one or two aspects of our lives, all the while denying Him access to the rest of our being. He is to be Lord of all. This involves far more than our Sunday activities. He must have the absolute mastery. So many things can stand in the way of our being effective for the Lord. Think of all He has done on our behalf. This should strike at the very heart of our problems. It is possible even for a Christian to be guilty of unbelief when it comes to the thiogs of God. Christians should expect some slander from unbelievers but not from other children of God (II Corinthians 12:20). We are absolutely forbid den to judge one another. It is a sad fact that one can be lieve intellectually in God's exis tence and yet by his deeds live as if the Lord did not exist at all. This is the heart and core of practical atheism against which James defin itely speaks out. God is not dead; He is operative and constantly at work through all the affairs of life. We must be very careful that we are not guilty of sinning against the Lord (James 4:13-17). Human pride reveals itself in many differ ent forms. A haughty spirit, an air of superiority and an unforgiving disposition, are all signs of this. There are really few sins which cannot be traced to pride and sel fishness. Have you ever watched people drive on the freeway? You may be going the speed limit and yet an individual behind you, indepen dent in spirit, cannot stand to have you ahead of him. He is deter mined at all costs to pass. He will risk anything just to achieve his goal. Many people reveal their problems in the manner in which
to analyze another man's secret motivation? Pride leads to craving exalted positions. This leads to fightings and struggles within the church. It seems that if we cannot rise to exalted heights any other way, we start a whispering cam paign against the one who holds the office we may really want. Evil speaking is rooted in selfish ness. It grows out of pride. Malici ous talk, censorious remarks, clev er inuendos are sins against the law of love (2:8-12). Slander and sarcasm expose the springs of ana- mosity which flow from a person's heart. Such practices demonstrate that the offender has placed him self above the law of God and no longer wants to live in His direc tion. Pride can carry the believer so far that he actually imagines he is not obligated to comply with God's Word. Some Christians crit icize the law of love, placing them selves beyond the reach of its glor ious authority. It is bad enough to judge other believers and even to criticize the law, but it is worse to sin against God who gave the law. The man who is critical of the law is in ef fect opposing the divine Lawgiver. God has imposed the regulations on His creatures. The Lord alone possesses the right to enforce His law and to deal with the offenders. The one God who decides to save the elect and to condemn the rep robate, is alone sufficient to deter mine the character of a believer's conduct. What Christian is suffici ent for these things? We do not have a single excuse to judge one another. Evil speaking is essentially this. It is wrong to compartmentalize God. We cannot relegate Him to Page 38
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