Words of Wisdom #19

As James has had us standing before the mirror taking a good hard look, we have gone from actions to words to deep-seeded attitudes. He now brings us back to how those attitudes come out of our lives and mouths:

11 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. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

The purpose of the law is not for us to judge other people, but ourselves.  When we take it and use it wrongly to criticize - first in our hearts and minds, and then with our words - then we are misusing the law, something we have no right to do. We are putting ourselves in the place of the one and only Lawgiver - God Himself. Our job towards a brother or sister in the Lord is not to judge them, but to neighbor them. I'm not sure I've ever heard the word "neighbor" used as a verb before, but we find enough from Jesus' words and elsewhere in the Bible that we can. We are to look around us - to whomever God has put in our path, especially brothers and sisters in Christ, and ask ourselves: "What can I do to help them? What can I do to encourage them, build them up?" We need to be more interested in being a good neighbor than a quick-witted critic.