Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - James 4:11 - 4:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Speak not one against another (mē katalaleite allēlōn). Prohibition against such a habit or a command to quit doing it, with mē and the present imperative of katalaleō, old compound usually with the accusative in ancient Greek, in N.T. only with the genitive (here, 1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 3:16). Often harsh words about the absent. James returns to the subject of the tongue as he does again in Jam 5:12 (twice before, Jam 1:26; Jam 3:1-12).
Judgeth (krinōn). In the sense of harsh judgment as in Mat 7:1; Luk 6:37 (explained by katadikazō).
Not a doer of the law, but a judge (ouk poiētēs nomou, alla kritēs). This tone of superiority to law is here sharply condemned. James has in mind God’s law, of course, but the point is the same for all laws under which we live. We cannot select the laws which we will obey unless some contravene God’s law, and so our own conscience (Act 4:20). Then we are willing to give our lives for our rebellion if need be.