Download discussion questions: James 4:11-17
The seven verses of this week’s passage proved too much for our discussion group. We spent the entire time on the first two verses, James 4:11-12. It’s not that we were being lazy but because James packed so much into those three sentences.
The Text
Before you read the rest of this blog article, be sure and read the text itself. The blog is intended as a summary of our lively discussion. The summary of the discussion should never be a substitute for your own reading of God’s Word. Read the text and do at least a little of your own inductive study – Observation, Interpretation, and Application – and then compare your thoughts with our group’s. I encourage you to add your comments to the blog to point out things we missed (or didn’t have time to discuss), as well as any questions or challenges to our thinking.
The Context
One of the questions we have been asking about each passage relates to the themes in the letter James wrote. Our group noted several topics in this passage that seem to relate to issues James has raised earlier in the letter, sometimes more than once:
Speaking (4:11)
- Slow to speak (1:19)
- Bridle the tongue (1:26)
- Speak and act (2:12)
- Stumbling in what we say (3:2)
- The tongue (3:5-12)
Speaking Against (4:11)
- Anger (1:20-21)
- Cursing others (3:10)
- Jealousy and selfish ambition (3:14, 16)
- Quarrels and fights (4:1-2)
The Law (4:11-12)
- Perfect law (1:25)
- Law of liberty (1:25; 2:12))
- Royal law (2:8)
Judges/Judgment (4:11-12 – six times)
- Becoming judges with evil thoughts (2:4)
- Judgment and mercy (2:12-13)
- Stricter judgment of teachers (3:1)
Seeing those connections and repeated themes demonstrates that the letter James wrote is not a loose collection of arbitrary ideas. James is weaving together several interrelated themes that his readers (including us) need to hear. Recognizing those recurring topics should be helpful in understanding the particular statements James makes. His concern for “speaking against” (NASB) others or committing “slander” (NIV) is in the context of jealousy and ambition, possibly growing out of competition among teachers or those following them.
Translations
A question that came up in our group was, “What exactly was James commanding?” Does “not speaking against” another brother (or sister) mean never correcting or criticizing or evaluating another believer?
Often reading from different translations can be helpful. Various translators try to express the nuances of a word in one language (in this case, first-century Greek) into English. Translations[1] of verse 11 offer quite a variety of ways to express the word:
James 4:11 Μὴ καταλαλεῖτε ἀλλήλων
“Stop speaking against one another”
CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters….
CJB (Complete Jewish Bible)
Brothers, stop speaking against each other! ….
ESV (English Standard Version)
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. ….
NASB (New American Standard Bible)
Do not speak against one another, brethren….
NIV (New International Version – 2011)
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another….
NMB (New Matthew Bible)
Do not backbite one another, brethren….
TPT (The Passion Translation)
Dear friends, as part of God’s family, never speak against another family member….
WE (Worldwide English)
My brothers, do not say wrong things about each other….
All of these translations reinforce the strong negative quality of the word James used. None of the translations indicate any redemptive or beneficial aspect of what James is warning against.
Words
Another way of learning more about how a term is used in Scripture is to see how the word is used in other contexts, perhaps by other Biblical authors. Word studies consider how the same Greek word is used.
The word James uses for “speak against” is only used seven times in the New Testament, and three of those occurrences are in the verse we are studying (James 4:11). Looking at both the verb (καταλαλéω, katalaleō) and noun (καταλαλιά, katalalia) forms of the word, the other occasions where the word is used are shown below:
- perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, …
2 Corinthians 12:20 - So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
1 Peter 2:1 - Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers
1 Peter 2:12 - having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
1 Peter 3:16
As with the examples of different translations, all of the uses in other New Testament books, by other writers, have a negative nuance. One member of our group pointed out that three of the uses come from 1 Peter, a book primarily about being steadfast in trials and persecution (also a theme in James). Two of the verses (1 Peter 2:12; 3:16) are clearly describing false accusations or slander directed against Christian believers. A person with some legal knowledge pointed out that slander is saying things that are false about another person. Or from another source, “Slander is to make an oral defamatory remark about another…. Slander is limited to false remarks.”[2]
Both in modern law and in the first-century vocabulary of James, slander consists of false, harmful statements against another person. The recurring themes mentioned above would certainly be circumstances that could deteriorate into slander: jealousy and ambition, disputes over teachers, judging one another, uncontrolled tongues.
While we cannot know for sure just why slander was a problem in the community, the divisions that were wracking the church (3:12-4:3) may provide the best explanation. Quarrels over most issues usually end up including personal attacks and judgmental attitudes.[3]
Contradicting Paul? – Again!
Earlier in our discussion about “do not speak against a brother,” a member of our group asked about places where the Scriptures (and in particular Paul) give different instructions. For example, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul emphatically exhorts the church to confront and even remove a person from the fellowship over sin. “Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge…Purge the evil person from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).
In an earlier discussion we considered the allegation of disagreement between James and Paul regarding faith and works. That study demonstrated that the two Apostles were addressing very different circumstances, and any so-called contradiction between them actually indicated a misunderstanding of one or both of them.
The question now became, “Is this another example of where James and Paul disagree?” Or perhaps this is a similar situation to the faith/works question. The disagreement (or contradiction) is due to superficial reading without understanding the context or intention of the writers.
Clearly, Paul was addressing a known, ongoing sin, a public scandal (“It is actually reported…”, 1 Corinthians 5:1) that the church failed or refused to confront (“And you are arrogant…”, v. 2). On the other hand, the concern James expressed was for slander or gossip or false accusations. James wanted to stop the malicious personal attacks within the church. Paul wanted to challenge the church to speak up and take action against clear, unambiguous sin.
Judging the Law
Once our group began to understand the concern James had for slander within the church, we turned to explore his argument about the seriousness of the practice. James had more in mind than the potential hurt feelings resulting from slander. He based his admonition on our relation to the law and to the Lawgiver, God Himself.
James could have referred back to his earlier stinging criticism of the tongue. He pointed out the sin of using the tongue for cursing people who bearers of God’s image (James 3:9). Instead, he takes a completely different approach. Slander reveals something about our attitude toward God and His law.
“But which law did James have in mind?” as one person in our group asked. As noted above, he had already mentioned the law using the words “perfect” (1:25), “liberty” (1:25; 2:12), and “royal” (2:8). He also had a holistic view of the law, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10).
One observation was that James changes his terminology at the end of verse 12. His references to “brothers” at the beginning of verse 11 change to “neighbor.” James used the word “neighbor” only one other time in his letter, in James 2:8, quoting the law from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” A member of our group suggested that the “law” James had in mind was the law of love expressed in Leviticus and reaffirmed by Jesus (Mark 12:31).
So how does that help us understand what James meant by the clear parallel in James 4:11:
. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother,
. speaks against the law and judges the law.
A careful observer pointed out a difference between “or” and “and” as highlighted in the two expressions. Either harmful practice (speaking against or judging a brother) results in the culpability for both speaking against and judging the law.
One suggestion was that slander or judgment fail to carry out the command to love. But that seems more like disobedience (not to minimize that sin). James doesn’t address the problem as disobedience to the law. He describes it as “slandering” the law and “judging” the law.
Someone commented that judging the law sounds like putting ourselves in the position of deciding whether or not to obey the law, or deciding what parts of the law we will follow. Slandering the law could be the practice of demeaning the law with the attitude that some parts are not important enough to claim our obedience, picking and choosing the parts we like. Another suggestion was that slandering and judging the law could be putting ourselves in the place of making the law. And James was quite clear (in case there was any doubt) that, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge” with the dreadful implication, “the One who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12).
Awareness
James is emphatic that what we might consider “innocent” gossip or “minor” criticisms or “harmless” ridicule are serious to the point of potential blasphemy. We can subtly move toward cursing those made in the image of God and usurping God’s prerogative to define our obedience.
In previous discussions we have considered the subtlety of self-obsession, our self-protective attitude that we may not always identify. Both in our study of James and earlier in Galatians we saw how insidious those unrecognized motives can be. In frustration we can slander a person and feel justified for doing it. To protect our reputation we can alter facts just slightly to make ourselves look good at the expense of another. We can exaggerate a person’s shortcomings in order to gather sympathy for our viewpoint.
Our group agreed that the weightiness that James gave to those subtle sins should make us much more aware and vigilant to recognize and remove those habits from our lives. May God deliver us from slandering and judging His perfect law.
[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/James%204:11
[2] Steven H. Gifis, Law Dictionary (Woodbury, New York: Barron’s Educaltional Series, Inc., 1975), 195.
[3] Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), 198.