“Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”
and judges his brother,
Slander and judgment go hand-in-hand. These sins are cousins; where we find one, we find the other. Judgment has nothing to do with assessing others objectively but passing subjective judgment on them. We cannot be fully sure of our own motives, much less the personal motives of someone else. Objective judgment bases its assessment of the issue on facts. We base our judgment on actions, not motives.
Mt 7:1-5, “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
1 Sa 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’.”
1 Ch 28:9, “…for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.”
PRINCIPLE:
Unbiblical judgment is an arbitrary assumption about someone else.
APPLICATION:
God is the only One who has complete and full knowledge of people; therefore, only He has the capacity to judge others fully. That is why judgment is His sole prerogative.
God is the only One who can rend just judgment. His judgment is not arbitrary, but our judgment is arbitrary unless we have all the facts about a situation. God would give us the privilege of judgment if we were faultless, but none of us is faultless. People with fault should not become faultfinders.
1 Kgs 8:39, “…for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men…”
Slander of fellow Christians flows from that same spirit of putting ourselves above others. If we hold a high opinion of ourselves, we are much more likely to be free with faultfinding.
Ro 2:1, “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”
