JUDGING THE LAW

[tomdurst]

JUDGING THE LAW

by Thomas E Durst

James 4:11 English Standard Version (ESV)

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.

When we speak evil of others or demean them even slightly we are doing the exact same thing to ourselves and thus we "speak evil against the law." What law? Is it the Law of Moses or some rule or regulation that came along later in history? No! the ultimate law is that "God is love." Without using a lot of Bible quotes I can say with assurance that "the law" can be summarized in ONE word--LOVE. Love is still the absolute truth, even about the most sinful of human beings, although it may be totally disguised by evil behavior. When we speak evil of the person we are indeed judging the law [love] and contradicting what God says about that person. Am I saying that we should condone and support evil behavior? No! If we receive specific guidance of something we may need to do in a given situation that will be made clear if we are truly acting in love rather than from the standpoint of the human ego. Giving the evil a lot of attention and continually talking about it only increases it and shuts us out from having any part in bringing healing. Evil is ONLY overcome by good [love]. Sometimes all that we can do is to focus on the ultimate truth of the person which is love and not interfere with our own prayers by dwelling upon evil and sin. The ego is made to feel more righteous by putting others down though most of the time we are unaware of this underlying motive. The subtle ways the ego works can indeed be very deceptive. Sometimes there is a disguise of piety. I've met many who were deeply wounded by "religious" people. We need to continually remind ourselves of these words, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!" (Psalm 139:23 ESV).

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."--Mother Teresa