THURSDAY, April 10th, 2008

James 4:11-17

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 gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Well, todays devos are something we all have had our problems with: saying someothing bad about someone. Have you ever done that before? You may not understand what verse 11 means when it goes on and on talking about the judge and the lawgiver, so let me explain. The idea here is that when you or I talk bad about someone, we are judging them. This passage makes it clear that we have no right to judge, God is the only judge and therefore if we see someone doing something that we do not like, we really have no right in and of ourselves to look down on them. That idea finishes by stating that there is only one law giver, and that is God. He is the only judge.

The second part of these seven verses go on to talk about the rest of your life. It says, who do you think that you are to put off things until tomorrow. It says that you do not know if tomorrow will come, and even if it does come, it will go by so fast (as a vapor) that you will not even believe it. So what should we do about it? Dont put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Like witnessing to your friend, like reading your Bible, like inviting that stranger to church. DO IT TODAY!

YOU GUYS ARE DOING GREAT! STAY FAITHFUL! WE ARE KEEPING TRACK OF WHO IS DOING THEIR DEVOS, SO DO THEM EVERY DAY! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMEENTS JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL! THANKS!

GET IN THE WORD!

10 comments:

Kacey! said...

Wow, these verses really opened my eyes. I am one to judge people without even realizing it sometimes, and I am trying to work on that. Lately, the Holy Spirit has been reminding me to think about what I am going to say and if it's going to lift up or tear down someone else. Weather we realize it or not, people that know we are Christians are watching us to see how we talk to other people. They need to be able to see Christ through us. There are three main things that we can take form these verses: don't talk bad about other people, don't judge anyone, and don't wait to do something. We may not be here tomorrow so don't wait to tell people about Jesus. Do it now! Verse 17 is what really gets me. Knowing what the right thing is and not doing it is sin in God's eyes. We need to do the right things, saying it doesn't mean anything you need to prove it with your actions. Growing in Christ is reading the Bible, unerstanding it, and obeying it! Without the third step, you aren't growing.

Anonymous said...

alright to start off we see in the first 2 verses that we shouldn't speak bad about anyone cause that means we're judging them. Now its alright to judge peoploe though well that is if you're god, but i bet anyone who reads this isn't so stop judging others. so i bet you may have said once or twice in your life ah i can just do that tomorrow. DON'T PUT IT OFF. how about putting off witnessing to your friends just do it tomorrow right. what if your friend died last night in a drunk driving accident then what will you do cause they're already dead and in hell. guys do everything now while you have the chance wether it be witnessing or doing the dishes your mom told you to do cause you never know if someone will break into your house with a shotgun or maybe the rapture.

This is a friendly reminder to all of you do your devos and stop being lazy show yourself a good christian and be a leader.

Oh and if anyone knows how to make a password and make it so that you don't have to reset it everytime and why its now saying incorrect password even though i just changed it 30 seconds prior to putting it in please let me know in your comments.

Joshua
LaPerriere

Anonymous said...

hey this is jeff to me this is telling me not to talk bad or gossip about others because it is judging. The only person having the right to judge is God being the judge. The verse is also saying that that we should not say that there is a tomorrow because we dont know if there is going to be a tomorrow it is only Gods choice. so don't PROCRASTINATE! If your going to do your devotions or invite a friend to youth group do it today.

Anonymous said...

Hey its Jon and i think it means that we judge people when basically we probably have the same faults BUT the reason we do that is probably because we are insecure with ourselves and dont know what to do.

McCue said...

Yes the passage tells us not to judge our brother and it is so hard sometimes because we see sin in others more readily than sin in ourselves. This is a reminder to me to think about how imperfect I am and my mistakes and look at Jesus who was perfect and God, he is the only one that can judge us. What I also found interesting is when the passage talks about planning our futures selfishly.
"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into suck a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain"
It proceeds to say who are we to determine selfishly what we should do. Instead of saying hey I should do this and be rich, we should try to think If the Lord wills I will be rich but foremost is my service to him and my relationship with Christ.
-McCue

Jessica M said...

To speak evil against another is to judge them. These verses are speaking to me more than you know...but it is a struggle for everyone I’m sure. Now in this section James speaks of our arrogance when we constantly judge others or believe that we are in control of our own futures. I know for me I deal with speaking evil against one another and judging one another. It makes us feel superior to someone else when we speak as if we know who he or she is. But we don't know them! And when we do this we are no longer in a right relationship with God.

How quick we are to make our own plans! This is what the next few verses go on to talk about. There is a sense of freedom we can know when we see others and ourselves through God's eyes. Thank goodness God has the last word on me and others and not me! Because He holds my future not I!


Jessica Massey

Jillian said...

well todays passage was really good ..
and me being a girl ..well we seem to gossip alot and judge before we know people which it says right here in these few verses that it is sin and we shouldnt be doing that instead we should be telling others about Jesus and being a good example to them by how we live our lives
and like p.lee said we should wittness to others every day
it was so cool cuz today i was at siesta with one of my friends from the Wilds and a few of her friends =]
and there was this big group of people building this huge sand thing and while we were leaving we saw one of the guys sitting down talking to these two little kids that he didnt even know and he was telling them about Jesus and it just made me think wow why couldnt we of done something like that today its so simple if u think about it
it was really nice just being with these few girls today because they are all such strong chrstians and everything they say is uplifting and i cant think of one time today or last night that we ever said something bad about someone and honestly it was so much more fun than being here at home with my friends because some of them arent christians and theyre some times so negative to others and about things and even the ones that are christians are the same way and i try my hardest to be positive and have a good attitude abotu things and even if i dont like whats goin on or what were doing i try not to let it show because it just brings others down and i know that sometimes it doesnt always work out how i'd like lol and i am negative about things
but also this verse pretty much says live like today is your last and not like the world says "live today like its gonna be your last" because when people of the world say that they pretty much mean go out and do all the sin you can before you die so you dont miss out on anything in life when really there missing out on life its self =] because they dont have Jesus in their lives so theyre dead but when the bible says this it means live your life with no regrets and always be honoring God with what you think say and do =]
ok im done =]
<3 Jillian

HADOKEN!!! said...

Oh man my brain is so tired. I have been doing a spanish project FOREVER. Lets see if it pays off...

Este mensaje es acerca de juzgar a todos los demás. Nos dice no a hablar mal de alguien o, en otras palabras juez. Si están hablando mal de alguien que está hablando mal acerca de la ley. Esa es la ley de Dios. Él es el legislador que habla de este pasaje. Después de que se ha dicho y hecho el paso sigue para decir que nunca debemos poner las cosas fuera. Se compara nuestra vida a un vapor en el viento, porque al igual que un vapor se evapora estamos aquí en el pasado y el latido del corazón. Dios quiere que hagamos las cosas hoy, no más tarde.

TRANSLATION:
This message is all about judging others. It tells us not to talk badly about someone or in other words judge them. If you are talking bad about someone you are talking bad about the law. That law is God. He is the lawgiver that this passage talks about. After that is said and done the passage goes on to say that we should never put things off. It compares our lives to a vapor in the wind because just as a vapor evaporates we are here and gone in a heartbeat. God wants us to do things today not later.

Daemis WolfBorn said...

The verses today talk about judgeing people which of course is bad. Also the law is God, and if you talk bad about some one you are talking against the law. The law giver is God himself.

These set of verses has opened my eyes. I will challenge myself to not judge people because to admit I do it alot.

Amy :) said...

This is very good. I sometimes struggle with this not cursing or saying bad words but making sure that I don't be a bad example when I get frusterated or mad at someone. Sometimes I have to tell some of the six graders at my school to watch their language and they say I understand. But they keep doing it. With that I need to not gossip about them in any way I need to love everybody.

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