James | April 28, 2026

Start your day with a short, Scripture-centered devotional from Paul Michael. In about seven minutes, you will hear the Word, reflect on its truth, and be encouraged to live it out in everyday life.

James 4:11-17

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Transcript

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Welcome to your daily devotional with me, PMV. Today we're going to cover James chapter 4, verses 11 through 17. James 4, 11 through 17. Beginning at verse 11. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He's writing to believers in Christ who are being persecuted for their faith. 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. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge one another? The heart of what this paragraph here is saying is look, when we are speaking evil of one another, we're playing the judge. And in doing that, we're sitting in God's place. We're even sitting in the place of God's word, because it's by his word that we will be judged. God has said, uh, don't commit murder. But whereas he said that, he said that in his word. And so God's word is by which we'll be judged, and God is the judge who will judge us according to his word. And when we speak evil of one another and we put other people down, we're taking God's place, so to say, in that we're judging one another. We're making a judgment about one another. Now, there are a lot of people that say, well, don't judge me, don't judge me. And they're saying that in the sense of, I can just live my life however I want. That is not what James is saying. As Christians, we are to hold one another accountable according to God's word. But I don't judge you. I don't judge anybody. But if I have a close friend that claims to be a Christian, that's living in sin, if I tell them, hey, look, what you're doing is not in line with God's word, I'm not judging them. I'm pointing out that they are living in contrast to what God has said. And what I need to do is approach that situation with brokenness, love, and grace, realizing there are areas in my own life where I stumble. So when we come in, on one side, when we're just judging others and we're being hurtful, we don't really care about them, we're just running them down, that's sin. On the other side, those that are saying, don't judge me, don't judge me, I don't want any accountability, that's also a sinful, prideful behavior. The biblical way, the true way of Christ, is to walk in love for one another, realizing that we all stumble, we all have our own faults. And if there is truly something in your brother or sister's life that you feel called to address, that you feel like maybe they've offended you or they're doing something that's harmful to themselves or others, that you go only when you go in a spirit of love and grace and a desire to restore, not in a judgmental spirit to elevate yourself over others. There's a very different way of dealing with things when you go in a spirit of putting others down versus a desire to lift them up. There's a big difference there. Then verse 13, come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life? Is it even a vapor that vanishes, it's excuse me, appears for a little time and then vanishes away? Indeed, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live or do that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not, to him it is a sin. James essentially is dealing with two issues of the speech, of the tongue, which is kind of all of James chapter four. He's dealing with the pride of our own heart that is reflected in what we say. In the first part of this passage, it was our own pride in what we judge one another for. Not in a desire to help as a Christian brother or sister, but as a way to elevate ourselves. Then he deals with the pride of our boasting of saying, look, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, talking about our plans and our ways and what we're going to do, rather than realizing that we don't even know what our next hour will hold. Only God knows the future. Only God is in control. And so we are called to humbly surrender our plans, our lives to Him, and say, if the Lord wills, that's that's not to be legalistically done, but it's a way, it's a statement of humility of saying, look, I don't know even what the next minute holds, but if it's the Lord's will, this is what I'm planning. This is what I believe I'm supposed to do. Again, both of these issues that James is addressing, addressing are really one. It's an issue of the heart. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And when there is pride in your heart, you tend to first put others down and then boast about your other plans. You see how those go together? You're putting others down, you're exalting yourself. But these are really the same issue. It is the issue of the pride of your own heart that is being made known in your speech. Again, what we say betrays the condition of our hearts. It says more about us than it does about others. Then James says, therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it to him is a sin. We're going to get into that a little bit more next time, but this is commonly called the sin of omission. Sins of commission are when we willfully or knowingly do what we know we should not do. We act, we do something that is wrong. Sins of omission are when we know there is good to do and we withhold it. We don't do the good that we know we should. James makes it very clear if there is something that you can do for your brother that is good for them, if there is a way to bless someone else, if there is a way for you to be humble and help someone else and you don't, then to him it is a sin. We are called to do good, to be about good works, but we first must get our hearts right and approach them from a place of humility, desiring to help others to meet their needs, to love one another, not put others down and exalt ourselves. Thank you for joining me today. I hope this has been a blessing to you. For more information, go to pmvministries.org. As always, I hope you have a great day.