1. Lesson 9 for November 29, 2014

2. THE LAW The Lawgiver (4:12) The transgressor Gossiping and judging (4:11) Planning ahead without God (4:13) A mist (4:14) Arrogance and accountability (4:15-17)

3. “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?” (James 4:12) The Lawgiver is the most suitable One to judge. He may rightfully decide who shall be absolved and who shall be condemned; who shall be saved and who shall be lost (John 5:22) Who is the only Lawgiver and Judge that may judge the whole human race? “For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us.” (Isaiah 33:22)

4. “The Son of God spoke to Moses from the mountaintop… The Divine Legislator descended upon the rocky mountain to speak His law in the hearing of all the people, that they might be impressed by the grand and awful exhibition of His power and glory, and fear to transgress His commandments. God spoke His law amid thunders and lightnings and the thick cloud upon the top of the mountain, and His voice was as the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud. The law of Jehovah was unchangeable, and the tablets upon which He wrote that law were solid rock, signifying the immutability of His precepts.” E.G.W. (Reflecting Christ, March 22)

5. When we speak badly of others (gossip), we are judging them. Our ulterior motive is to hurt them. When we gossip, we declare that others are condemned by the law, but we feel not condemned by it. That way, we lift ourselves up above the Law and replace it with our own opinion. We are judging the Law instead of fulfilling it.

6. May judging be right in certain situations? The Church needs people with enough spiritual maturity to judge and restore those who fail. But that must never be done in a personal capacity, but as the body of Christ.

7. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit.’” (James 4:13) James obviously disapproved the behavior of those who plan for the future. Nevertheless, is it wrong to plan our short-term, mid-term and long-term activities? Those Church members were planning ahead like God didn’t exist. They did just like the man who planned to build more granaries in Jesus’ parable (Luke 12:16-21). Moreover, they were making plans like their future was in their own hands. God is the only One who can decide if we’re going to live one more day.

9. “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:15-17) Boasting and arrogance are used to describe self- sufficiency. That arrogance is evil. As Christians, we must reject evil. James also described sin. Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). But there is also a “passive” sin; knowing good and not doing it. “The law of God condemns not only what we have done but what we have not done. We will, in the day of final accounts, find a register of the sins of omission as well as the sins of commission.” E.G.W. (Manuscript Releases, vol. 6, no. 369, p. 141)

10. “Each morning consecrate yourselves and your children to God for that day. Make no calculation for months or years; these are not yours. One brief day is given you. As if it were your last on earth, work during its hours for the Master. Lay all your plans before God, to be carried out or given up, as His providence shall indicate. Accept His plans instead of your own, even though their acceptance requires the abandonment of cherished projects. Thus the life will be molded more and more after the divine example; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7.” E.G.W. (Counsels for the Church, cp. 26, pg. 152)