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Watch What You Say!

It is easy to just say what comes into one’s mind without thoroughly processing it and measuring it against the standard of YHWH’s Torah.  To measure what one says with YHWH’s Torah takes time and effort.  However, YHWH commands His people to do this very thing. 

Ya’aqov (James) 4:11 
Speak not one against another, brethren.  He that speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the Torah, and judges the Torah; but if you judge the Torah, you are not a doer of the Torah, but a judge.

It seems there are many who misunderstand this passage.  Look at what it is saying very carefully to see what the Spirit of YHWH will teach the person who has an open heart to His Spirit.

Here is a list so that this verse can be more easily managed.

1.  Do not speak against a brother.
2.  One who speaks against a brother is guilty of judging his brother.
3.  One who is guilty of speaking against his brother is also guilty of speaking against His Torah.
4.  One who is guilty of speaking against the Torah is guilty of judging the Torah.
5.  One who is guilty of judging the Torah is not obeying the Torah.

The writer is drawing a comparison between speaking against a brother, which is the same as judging him without due process, and speaking against the Torah and not keeping it.  First, let’s discuss what it means to speak against a brother in this context.

Yochanan (John) 7:51 
“Does our Torah judge a man, except it first hear from him and know what he is doing?”

There is a very specific process laid out in Scripture that a person must go through before he can be rightly judged.  In the passage in Ya’aqov, what the writer is condemning is speaking against a brother who has not gone through that process.  If a person has not gone through that process as laid out in Scripture, then the person who is speaking against a brother is acting as the judge.  Such a person is acting as if it is not necessary for a person to be judged according to Torah, but rather is taking upon himself the sole responsibility of determining another person’s guilt.  This is wrong and it is against Torah.  Furthermore, such an action is eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because a person is determining for himself (as well as for others) what is right and what is wrong.

Furthermore, when such a person speaks against a brother who has not gone through the process as taught in the Torah, then that person is speaking against the Torah as well.  Why?  Such a person is speaking against the Torah because he has deemed the Torah not worthy of keeping.  Thereby, he is also judging the Torah as being inadequate and lacking.  Such a person who does this is claiming that he knows better than the Torah.  In fact, ultimately, such a person is acting as if he knows better than the One who gave the Torah.  His actions proclaim that he is more knowledgeable than YHWH our Elohim.  In essence, such a person who judges the Torah (which means not to do it – see verse 11 above) has set himself up as his own god.  This is nothing short of idolatry.

Ya’aqov (James) 1:22 
But you are to be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

The person who chooses to speak against a brother, which is the same as speaking against the Torah, is a deluded person.  He has deluded himself into thinking that it is okay for him not to obey the Torah of YHWH.  He has deluded himself into thinking that he is above the Torah.  He has deluded himself into thinking that he knows better than the One who created him.  He has deluded himself into thinking that he can determine what is right and what is wrong.

Perhaps the saddest part of this whole scenario is the lack of realization that Mashiach Yeshua is the Torah made flesh. 

Yochanan (John) 1:14 
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The “Word of YHWH” is an idiom for the Torah.  The word is Torah.  Consequently, when Scripture teaches that the word became flesh, it is essentially saying that the Torah became flesh.  Therefore, there is the written Torah as well as the living Torah.  The living Torah is Mashiach Yeshua.  While one can separate the written Torah from the living Torah in an academic sense for the purpose of discussion, in reality the two cannot be separated.

Therefore, when one reads this verse from Ya’aqov about judging the Torah, one should also understand this to mean that one who is speaking against his brother, thereby judging his brother, is thus speaking against and judging Mashiach Yeshua.  Now, brothers and sisters, does that not seem to be the very pinnacle of folly?  To be sure! 

Nevertheless, when a person is taken through the process as given in the Torah to determine whether the Torah was broken and what kind of punishment should be meted out, it is not the person who is being judged, rather it is the actions of that person.  Herein lies the basic difference between what the Torah process does, and what an individual does, when he speaks against a brother.  When a person speaks against a brother, he is really attempting to tear down the reputation of his brother in the eyes of those to whom he is speaking.  This is wrong and it is a serious breaking of the Torah. 

Tehillim (Psalm) 140:11 
An evil speaker shall not be established in the earth;
Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.

Surely those who practice this kind of evil shall surely perish.

Mishle (Proverbs) 18:21 
Death and life are in the power of the tongue;
And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

The person who sows life with his mouth, shall eat the fruit of that life.  Likewise, he who sows death with his lips shall also eat that fruit.  Remember, YHWH shall not be mocked, for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap!  (See Galatians 6:7 ff)

Ya’aqov (James) 3:8-10
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless YHWH and the Father; and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of Elohim;
10 out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing.  My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

A wise man will guard the words of his mouth with the greatest of diligence.  But who can do this?  He who can do this is a complete man.  Let one bless and curse not.  The Master Yeshua, when He was reviled, did not turn in like manner and revile those who were reviling Him.  Each person should determine to be a blessing to all men, regardless of how another treats him.

Romans 2:1 
Therefore you are without excuse, man, whosoever you are that judges; for in how you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you that judge practice the same things.

Each person should be careful what comes out of his mouth, for what comes out of his mouth is revealing what is in his heart.  If a person condemns another for something, it is very likely because that same thing is in his own heart and he cannot stand it in himself.  Consequently, instead of addressing the real problem, which is inside his own heart, he attacks and condemns his brother for the reflection of himself he sees in his brother.

Romans 2:13 
For, the hearers only of the Torah are not justified before Elohim, but the doers of the Torah shall be justified.

The Torah of YHWH has gone forth throughout all the earth as a refreshing wind in this day.  Many are being renewed by this refreshing wind.  Do not lose focus that, while YHWH commands His people to keep, do, and obey all of His Torah, one can only do this through Mashiach Yeshua.  It is His Spirit in a person that enables him and empowers him to be able to obey His Torah.  The individual person is not the one who is doing it.  It is the Spirit of YHWH doing it through the individual as he surrenders to Him.  This is equally true of being in control of the words that come forth from a person’s mouth.  If one attempts to do this in his own strength and power, then he will fail and fail miserably, and thus be miserable as he makes those around him miserable.

Kepha Aleph (1st Peter) 3:8-9
8 Finally, you all be likeminded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, humble minded;
9 not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling; but contrariwise blessing; for this were you called, that you should inherit a blessing.

YHWH has called each one to have a blessing.  In order to receive the fullness of that blessing he must carefully guard his words so that his words are a blessing to others and not a curse.  As Scripture says, one is to bless and curse not.  (See Romans 12:14)

Ephesians 4:31-32
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice;
32 and you be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as Elohim also in Mashiach Yeshua forgave you.

What one has received he is to freely give.  Since one has received forgiveness, kindness, and compassion from YHWH our Elohim, then he should freely give this to others as well.  YHWH our Elohim is patient with His people, continually forgiving their shortcomings; this one should do with his brothers and sisters in Mashiach. 

ABBA YHWH, give us wisdom and Your strength to guard the words of our mouth always; in the name of Yeshua our Mashiach.  Amein.

Shabbat Shalom
Zerubbabel ben Emunah
www.onetorahforall.com
Zerubbabel@onetorahforall.com

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