“Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?”
Twitter has adopted a new etiquette policy! No wait, that’s James 4:11-12… Hmm, let’s just let this one convict us today. The strange part is, most Christians seem to view it as very much their role to judge their neighbors. Yet here it says that we have no right to do such a thing.
Because American Christians are at times known for their judgmentalism, I did a search for “judge others” on BibleGateway.com. We are expressly told over and over again not to judge, but rather to show mercy. These verses say that God alone is the judge. So why do we continually try to usurp his throne?
I don’t mean you will not be judged by God. We all will be. (Quick tip: just plead the fifth — known as “the blood of Jesus” in God’s kingdom — and you will be acquitted on the spot if he knows your name.) When I say you can be set free from judgment, I mean you can be set free from the inner turmoil, anger and bitterness that goes on in your heart when you judge others. It’s not your job. You don’t even have to think about it. You have zero decisions to make about another person’s fate. You simply are free to love. If you vehemently oppose what they are doing, you get to love them even more. It’s a really great way to live.