Warnings in verses 11–12 grow out of the rebuke of pride and the call for humility in verses 7–10. Verse 11 prohibits slander and insulting language. Pride and the lack of humility are the chief causes of slanderous, insulting language. In addition to conflict and a judgmental spirit among the brethren, bragging was also apparently prevalent. James gave an example of a boastful statement, struck a condemnatory sentence on such boasting, and offered a practical solution for boasting.
It is easy for Christians to make plans and goals, expecting God to fall in line with them. It is easy to plan our lives as if we controlled the future and had unlimited authority over all factors affecting our life. It is quite simple to plan our lives as if God does not exist. In verses 13 and 14, James discusses ignoring God’s Will. Perhaps James was addressing the wealthy merchants in the assembly. They might have discussed their business deals and boasted about their plans. There is no evidence that they sought the will of God or prayed about their decisions. They measured success in life by how many times they got their own way and accomplished what they had planned.
11 Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (NASB)
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Life is short and we do not know when it will end. Submit all of our ways to God and live to enjoy each day in dependence on God
- Human pride leads to disparaging criticism of others.
- Only God has the ability to enforce His laws and carry out His purposes. He allows no human being to share His role. A slanderous Christian attempts to play the role of God. God has no pleasure in those who practice slander.
- We must commit ourselves to discover the will of God as we make our plans for the future.
CLOSER LOOK:
Verse 11: James made a shift here from calling his readers “adulterous people” to “brothers.” They were, of course, both; but if they would repent of their spiritual “adulteries,” which had so deeply concerned James, they could now hear a basic principle: Do not slander, defame, or otherwise speak against one another. To “speak against” (i.e. slander) and judge one another is totally inconsistent to the humble spirit God desires. Furthermore, to judge another is actually a judgment of God’s Law itself. His Law is a mandate over all people. No one dares assume a haughty position over the Law. The slanderer is sentenced by the Law; the self-styled judge is jeopardized by the Law; only the humble person is honored. True justice is rendered when a believer subjects themselves to God in humility and obedience.
Verse 12: Only One is above the Law. He alone has the right to modify or overrule it. God is the “only one Lawgiver and Judge.” “Lawgiver” is a compound noun used only here in the New Testament (nomothetēs, from nomos, “law,” and tithēmi, “to set, place, constitute, or lay down”).[1] God not only authored the Law; He also administrates the Law. He serves as both the executive and judicial branches of the divine government. God is King; He institutes and declares His Law. God is Judge; He upholds and enforces His Law. He is the One who is “able to save and to destroy.” There is one Author of the Law, one Judge over the Law, and but one Savior from the Law’s condemnation. This reminder of a truth well known by James’ Jewish readers was also a rebuke to their haughty attitudes and judgmental actions. “But who are you to judge your neighbor?” is another of James’ typical penetrating rhetorical questions. A humble attitude and just actions are essential for spiritual growth. James then went on to show how these qualities of life militate against empty boasting.
Verse 13: James’ attack was direct. “Come now” is literally, “Go now.” It is the same construction found in 5:1, a colloquial phrase used only by James in the New Testament.[2] The interjection both goads the reader and gains their undivided attention. The offender attacked by James is a fairly typical businessman who makes their plans apart from God. This is self-assertive individual in their travel plans: “we will go to such and such a city; self-confident in their time schedule, “spend a year there;” and self-centered in their trade relationships, “engage in business and make a profit.” “Engage in business” (some versions translate as “carry on business”) is from a compound verb (emporeusometha, from en, “in,” and poreuomai, “to go”) from which the English word “emporium” has come.[3] It is related to the noun (emporos) which could be translated “merchant,” “trader,” “drummer,” or “one who goes in and gets the trade.”[4] A vivid picture of the Jewish merchant James tried to correct is a go-getter salesman out drumming up business for the bottom-line objective: “Make a profit!”
Think of all that is involved in life: today, tomorrow, buying, selling, getting gain, losing, going here, going there. Life is made up of people and places, activities and goals, days and years; and each of us must make many crucial decisions day after day.[5]
Verse 14: To the selfish hustlers James simply stated, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.” Their plans are always tentative. Their plans differ vastly from God’s plans. Time is not their own. In fact, life is not their own. These businessmen were making plans for a whole year when they could not even see ahead into one day! Life is not uncertain to God, but it is uncertain to us. Only when we are in His will can we be confident of tomorrow, for we know that He is leading us.
James then fired another of his famous questions: What is your life? The answer is a vapor (“mist, a puff of steam”). Believers need this godly perspective on their earthly sojourn. Among other things, it blasts boasting right out of the selfish, proud quagmire from which it emerged. The metaphor of mist is quantitative rather than qualitative. Mists do not last long in Palestine. Their form is transitory. They appear with the dew and quickly dissipate. But this evaporation is a fitting way to refer to the ephemeral attribute of human life that James has already observed in 1:10–11 in the case of the rich. No one knows the times of his or her own life. Without trust in God, these believers become nearly indistinguishable from the wicked, who take no account of God. The brevity of life is one of the repeated themes of Scripture. To us, life seems long and we measure it in years; but in comparison to eternity, life is but a vapor. James borrowed that figure from the Book of Job where you find many pictures of the brevity of life (Job 7:, 6,9; 8:9; 9:25-26; 14:1-2). We count our years at each birthday, but God tells us to number our days (Ps. 90:12). After all, we live a day at a time, and those days rush by quickly the older we grow.
Since life is so brief, we cannot afford merely to “spend our lives”; and we certainly do not want to “waste our lives.” We must invest our lives in those things that are eternal. In the Bible, God gives precepts, principles, and promises that can guide us in every area of life. Knowing and obeying the Word of God is the surest way to success (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:3).
[1] J. Ronald Blue, “James,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 830.
[2] J. Ronald Blue, “James,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 830.
[3] J. Ronald Blue, “James,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 830.
[4] emporeusometha has a meaning (from the BDAG) – “to carry on an activity involving buying and selling, be in business”. Emporos (Strong’s 1713) means merchant, one who buys and sells.
[5] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1996),n.p.