James 4:11-12

we'll be looking at verses 11 and 12. That's James chapter 4 verses 11 and 12. Do not speak evil against one another brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges a 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. There is only one law giver and judge, he who was able to save and to destroy. But who are we to judge your neighbor? May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Now this morning we'll be talking about repentance, which is a very important part of the Christian faith, but because repentance does not explicitly appear in our text, it will be my intention to demonstrate that repentance is really what James is dealing with in this text. So even though it's not explicitly mentioned, it's really the essence of what James is dealing with in these two verses. So what I want to do to demonstrate the legitimacy of such a claim is give five overarching or preliminary observations concerning repentance before we address three things from the text that demonstrates that it's about repentance. So there are five things that we want to look at before we actually dive into the text. I'll begin with a working definition of what scripture means by the term repentance. So that's the first thing we'll do. We'll give a basic understanding of what the scripture means when it speaks of repentance. And really at its most fundamental level, the word repentance and we see it especially as it's used in the Old Testament, repentance literally means to turn, to turn. The prophetic in the prophetic books where God uses the prophets to call his people to repentance, the term is usually used, the term is used in conjunction with repentance over and over again. Now what I'll do is I'll cite two particular places from the prophecy of Ezekiel where the Lord is calling his people to repent and he uses the phrase turn in the call to repentance. In Ezekiel chapter 14 verse 6 and then we'll look at another one but let's begin in Ezekiel 14 verse 6. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord of the Lord God, repent and turn away from, turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations. Repent and turn and it's really sort of using one thing to describe the other. The second place is in Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 3. Same scenario, same prophet and the Lord says, therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, according to his ways declares the Lord, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, less your iniquity, be your ruin. So in both of these places and you find this combination of repent and turn throughout the prophetic warnings in the Old Testament. So the essence of repentance is to turn. Here's the second thing, here's in the Greek New Testament because that's the Old Testament and is using Hebrew language and constructs. But in the New Testament, which is written primarily in Greek, the primary word that's or the most commonly used word to describe repentance is merinoia, merinoia. And the word merinoia literally means to have a change of mind. So in most places in most most terms in the New Testament are most places where you find the word repent in the New Testament, a variation of the word merinoia is used and it basically means to have a change of mind or to change one's thinking. And in that case, it's this changing of the mind that prompts the act of turning. So it's not a different definition for repentance, but it's showing you repentance, the mechanics of repentance from a different vantage point. So the idea in the Old Testament terminology is to turn. But in the New Testament, the idea, which is the same thing, to turn, but it's a little more in depth in terms of explaining the term. So the idea is that it is the change of mind that prompts the act of turning. Or to put it another way as we see it in the New Testament, repentance is a change of mind that precipitates a change of behavior and direction. Here's a third observation. Repentance because it is a change of mind is a conscious turning. So it's a matter of consciousness, but here it is. Repentance is a conscious turning from one thing and a conscious turning towards another. So it's not just turning away from, but rather it's also a conscious turning towards. To go back to the Ezekiel passages, when the Lord calls his people to turn from idolatry, he is also calling them to turn towards him in worship, in true worship and devotion. So again, the idea is they have already been engaged in one thing. So when we couple it with the change of mind, his calling them to repent is to have a change of mind about what you are doing in your idolatry and then consciously turn towards the true worship and devotion of Yahweh because of a change of mind. Here's a fourth thing. In the Christian faith, there are two dimensions of repentance. In the Christian faith, there are two dimensions of repentance. A, there is repentance unto salvation, repentance unto salvation, and the repentance unto salvation is the result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the gospel. So in other words, the Holy Spirit brings life where there was no life and it brings a consciousness that was not previously there. So through the ministry of the gospel, repentance unto salvation is a conscious turning away from, or a consciousness, I should say, of our sinful state and our condemnation so that we consciously turn from that and we consciously embrace the grace of God as it is in Jesus Christ. In other words, we know here's what what happens through the ministry of the gospel, the Holy Spirit awakens us to the standard of God's law and to our inability to reach it and the Holy Spirit makes us conscious of the fact that we are condemned, that we are sinners under the just condemnation of a Holy God. Now, therefore, understanding what we are, we then are empowered by the Spirit to turn from that and look with faith towards Christ and consciously turn to Him. There is no one who is truly saved that does not come to Christ because they are conscious that they are condemned. There is no other way to genuinely come to Christ. So in other words, if you're just coming to Jesus for good advice and a good role model, you have not repented. You have not turned. So salvation, repentance unto salvation, is the result of the Holy Spirit who awakens us, enlivens us so that we could see the dangerous position we are in before God and then He makes us conscious of the fullness of God's grace in Christ and we consciously turn to Him and we take refuge in His righteousness and we find covering in Him. Now, this repentance unto salvation is a one-time thing. We don't repent over and over again and get saved over and over and over again. That's one of the reasons that we do not practice re-dedications. We don't re-dedicate. We don't believe that you need to be re-dedicated. He said, but I've been out of church for 30 years. You were never out of the arms of God if you are in, if your faith is in the person and work of Christ. We're not saying you didn't act before for 30 years. Of course you did. But you don't have to come. You don't have to get reborn again again. So therefore, this repentance unto salvation is a one-time repentance. You don't have to repent over and over and over again in order to be saved. But here's the B part of it. The second dimension of Christian repentance is in the realm of our sanctification and this involves are being brought under conviction for the sin that remains in us. And the spirit through the ministry of the Word of God convicts us and causes us to consciously turn from a particular sin and to consciously turn towards conformity to the law of God. So again, repentance unto salvation is to turn as we are awakened by the spirit from condemnation to acceptance in Christ. One-time thing. In our sanctification, the spirit brings us under conviction through the ministry of the Word, brings us under conviction for particular sins that are enlarged to us by God through His Word so that we become conscious of that guilt and we consciously turn from the sin and we consciously seek to conform our pattern of behavior to the Word and the law of God. And this brothers and sisters is not only ongoing, but it's an ongoing and not only that, sometimes you may find yourself repenting over and over again for the same thing. Now here's what we are quick to do. Well, if it was genuine, it is genuine every time we confess and every time we are brought under conviction and we seek to go out and do the right thing as far as evil is always present and sometimes you may be very genuine in your repentance and then you get caught up again in the same thing. That's why Jesus tells his disciples that if your brother sins against you seven times in a day, then you are to forgive him and he comes back in repentance. Seven times, then go ahead and receive him and another time when Jesus was talking about the dynamics of forgiveness. Peter just put it out there. Peter says, Lord, look, how many times will I have to forgive my brother and by the way, those are two separate occasions? But Peter says, Lord, how many times do I have to forgive my brother? Jesus, he says, what, seven times? And Jesus says no because he knows that he knows perhaps that Peter was just picking up on what he said, which is covered in 17 chapter Luke. And so Peter at this point is trying to say, well, okay, what if I've done my seven? And Jesus says no, not seven, but seven times seventy. If he comes to you and here, I can, I can hear Peter thinking like, but it's the same thing. It's the same thing. How do I know? He was, you know, how do I know? He's serious this time. And Jesus says, if he comes to you and he seeks repentance, seventy times seven, and since Peter didn't have a cell phone or calculator, it took him a while to figure seventy times seven out. It's 490, by the way, and that's not, that's not the cap on it. So you don't just wait to 491, and then you don't have to forgive. The point that Jesus is making is that your brother like you may struggle. And when he's trying to be sincere, and he messes up, and he asked for forgiveness, forgiven, and don't hold the other times against him. I've shared before, but I had a very dear friend that I grew up with, and brilliant, brilliant thinker, he was, you know, his mathematician, he taught math, and so forth. And he had a rough patch in his life where he became addicted to crack cocaine. And at the time, he was living with his brother, and, you know, crack cocaine was smoked in a pipe. And there was, there were times where he would, he would call me over because he was, he was really struggling with it. And, and he would ask me to just take, just take the, the pipe from him, and ask me to break it for it. And there was a closet in his brother's house where there were way too many broken crack pipes for me to even try to count. And here's the thing, I knew that every time he called me, he was genuine. And I knew that every broken crack pipe was a genuine act of repentance that he turned, he saw the horror of what he had done, and he broke it, meaning not to ever do it again, but he found himself doing it again. The point is, this brothers and sisters, there is a repentance once until eternal life. And that once, that one time turning means that we are, our status is forever changed. But there's another dimension of repentance that is an ongoing part of the Christian life. It includes continual repentance from the same thing, sometimes over and over and over again. Now there are two quotes that I want to frame around this second or around both dimensions of repentance. One is from John Calvin. John Calvin writes this. He says repentance is not merely the start of the Christian life. That is the one time repentance unto salvation. He says repentance is not merely the start of the Christian life. It is the Christian life period. It's not the start of the Christian life, but it is the Christian life. Martin Luther puts it this way, the whole Christian life is a life of repentance. Repentance brings us into salvation. And because we are safe, we have a lifetime of wrestling with sin, taking off the old, putting on the new, which is really a demonstration or a description of repentance. Here's the fifth and final preliminary observation. What makes the ongoing repentance as part of our sanctification, both possible and necessary, and both of those terms are important. So what makes the ongoing repentance as part of our sanctification both possible and necessary is the fact that our one time repentance unto salvation brings us into eternal union with the finished work of Christ. Now let me explain what I mean when I say both aspects of that because the two things that I said that this does is our ongoing sanctification is made possible and necessary. So our ongoing sanctification is possible because of the one time salvation or repentance unto salvation connects us to our puts us into union with Christ, therefore we are in dwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and it is only because of our union with Christ that we can fight against sin. So it's the only reason it's possible for us to turn from particular sinful behaviors is because of our union with Christ, but on the other hand the fact that we are in union with Christ makes it necessary for us to take off that which is displeasing. The fact that we are tied to Christ by virtue of our one time repentance unto salvation empowers us, but brothers and sisters is because we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus which is the rationale of Paul in Colossians 3 that we are to put to death the deeds of the flesh. It's because we are children of light that we denounce the darkness that is in us. It is because we have been bought with the price that we are to therefore see ourselves not only as as servants of God but we are therefore to see ourselves through the lens of our position in Christ. So now let's turn to our text and as we turn to our text here's what I want to do. Having laid out what we have about repentance in general the first off the Old Testament emphasis of turning that repentance consists of turning the New Testament definition of repentance as a change of mind that props the turning understanding that that the Christian faith itself consists of repentance unto salvation through Jesus Christ empowered by the Spirit. And it also includes continual repentance from those sins that we are aware of that we are guilty of even as we cling to Christ. As we do that what I want to do is demonstrate from our text three areas that imply repentance three things in other words in this broader course in the context of chapter four what James is dealing with primarily is with the behavior the fellowship the way in which they were dealing with one another in the context of Christian fellowship. And so I would argue that what he presents in these verses is what it really means to demonstrate repentance from those things that he's listed. So here's the first thing James is assuming in essence that what he has set forth in the first in the previous verses has both humbled and healed his audience. James is assuming that the words that he has expressed in the previous verses not only in this chapter but elsewhere has humbled and healed his listeners. Now there in and and that being the case he is also assuming at this point having confronted their sins he is assuming that it is their intention to submit to God as he instructed them to do in verse seven. And what he says in these verses explains basically what it means to submit to God and especially and specifically submitting to God as it relates to their view and their treatment of others. So that's that's really the issue that that James has taken up here. So specifically you'll notice that in verses 11 and 12 he addresses their brothers and sisters in other words fellowship in the community in the in the fellow in the covenant community. So he says don't speak evil against your brothers. But then in verse 12 he talks about not judging your neighbor. So what we want to begin with the idea that what James is assuming here he is assuming that the words that he has set forth the harsh terminology that he's used to expose their sins with the waitingness of the law has broken them and has made them contrite that indeed they are sorry for their actions and therefore it is their intention to submit to the will of God. So that makes it clear that the type of repentance that is being addressed in these verses is not repentance unto salvation. He's not questioning their salvation and let me just say this real quick. When you look at how severe his critique is of this church unlike many of us in the contemporary church when we see the slightest thing off then we'll say and they claim to be a Christian as if things that James described here that you're being a friend with the world and therefore acting like an enemy of God and he does not say and you claim to be a Christian. He's assuming that their profession of faith is a genuine faith and he is not therefore surprised at how outlandish some of their behavior is but what he has done is he has exposed the depths of their evil behavior and he's challenged them because he's told them in essence you have submitted to Satan and you've resisted God and now he's telling them to reverse it now he says submit to God notice what he says draw near to God and he'll draw near to you cleanse yourselves in the grace of God so if you've truly been broken if you've truly been if you've truly been challenged if your heart is truly contrived then submit to God and so the question would be in this category in this context what does submission to God look like enough or put it another way what does repentance look like in this regard what does repentance look like and that's what James is James is assuming before we can can lay out what it will look like he says this therefore brothers he's assuming that what he who he's addressing at this point do not want to continue down the line of doing the bidding of the evil one so James if that is the case you you've broken me already you've already told us what we should not do so what will repentance look like in this category so first thing again that we want to begin with is that James is the assumption upon which James enters into this pattern for repentance in this context the assumption that he's working with is aid that they are saved and because they are saved he is assuming that it is their intention to submit to the law of God what that brings us to a second thing therefore if they are going to turn from sinful views and sinful treatment of others they will have to turn from an from an over inflated sense of their own moral authority if you're going to treat neighbors and brothers right then because remember repentance is turning from and then turning to as you've had a change of mind and are empowered by the Holy Spirit so in this instance because the action that he calls for is to not speak evil against your brother and so in order to do that what James is saying okay now if you want to know what repentance is like in this instance repentance is really at this point is a matter of changing yourself turning from you being the highest moral authority and turn towards God's law as the highest moral authority see in to speak or to act or or James the way James puts it is that to speak or act towards one's brother and or neighbor in a way that is contrary to what God has established in his law is to set your law in opposition to his in other words what it is one thing is if a brother or sister or a neighbor is walking contrary to the law of God then we have a right to call that and to challenge that but what James is addressing here is not not people taking the high ground of God's law as they deal with neighbors and as they deal with one another but his the essence of what he's saying throughout in chapter three as well as in chapter four is that they have they have a whole different standard in other words why what is your issue with your neighbor what is your issue with your brother and sister the one that you have talked about what is your issue with them is it well I don't like this and we'll see that's the problem because your actions towards your brothers and your sisters as well as towards your neighbor does not begin with what you like you are not the standard maker and so that's the way James challenges it here you notice that in both of these verses that what James does is basically he says that to set your standard what offends you as the standard makes you the judge of that standard and so he says therefore he says judge or don't don't judge people in essence according to your standard because you're the judge but instead he says that we that self is not the standard so in both of these verses he says in verse 12 summarizes it even though he addresses that judging in book 11 and 12 but in verse 12 he summarizes it there is only one law giver and there's only one judge so repentance in this situation is a conscious turning away from your own feelings your own perceptions and your own experiences as the basis for which your the basis for your words and your actions towards others now we've all had those people in our lives or we've seen them sometimes they're not even in our lives sometimes they just pass through and we'll say something like I just don't like them okay confess that and recognize that you are not the one who sets the standard that's what that's what James is saying clearly here he says don't speak evil against one against one another brothers because the one who speaks against a brother or judges and the term that's translated here as judges is one who who has the right to avenge taking vengeance on someone we're told in scriptures that vengeance belongs to the Lord and so sometimes we use our feelings and sometimes we use our experiences or as some people say I just I just go with my gut something is just wrong with him I just don't like him James says you you don't you your interactions in your horizontal relationships has been defined for you by God and here's what he tells us in terms of our horizontal relationships he says don't lie to one another don't steal don't bear false witness don't covet your neighbor doesn't matter what color doesn't matter what political persuasion don't do it now here's what happens is in in we we have our own predilections towards others and then it's reinforced by other sources so repentance in this regard repentance in dealing with neighbors as we are the what repentance will look like is it turning away from the standard that allows you to make yourself the judge over other people and to turn towards the standard of law that gives God the right which he owns to determine how we are to treat others and you know what because we're fallen we're always going to have reasons to put caveats on it and repentance means that we consciously and continuously turn from a mode of behavior towards others that has been validated by external sources other than God I've really been impressed in the last couple years and following the story of Fred Rogers you know Mr. Rogers and last I think it was last year we watched a documentary on Mr. Rogers because I didn't grow up on Mr. Rogers and so I didn't know anything about him when my son came around I didn't know anything about him so we didn't bring him up on Mr. Rogers even though he would watch him on occasion but I didn't know much about Mr. Rogers but I knew that he was easy to make jokes about people would look at him and so look at him and we make all kind of creepy jokes about him and no one really knew him and then I got a chance to watch the documentary and I know now there's there's a film with with with Tom Hanks playing the character of Mr. Rogers when I watch that documentary I mean I learned something about Mr. Rogers and it's like wow here's a man who believes what the Bible says about sin and salvation and he lives it and then I listened to an interview from a lady who actually wrote a biography of Mr. Rogers she made this observation because the host as they were talking to her said you know he's an easy in fact one of the hosts said that he had two experiences about Mr. Rogers that he's ashamed of one he when he was graduating from Princeton Mr. Rogers was was the commencement speaker and this brother who is a Christian and a Christian minister only he didn't know anything about Mr. Rogers but he was an adult he's graduating from Princeton and so he thought he was too creepy and so therefore he chose not to go because he looked at Mr. Rogers as someone not to be taken seriously the second event was was something else a few years later and something came up about oh a friend of his that had also graduated from Princeton talked about his father actually what's a seminary with Mr. Rogers and he relished in telling the story that that his father this his friend's father beat up Mr. Rogers when he was in seminary because he thought he was a city and said he talked about how funny he thought that was and as I listen to the interview woman who wrote the book she made this observation and Mr. Rogers was number one consistently himself and she said because he stood out he's so stood on what he believed he was strange it made him look odd and because we don't like what is odd rather than delving into it we judge it from afar but brothers and sisters I think the thing the beauty about Mr. Rogers and if you go back and certainly watch the documentary he addressed all of the issues of his day with grace the thing about Mr. Rogers is that in the midst of political turmoil in the midst of civic unrest he never lost sight of God's commands to be kindhearted and he wasn't afraid to go against the grain in addressing the issues of his day and he didn't really care that people made jokes about him he was aware he just didn't care brothers and sisters here's what James is saying

your problem in these relationships is that you have it it has become too easy for you to speak ill of people because they've offended you it becomes too easy for you to to to otherwise someone because they don't meet your standard repentance means in this instance to turn from that standard of you and turn to the standard of God's law of which he is the judge over because in your kingdom and in your realm you have your own laws and you're judging people who have been made by God according to your standards and you didn't make them here's what something I find interesting that he says in verse 12 when he says that there's only one law and one judge and there and here's what he says there's only he's the one who's able to save and he's the one who's able to destroy so think about it for a moment if you if you are the standard of right and wrong you don't have the power to save or to destroy anyone now I know putting them out of your social circle taking them out of your your friends list or whatever maybe you think you can and then in your small world our small world we think that bringing someone back into the circle is essential to saving them but the worst part of it is that there are some that we have exed out for whatever external reasons that we have and we have no intention of saving them. James is reminding us that if you really want if if you have truly submitted your desires to submit to the law of God because he's assuming again that you have been humbled by what he has said and you have been healed by what he has said and it is your desire therefore to submit to God so what does that repentance look like it looks like you retiring as judge and let God be judge because you don't know the hearts of individuals and you don't have the power to exonerate and you certainly don't have the power to extinguish and to act like we are is to set ourselves in the place of God well that brings us to a third thing as he or a second thing as it relates to the overarching message here or is that they are now if they are to repent they are to turn from self as the source and they are to turn to God and His law as the source so having rebuked them earlier in the previous chapter for being comfortable in praising God and cursing their neighbors or those who were made in the image of God in the same instance and then in chapter 4 James refers to a pattern of contentions and or contentious conversations that they've had as as he characterizes them as being quarreling and fighting therefore in this regard once we have turned from or once we have turned from us as being the moral authority and now turn to the moral authority of God repentance means being intentional in refraining from speaking evil to our brothers and to our neighbors again the challenge is this what you've done and so James has taken the pattern of behavior that they've been comfortable with and he now says so he has removed them as the moral authority now he says in going forward that's the way verse 11 begins in going forward don't speak evil to your brothers in going forward don't be contentious now what's going to happen just like my friend with his broken crack pipe you you might mess up and and and start speaking evil and go back into the same pattern of contentions that you're used to and hopefully the same thing that humbled to this time will humble you the next time now when it comes to our speech and we've addressed this in in various contexts but when James speaks of speaking evil against our brothers when it comes to our speech with others as we've noted before the law of God should govern our speech in three important areas number one God's law should govern into it should govern what we say to others so I would told not to lie not to bear false witness and that's why the Bible in the New Testament especially speaks harshly against against gossipers and slanderers so let God's law intentionally speak to us or govern what we say to one another that we are intentional in seasoning our words with grace a lot of times we want to fly off the cuff and we don't have a cuff to fly off of and so you say I just speak what's on my mind exactly and understand what's on your mind and your heart if not intentionally seasoned with grace is as contaminated as everything else God's words should govern what we say to one another speaking the truth in love but secondly God's word God's law governs what we say about one another not just in the presence but in their absence so God's word let God's word be intentional in that be intentional in what you allow to come out of your mouth to your brother and sister remember who it is you're speaking to is that how they're just so and so no first off here's where we begin they are an image bearer of God Martin Luther says the holiest thing that we'll see on any given day is another human being and when we fail to see that then we begin to to spring out of the standards by which we can approach them but not only are they image bears of God but at the very worst they are neighbors and second table of the law says that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves without any qualification doesn't matter color nationality ethnicity none of that matters their neighbors and then thirdly they may be brothers and sisters in the Lord so Paul admonishes us to do good to all men but especially to the household of God so therefore God's word or God's law ought to govern first what we say to our brothers and our sisters and our neighbors there's also it also should govern what we say about them but then God's word or God's law also ought to govern what we do not say now here's what I mean by what we do not say not only refraining I think it's a twofold refraining one refraining from things that are hurtful and unnecessary whether to them or about them that we intentionally refrain from God's word ought to govern us and what we do not say you know what we get cutesy with sin it was there well I'm not going to say it but you know that's not that's not allowing what you don't say to be governed by what God has already established that's that's you being cute because you know your audience already knows what you're saying I think there's another thing that we in our sinfulness are also prone to we're prone to refrain from speaking peace comfort and kindness and even words of gratitude that God's law compels us to do in other words I think when it when we talk about God's law of governing what we do not say I think it means that we should God's law should govern or should should be the basis of what we refrain from saying as James missions in verse 11 but I think if we allow God's law to govern us it'll make us say sometimes what we are too stubborn to proud and too obstinate to say that we would go to the one who has brought us rebuke and thank them that we would not be we would not be sinfully silent when our brothers and sisters are hurting when our brothers and sisters could use a word of encouragement that we would be sinfully intentionally silent because we have an ought against them you're not the judge that's what James is saying you're you're not the judge and so repentance in this manner will not only require that you change yourself from being the moral authority and let God be the moral authority and the judge of what is and is not appropriate for you to or in in terms of your conduct repentance is also it also means intentionally trying to govern your pattern of conversation according to the standard of God's law that we're not just accidentally kind we ought to be intentionally so and sometimes we draw our lines in the sand and because we've been so comfortable for not speaking to people for so long that we don't feel a need to God has so connected us in the body of Christ that we shouldn't be comfortable in our obstinate silence but here's a third and final thing that repentance looks like in this regard repentance in this context includes seeing others in the categories that God has given us rather than through the category of the categories of the world and to go back to the point that we made earlier all men and women are either our neighbors or our brothers and our sisters all of the other things that we have heaped upon us and therefore we must treat them in this way phased before the fact that they are our neighbors you say well you don't know what they did okay if they are guilty neighbors and guilty brothers and sisters there should be laws that determine their guilt and you're not that law it doesn't mean that people all do right but it simply means that I don't have a right to choose how I treat individuals because of the categories that I created they are my neighbors they are my or my brothers and sisters in the Lord they are they they're not a a demographic first they're not an ethnic group first they are not a political party first they are not their fashion first what they are is first and foremost image bearers of God we know they're sinful because we are but they're they are image bearers of God and if they are not in the family of God they are at least our neighbors and I don't have a right to think speak or act towards that neighbor in a way that is different and contrary to what the law that has been established by God and at listen if they're not just our neighbors and this is something that we've addressed in the past that that we have gotten too comfortable with contentions in our churches in the body of Christ they're not just our neighbors but they are vital organs and limbs in the same body that we are in so we need to be intentional and turning away from our standard and what we like and what we prefer our brothers and sisters just think about the trivial things that we have justified that we think have justified our ill treatment of others that we share at the same table from I don't you know I never did like him they we don't even we because they won't they won't even allow us to just to do the praise dances so you know I ain't got time for you what but you know she said this years ago and they're really and that's why Jesus uses the weight of law when he said a new law I have given to you he's not talking to the world he's talking to believers and the new law that I've given to you is to love one another as I have loved you brothers and sisters do you know how irritating you are to Jesus

do you know how repulsive you are in and of yourself to Jesus how annoying we must be to God

but while we were yet enemies he came and brought us into his family and even when we mess up he doesn't speak evil you know what and one one one concluding thought here to illustrate what James is talking about you remember when Jesus goes to to John and John baptize him John the Baptist and then Jesus goes to town preaching John gets in prison and the same John the Baptist that when he saw Jesus coming he says the whole the Lamb of God who take it the way the sins of the world and then Jesus didn't visit him not only did he not visit him but he didn't even let him for he didn't set him free from prison John is sitting around with his disciples and he says and I need you to go ask him something you go ask Jesus if he's the one or should we look for another when the disciples get to Jesus he doesn't he doesn't he doesn't betray John he doesn't tear him down he doesn't talk about his weakness but what he tells those who brought him that news he says of all of them prophets born of a woman there is none greater than John the Baptist that's what he says this man who spoke boldly when he saw Jesus coming in so humbled at his presence that he says I'm not even worthy to tie the laces of your shoe let alone baptize you now in a moment of self pity Jesus doesn't use the pity of John to cancel him of all of the prophets born of a woman there's been none greater than John and then knowing John's love of the scriptures he says then by the way go tell John this he'll understand go tell him that the blind have their sight given to them go tell them go tell him that the poor have the gospel preach to them and he'll know exactly what you mean brothers and sisters repentance from toxic fellowship repentance from from ungodly conversations with and about others it means to recognize that your feelings are not the standard and it means to turn to be intentional in what you say and how you say it as well as in what you don't say and it also means that the categories by which we will see men and women and the categories that have been established in God's law so that we will not allow our favorite new source to otherwise others flawed as they are wrong as they may be but they are still image bearers of God and we are not the ones to judge because we can neither destroy nor save repentance I think is what these two verses are about repentance and trusting that the people of God who have heard the word of God in these previous verses have been humbled and are ashamed but they have also been healed and therefore empowered to seek to submit to the authority and the will of God even in their dealings with others let's pray our God and our Father we come to you and the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ thanking you for this privilege of fellowship and worship we thank you for your word that continues to remind us of the sufficiency of your grace for all of our sins and as we have heard your word we pray Father that we would avail ourselves to your law as the standard by which we are to conduct ourselves and the lens through which we are to deal with our neighbors as well as our brothers and sisters thank you for your spirit who has given us the ability to turn to Christ for eternal life and empowers us to live daily conform to his thoughts to his grace into your word be with us now as we leave this place and we pray that that which we have heard would go from our ears to our hearts and back to our thoughts so that we would think, speak and act more and more like the children of God that we are we ask these things in Christ name amen amen would you please stand