Two Pictures of Speech
Do we live in a judgmental culture?
Method our culture uses:
Sarah Roff in an online article for The Chronicle of Higher Education writes, “One of my biggest concerns about trigger warnings is that they will apply not just to those who have experienced trauma, but to all students, creating an atmosphere in which they are encouraged to believe that there is something dangerous or damaging about discussing difficult aspects of our history.”
In an article published last year by Inside Higher Ed, seven humanities professors wrote that the trigger-warning movement was “already having a chilling effect on [their] teaching and pedagogy.” They reported their colleagues’ receiving “phone calls from deans and other administrators investigating student complaints that they have included ‘triggering’ material in their courses, with or without warnings.” A trigger warning, they wrote, “serves as a guarantee that students will not experience unexpected discomfort and implies that if they do, a contract has been broken.” When students come to expect trigger warnings for any material that makes them uncomfortable, the easiest way for faculty to stay out of trouble is to avoid material that might upset the most sensitive student in the class.
- Coddling of the American Mind Article in 2015 in The Atlantic by Jonathan Haidt.
Do we live in a judgmental culture?
Method our culture uses:
INSPIRATION
INSPIRATION
ILLUMINATION
Hi, I’m James!
James 4:1-12
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:1-12
5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James 4:1-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Speaking destructively to or about anyone else is a really big deal because God is God, and we ought never to try to take His place.
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Doesn’t the BIBLE tell us TO judge?
I ALREADY know this!
Doesn’t the BIBLE tell us TO judge?
I ALREADY know this!
JUDGE at your own risk!
7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Matthew 7:1-5
BE Discerning regarding Character.
6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
�Matthew 7:6
“The command to judge not is not a requirement to be blind, but rather a plea to be generous.”
- John Stott, Sermon on the Mount.
#AuthenticFAITH
Our Goal is to Gain Back a brother or sister.
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
James 5:19-20
Our Goal is to Gain Back a brother or sister.
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
Matthew 18:15
Doesn’t the BIBLE tell us TO judge?
I ALREADY know this!
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Judging others = Viewing other people as GUILTY, as deserving of punishment because of the choices they have made. Viewing ourselves as BETTER THAN THEM because of the choices we have made.
Evaluating = Viewing other people as fellow strugglers, guilty, JUST LIKE WE ARE, as deserving of punishment because of the choices they, AND WE, have made, but who through the transforming, redeeming power of Jesus’ love can be changed JUST LIKE WE ARE. Viewing ourselves as NO better than them because of the choices we have made.
How might I evaluate rather than judge?
Exegesis
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Life
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Biblically Saturated: Think Biblically about everything.
Culturally Discerning: wisely navigate an accelerated, complex culture.
Beth Foss.
STORY of…
Ongoing Spiritual
Transformation.
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Romans 2:1-5
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
Romans 2:1-5
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Speak evil → judges others → judges God's law → judges God → not a doer
#AuthenticFAITH
James 1:22
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
James 2:14;17
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Faith - Works =
Faith 🡪 Works =
Faith + Works =
Genuine Faith
NO Faith
FALSE Faith
If we think we trust Jesus, but there are no signs of spiritual life (IN WHAT WE SAY), no matter how much we understand, we really don’t trust Him.
AuthenticFAITH
How might I evaluate rather than judge?
Two Pictures of Speech