Compiled By: Lisa K Gonzales
Source: The Life Application Study Bible
11 “Do not speak evil against each other, my dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize each other and condemn each other, then you are criticizing and condemning GOD’s law. But you are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong. Your job is to obey it. 12 GOD alone, who made the law, can rightly judge among us. HE alone has the power to save or destroy. So what right do you have to condemn your neighbor?” ~ James 4:11-12
Jesus summarized the law as love for GOD and neighbor. – 37 “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:37-40 – By fulfilling these two commands, a person keeps all the others. They summarize the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament moral laws. Jesus said that if we truly love GOD and our neighbor, we will naturally keep the commandments. This is looking at GOD’s law positively. Rather than worrying about all we should not do, we should concentrate on all we can do to show our love for GOD and others. Paul said that love demonstrated toward a neighbor would fully satisfy the law. – 8 “Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of GOD’s law. 9 For the commandments against adultery and murder and stealing and coveting – and any other commandment – are all summed up in this one commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 10 Love does no wrong to anyone, so love satisfies all of GOD’s requirements.” – Romans 13:8-10 – Why does Paul refer to love for others as a debt? We are permanently indebted to Christ for the lavish love He has poured out on us. The only way we can even begin to repay this debt is by loving others in return. Because Christ’s love will always be infinitely greater than ours, we will always have the obligation to love our neighbors. Somehow many of us have gotten the idea that self-love is wrong. But if this were the case, it would be pointless to love our neighbors as ourselves. But Paul explains what he means by self-love. Even if you have low self-esteem, you probably do not willingly let yourself go hungry. You take care of your body and may even exercise. You clothe yourself reasonably well. You make sure there is a roof over your head. You try not to let yourself be cheated or injured. This is the kind of love we need to have for our neighbors. Loving others as ourselves means actively working to see that their needs are met. Interestingly, people who focus on others rather than on themselves rarely suffer from low self-esteem. Christians must obey the law of love, which supersedes both religious and civil laws. How easy it is to excuse our indifference to others merely because we have no legal obligation to help them and even to justify harming them if our actions are technically legal! But Jesus does not leave loopholes in the law of love. Whenever love demands it, we are to go beyond human legal requirements and imitate the GOD of love.
When we fail to love, we are actually breaking GOD’s law. Examine your attitude and actions toward others. Do you build people up or tear them down? When you are ready to criticize someone, remember GOD’s law of love and say something good instead. Saying something beneficial to others will cure you of finding fault and increase your ability to obey GOD’s law of love.
Father help us to love as YOU love. Help us to speak no evil against each other, because we know that if we criticize each other and condemn each other, then we are criticizing and condemning YOUR law. LORD we understand that we are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong, instead our job is to obey it. YOU alone, who made the law, are the only ONE who can rightly judge us. YOU alone have the power to save or destroy. We have no right to condemn our neighbor. – Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white – we are all precious in His sight.
Photo: Bryce Canyon (Utah)
Photographer: Lisa K Gonzales
Click on the photo to enlarge
