James 4:12

God made his law, and he is the only judge. He is the only one that can blame anybody. He can save somebody, or he can kill somebody. But you can’t do that. You are not God, so you can’t make yourself a judge and rubbish other people.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

In Context

11My Christian friends, don’t say bad things about each other or rubbish each other. If you rubbish other people, it is like you reckon you are their judge. But God’s law says that you have to love other people, so if you rubbish them, you are really saying that you think God’s law is wrong. But you are not a judge, so you can’t say that God’s law is wrong. Your job is to do whatever God’s law says.

13Listen. Some of you talk like this, you say, “Tomorrow we will go to that town over there, and we will buy things for a little bit of money, and then we will sell them for a lot of money. We will keep on doing that for a year. That’s how we will get plenty of money to keep for ourselves.”

Read all of James 4

Cross References

Matthew 10:28Don’t be frightened of those people that can only kill your body. They can’t kill your soul. But you have to listen to God. If you don’t do what he says, you have to be frightened. He can finish up your body, and then he can also finish up your soul too, in that bad place called hell.

Romans 2:1And you do those same bad things too. You might try to blame other people, but you are just as bad as them, so if you try to blame them, you really blame yourself.

Romans 14:4So you can’t tell anybody else that they are wrong. God is their boss, not you. Only God can say, “You are right,” or, “You are wrong.” And he can help them to keep on doing good.

Matthew Henry on James 4:12-17

Caution against Slander; Caution against Presumption. ( a. d. 61.) 11 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. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? 13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get… Read the whole commentary →

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