Latin term Ellicott uses was, under Roman law, a helpful type of pre-trial which determined if an actual trial was even necessary. As he mentioned, that’s the etymology of our English word prejudice. But as we all know, prejudice is not helpful. If someone is prejudiced against someone, they’ve formed a pre-judgment against them. Prejudice is harmful.

So, when Jesus says, “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use,” He’s telling us not to make our own tribunals where we prejudge and execute judgment unfairly. Jesus isn’t saying to never rebuke someone. We just are not supposed to be hypocrites. Jesus tells us to take the log out of our own eye first, so we can clearly see where someone else is wrong.

James is saying that we need to follow the moral law of Christ, which is to love our neighbor. If we make blanket statements, prejudging the actions or words of fellow believers, and decide that they should be condemned, we are unfairly acting as judge, jury and executioner. They are both saying that is wrong. We will be judged by the Lord if we do that. Our job is to be doers of the law, not to be slanderers of the law through unjust judgment.

Like me, you might be wondering if the last thing Jesus said—don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces—fits in.

Jesus’ comment might seem disconnected, but it actually ties in perfectly. He’s warning us not to waste holy things like Godly correction on those who have no desire to hear them.

I really like the way the Benson Commentary explains this verse. He says, “That is, talk not of the deep things of God to those whom you know to be wallowing in sin; neither declare the great things God hath done for your soul, to the profane, furious, persecuting wretches. Talk not of high degrees of holiness, for instance, to the former; nor of your own experience to the latter. But our Lord does in no wise forbid us to reprove, as occasion is, both the one and the other.”

In other words, it’s a waste of time to try to explain the holy things of God to people who are wallowing in sin. If we confront non-Christians and point out their sin, they are just going to tear us apart.

In 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, Paul talks about this same idea. He says, “I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.”

What Paul wrote is very clarifying, isn’t it? While we are not called to judge people outside of the Body of Christ (that is God’s job), Paul makes it clear that we are to exercise judgement among those who call themselves Christians.

But as Jesus pointed out, we must not be hypocrites about it. Correction needs to come from a place of humility, all with the goal of helping restore our fellow believers.

James is showing us the same thing. Before we help others, we need to first uphold the law of love. That means we must not try to play God in someone else’s life, and we certainly must not overstep what God’s Word actually says. There is a world of difference between loving correction and trying to take God’s place.

Then, James moves on to a second danger. After warning them not to play God in other people’s lives, he now cautions them about the pride that leads to us trying to play God in our own lives.

Let’s read verses 13-17: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.”

The other way we try to play God is by making plans without Him. Just as it’s prideful to think we can disregard God’s laws, so too is it prideful to think we can know the future.

Remember last week, how we saw that we should not simply ask God to bless our plans, but rather, we need to ask Him to reveal His plans to us? James is explaining further why it is so important we consult God first.

My parents have always taken this verse to heart. Whenever they make plans to do something, they always follow up by saying, “God-willing.” Even something as simple as planning dinner together, they’ll end our conversation by adding, “God-willing.” Over the years, this habit has left a deep impression on me, and I’ve adopted the same practice.

James is urging his readers to do the same. But this goes far beyond just making plans to get together. When James says we should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that,” he’s telling them, and us, to remember that our lives are dependent on God.

Why? For one, we don’t know what tomorrow brings. We don’t know what our lives will be like. Our lives are like a vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

This also is an echo of something Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6:27, Jesus tells us not to worry about our lives because, “Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?” No, we cannot. That’s why Jesus adds in verses 33-34, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

If we think we can control our future, we are misguided. The world’s wisdom would tell us that if we can just imagine it, we can do it. While there is merit in setting goals and working hard, ultimately, we cannot control the future. It’s arrogance or pride to think that we can determine the length of our days or what will happen to us. James says it even more than pride. He says, “All such boasting is evil.” 

Second, pride would have us do all the planning by ourselves, but humility seeks help from God first. We should pray, “Lord, if You will,” and submit to His ways, instead of trying to manifest our will.

After all, God in His wisdom knows what is best for us. And if we really believe that, then we will submit all things to God’s will. It’s another test, so to speak, of whether we have faith or not. As verse 17 says, “So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.”

Knowledge isn’t enough; faith must produce action. As we keep seeing, this is the central theme in both Jesus’ and James’ teaching. If we have faith, then our words will line up with our actions, and our actions will line up with our confession of faith. We won’t pridefully think we can play God in other people’s lives and judge them, nor will we think we can play God in our own lives and not follow God’s plan for us.

The greatest example of this attitude is seen in Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew 26:36-39 tells, “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’”

Jesus submitted Himself to God’s plan even though, being fully God, He knew that submission meant dying an excruciatingly painful death. Proof He knew is that it caused Him to sweat drops of blood.

For most of us, I don’t think we will be asked to die for our faith. But each of us is asked to die to ourselves each day. As Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

So ask yourself: Where am I trying to play God? Is it in how I judge others? Is it in how I plan my life without seeking the Lord first?

Let’s put off any pride that would think we know better than the Lord. Let us hold on to our faith in His love and goodness toward us. Let’s look to Him to lead us and guide us, trusting fully in His plans for our lives.

Pray: Heavenly Father, we want to live in full submission to You, Lord. Please forgive us for the pride that tries to take Your place. Teach us to submit joyfully to Your will. You are the Lawgiver, You are the Judge, and You are our Father. Help us to put our beliefs into practice each day. We trust You and love You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.