I have a question about your message last Sunday.  The second line of James 4:11-12 says that James is talking about bad-mouthing/judging FELLOW BELIEVERS. So do your points in your message refer to FELLOW BELIEVERS or to anyone out there including the violent rioters that are destroying property, stealing, and harming others in the process even blinding police and physically harming them with fireworks, frozen water bottles, bricks, and other deadly projectiles.  Am I not to have any OPINION about that and feel that these acts of crime and violence have a consequence???  

If WE, the church, don’t confront this madness then ask yourself “if not us, who, if not now, when?”

Cindy von Coelln (long time member of Saddleback Church) August 12, 2020

Pastor Rick’s message last Sunday: This past weekend, we continued studying about how to improve relationships, even in the middle of difficult times. Because when we’re tired, when we’re fatigued, when we’re under long-term stress, it often brings out the worst in us, and we can become irritable. We can become touchy, rude, demanding, and judgmental of others. 

That’s why James comes back a second time to deal with the issue of not judging others. I talked about this in my message called, “A Faith That Keeps Me From Playing God in the Lives of Others.”

Why should I not judge others? Well, James (chapter) 4 points out three reasons: 

1. Judging others is unloving.

2. Judging others is God’s job, not mine!

3. Judging others is un-Christian. 

How can I learn to be less judgmental, particularly during this COVID-19 crisis when everybody’s under stress, everybody’s tired, and everybody’s at the end of their rope?

James 4:11-12 NIV

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister^[a] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Note: The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family.