Daily Devotion January 12

January 12: James 4:11-12

KJV Key Verse: James 4:11
Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Devotion:
Back in the Old Testament God did appoint certain people to be judges over Israel and He did that to make sure the people understood what was right and what was wrong. God did not appoint the judges so people would be under oppression; God appointed them to point people back to God. How can we go toward God is we are constantly striving against Him. These verses bring home the same message; if we work to judge people or to speak evil of people, we are working against the law because the law has been laid out for us already.

If we are upholding the law and bringing it to the attention of our fellow saints, then that is a different thing. But taking the law into our own hands by being the judge and telling people where you think they should be is not what God wants of us. Being a follower of Christ should mean we want to uphold the sayings of Christ our Saviour and bring glory to His name. Jesus upheld the law as it was written. He made sure people understood that the law as given to them by the prophets and judges is the law of God. We may interpret it incorrectly at times because we do not fully understand it, but we should still be working toward upholding it just as Jesus did.

There is only one person who is able to be the final judge. There is only one person who knows the law better than the people who penned it down. Jesus is worthy of being our judge and He has shown He is willing to lay His life down to uphold the law He brought back to us. We need to take notice of this man called Jesus because He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!

We may get called all sorts of names as Christians. We may even be persecuted. We may even be martyred. None of this gives us the right to judge other people. We can compare what they do to the law and recognise it as wrong, give guidance to try and allow them to see it is wrong; but that final judgement belongs to Christ alone.

Points to Ponder:
Do you judge people?

Will you join me in trying not to judge?