He Is I AM I am Im Not

Judging Others and the Humility James Calls For

Mandy Smith reflects on James’s warning against judging others and the humility required of Christian leaders. The article contrasts judgment with confession, prayer, and loving discernment rooted in grace.

• James reminds believers that only God is Lawgiver and Judge.
• Confession and prayer help Christians remember their limits and see others with mercy.
• Jesus calls for humble discernment after first removing the plank from our own eye.

By Mandy Smith

We’ve heard about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials—moments in history when, with the blessing of the church, Christians stood in judgment of one another. But that’s all history, isn’t it?

Why is it, then, that in national surveys of young people, the authors of the book UnChristian found that 87 percent believe modern-day Christianity is judgmental? On the other hand, their surveys showed “only a small percentage of outsiders strongly believe the labels ‘respect, love, hope, and trust’ describe Christianity.”¹

We may not be hunting for witches anymore, but we point out believers who watch the wrong movies or vote for the wrong parties. In our Bible studies and sermons we imply there is only one Christian way to budget, parent, even manage time. We make claims like, “God is withholding blessing from our nation because of the wickedness of those people!” without counting our judgmental attitude among the wickedness.

But James has strong words for us. He writes:

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11, 12).

How have we managed to stray so far from this scriptural commandment not to judge one another? What can church leaders do to lead the church back?

James’s “don’t judge” message is pretty clear. But what does he mean by “sitting in judgment on the law”? James is referring back to an earlier thought:

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. . . . Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful (James 2:10, 12, 13).

Imagine we found a huge book that contains all the moral rules in the world. We drag it out to discover all the rules we can hold up against the life of a fellow believer. But upon opening it, we find that the first rule is “Don’t open this book.”

By sitting in judgment against another, we put ourselves in God’s place, and there are few sins worse than impersonating God. But we want the best of both worlds, forgetting that when we apply the system of law to others, we don’t get to keep the system of grace for ourselves.

The passage in James 4 concludes, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” (v. 12). This is about humility—a deep understanding of who we are before God. James asks, “Who are you?” to remind us who we are not. While we may speak and lead on God’s behalf, we’re lacking in two important ways:

Unlike God, We Live Imperfectly

“Who are you?” reminds us that before we can judge others we must first look at ourselves. But we must be careful. Just as judging others has almost become a Christian virtue, so has judging ourselves.

Guilt is certainly mentioned in the Bible—a simple verdict that we have missed the mark—but the Bible doesn’t talk about feeling guilty. It talks about finding we’re wrong and changing direction—repentance. However, we’ve made a Christian discipline out of wallowing in guilt and in so doing, once more, stepping outside of the grace system.

Unlike God, We Know and Love Others Imperfectly

Madeleine L’Engle wrote, “It seems that more than ever the compulsion today is to identify, to reduce someone to what is on the label. To identify is to control, to limit. To love is to call by name and so open the wide gates of creativity. But we forget names and turn to labels . . .”²

Sadly, our media-saturated culture provides us with ready-made labels for one another. So when we see a 30-something woman driving a minivan, we assume she reads Woman’s Day and watches HGTV and shops at Target and eats at O’Charley’s. Or we come across a scruffy man and decide he reads Sports Illustrated, watches whatever’s on TV, and shops (and eats) at the Dollar Store.

This kind of thinking ignores stories and labels individuals. Maybe the soccer mom loves sailing and Irish dancing. Maybe the slob kicks off his flip-flops to read Latin. But we don’t have time for those stories. We’d rather stick to labels, whether it’s “soccer mom” and “slob” or “liberal” and “sinner.”

How to Say “I’m Not God” and Mean It

We’d all agree we’re imperfect in our love, knowledge, and life, but how do we really get it? James has a very practical suggestion in 5:16: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other.”

Since we, unlike God, are imperfect in our choices and actions, confession to each other is an important part of remembering who we are. Of course, we must be careful about how and to whom we confess. But, with the right person, confession to another believer plays a different role than confessing directly to God.

A friend and I—both with newborn babies and surviving on very little sleep—struggled to keep up the appearance we were on top of it all. So on a particularly overwhelming day, I did the most gracious thing I could think to do: let her see my house in its natural state. We had set up this ridiculous cycle of expectations, and this one act of honesty broke the cycle and freed us both. This is what confession does. It’s not a celebration of someone’s faults but a way for us to remember we’re all walking together.

The second part of James’s advice—prayer for each other—helps us understand how we’re unlike God in our knowledge and love. We like to vent about our enemies to friends who we know are on our side. On the other hand, if we have to speak about our enemy to his own mother, we show a little more tolerance—we know that our enemy’s mother knows and loves him more than we do.

In the same way, when we pray for someone, we are reminded that God knows and loves him or her more. Prayer helps us to see others through God’s eyes, and, if we do it often enough, that vision lingers with us when the prayer is done.

So remembering the ways we’re not God can begin with simple acts of prayer and confession—prayer for others to remind us of how God sees them and confession to remind us how God sees us.

But aren’t we, as Christian leaders, called to correct, rebuke, and admonish? Doesn’t that involve some kind of judgment?

Plank Removal: Not an End in Itself

Jesus’ plank-in-the-eye teaching in Matthew 7:1-5 is clear on this final question. This passage parallels James’s teaching very closely: like James, Jesus says not to judge. Like James, Jesus warns that the way we judge will be used against us. And like James, Jesus calls us to look at ourselves.

But Jesus adds something else. He tells us when we have removed the plank from our own eye, we can see clearly to return to the one with the speck in his eye. In Jesus’ mind, there is a place for us to assess each other’s lives.

Any piece of writing is better after an editor works on it. And any church or individual is better with some careful editing. Jesus makes a distinction between judgment and loving, humble discernment. It builds us up as individuals and it builds us up as a church. But it is only effective when we first ask, “Who am I?”

¹ David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity . . . and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007), 27.

² Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1980), 112, 113.

Mandy Smith is associate pastor with University Christian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Author: Mandy Smith