Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

centuries. Without them, however wobbly and questionable at times, there
would be no “today.” But there is also something pernicious to them. Once
they are hardened convictions, they invariably tend to oppose one or more
elements of God’s truth or prevent them from functioning. When this happens
programmatically and consistently, there regrettably may be no “tomorrow,”
or a very anemic one at best. Man’s “law” may never prevail over, or function
at the expense of, God’s law! Total and perennial vigilance in this regard is a
“must” (2 Tim. 1:13-14), in fact, it is potentially a matter of death (by definition)
and life (by grace)!
In short, in speaking against brothers and sisters, members of the covenant
community, whether individually or corporately, pit their word against
the law of God, and make their own word law. The law of God says one
thing, the word of man another! Of course, in that case, the latter prevails.
This is implicitly a disparagement of the law of God and a judgment upon the
law of God, and explicitly the height of presumption (See also Manton, 381)!
The contrast with being a hearer/doer of the law could hardly be starker. The
hearer/doer of the law places himself under the law, while a judge of the law
places himself above it! Of course, there is nothing wrong with humans expressing
their opinions as long as the three main ethical principles of godly
motivation, godly standard and godly objective are observed, and submitted
to both God’s word and communal input. However, this is not in the purview
of James in the present context.
Until someone is born again and subdued by the grace of God, his natural,
inbred, pride will insist on the primacy of his own word, whether thought
or spoken, disregard the explicit law of God, and in fact, dismiss the latter, if
needs be! Even after his rebirth, he easily falls prey to this. After all, the
tongue is filled with poison, and set on fire by hell! However, even this is not
yet the end of James’ argument or, preferably, James’ indictment. There is
more, much more, to come.
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(3) Gravity of Judging (4:12)
James proceeds, and concludes, with a solemn warning. In fact, his logic is
relentless, devastating and unanswerable (Keddie, 172). When a man speaks
out against a brother or sister, not only does his word supersede God’s word,
“break the royal law,” by bringing in censures that outstrip the law (Calvin,
338), but he is in direct competition with God himself (Dibelius, 228)! He
“arrogates what belongs to the Creator” (Nystrom, 249). There is only one
absolute Lawgiver (Ps. 9:20), and Judge 344 (Gen. 18:25; 2 Chron. 19:6; Ps.
344 There is one definite article that joins lawgiver and judge into an unbreakable combina-
tion.