Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. 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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
- KJV Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
- BSB Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.
- NASB Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister, or judges his brother or sister, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.
- NLT 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.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Speaking against and judging a fellow believer is to set oneself above God's law. Slander usurps a role belonging to God alone.
Overview
James forbids slander and censorious judgment among believers, calling it a presumptuous setting aside of God's law, especially the command to love one's neighbor. The one who condemns a brother acts as if he stands over the law rather than under it as a doer. This guards the unity of the church and reflects Jesus' warning against hypocritical judging (Matthew 7:1-5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- 1 Pet 2:1Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,
- Jas 5:9Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.
- Rom 2:1Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.
- Luke 6:37Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.
- Matt 7:1–2“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.
- Ps 140:11An evil speaker won’t be established in the earth. Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
- Eph 4:31Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice.
- Rom 14:10–12But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
- 1 Cor 4:5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.
- 2 Cor 12:20For I am afraid that by any means, when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire; that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, riots;
- 2 Tim 3:3without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good,
- Rom 7:12–13Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
- 1 Tim 3:11Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.
- Rom 14:3–4Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him.
- Rom 7:7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
- Rom 2:13For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified
- Titus 2:3and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good;
- Jas 1:22–23But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
- Jas 1:25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
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Original language
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