How to Love God's Children

“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against 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 only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” - James 4:11-12

Reaffirming the truth that we need to be slow to speak, James now tells us how serious an offense it is to “speak evil” against a fellow Christian.

Let’s take a look.

From previous blog posts, we know that if you speak evil against a person, you have just indirectly spoke evil against the creator of the person because, well, he created them. Get it? (For more, check out my blog post titled “Shut it”). We know a person insults God if they insult his creation (any person), but what if we insult his children? Ouch. If someone tells me the house I built is a piece of crap (assuming I had been trained in house-building), I would take a fair amount of offense, but probably still go home that night, tuck myself into bed, complain a little to my wife, and have a nice sleep. However, if someone comes along and starts telling my child they are an idiot, that would go over much differently.

Believers are God’s children, non-Believers are not. 

Insult a believer, you have just insulted God’s child. 

Not only that, but “the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law.” Why? If I am a cross-country runner (which I’m not) and you insult my ability to run even though I just won a race, you have not insulted me, because clearly I’m good at running, but rather the system by which cross-country participants are judged. You haven’t insulted the person, but the system. Christians who speak against other Christians because of their own pride or insecurities have not judged the person, but the system that God created. 

So, you wanna insult a fellow Christian? You don’t? Oh, because you realized that it’s the same as insulting God’s children and the system by which he chooses to raise his children up? Yeah.

Good news? Their is a lawgiver and judge. 

Bad news? It isn’t you.

How do you cut the crap and quit insulting and hating on Christians so that your own self-esteem is boosted? Here are some ideas.

1. Attend church regularly. If you don’t attend church, you won’t even have the opportunity to get to be in a Christian community so dive in. 

2. Find security in God, not in works. God is gracious, accept your insecurities, admit them, and work away from them. God accepts you as you are, so accept yourself as you are. Accept your failings, work on them with God, but don’t convince yourself that your salvation and worth is based upon how much you do for God. It’s based upon grace.

3. And once again, shut up. Quit talking so much. If you don’t talk, you can’t insult Christians. So shut your mouth, think, and maybe once you have a nice thought, you can speak again.

Later.