James 4:11

Do not disparage one another, friends. The person who disparages others, or passes judgment on them, disparages the Law and passes judgment on the Law. But, if you pass judgment on the Law, you are not obeying it, but judging it.

Open English Bible (US)

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

12There is only one lawgiver and judge – he who has the power both to save and to destroy. So then who are you to pass judgment on your neighbor?

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Cross References

Psalms 140:11no place in the land may there be for the slanderer: may the violent be hunted from sorrow to sorrow.

Luke 6:37Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Romans 2:13It is not those who hear the words of a Law that are righteous before God, but it is those who obey it that will be pronounced righteous.

Romans 7:12And so the Law is holy, and each commandment is also holy, and just, and good.

Romans 14:10I would ask the one ‘Why do you judge other followers of the Lord?’ And I would ask the other ‘Why do you despise them?’ For we will all stand before the court of God.

2 Corinthians 12:20for I am afraid that perhaps, when I come, I may find that you are not what I want you to be, and, on the other hand, that you may find that I am what you do not want me to be. I am afraid that I may find quarreling, jealousy, ill feeling, rivalry, slandering, backbiting, self-assertion, and disorder.

Matthew Henry on James 4:2-11

Origin of War and Contention; Against Pride; Submission to God. ( a. d. 61.) 1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever… Read the whole commentary →

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