The JUDGE stands before the door.

Jas 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

Grudge not.

Murmur not, complain not.

What's it mean to be a complainer? Seriously, what does it say about a person when they complain about others? What's that complaining accomplishing? Is complaining- loving?

That's it right there, isn't it. Complaining is not speaking highly of someone but belittling them for whatever reason a person has- even one they might feel is totally justified. When we belittle anyone it's not love- right? How can it be? So many people have warped beliefs- they think their belittling is constructive criticism and therefore acceptable. They believe that as long as their intentions are not to truly harm another that it's all well and good to complain about them, it's not as if they're telling actually lies or anything. Voicing our opinions is something we've been taught is perfectly acceptable and it doesn't matter who it harms because after all it's just our opinion right, and we're entitled to have that opinion. Yet where does love come into play here, in all this?

Do NOTHING that you would NOT want done to you.

And once more you'll get people who claim they'd love to have you give them constructive criticism and if it takes on the form of belittling oh well, they can handle it. But then often when you do just that they're the first to take real offense and want to 'get back' at you for making them feel the way you did.

Does anyone truly long to be murmured against? Does anyone truly crave belittling? Again I hear choruses of yes, there are freakish people who love that and pay people to degrade them. While that is true - would we call that healthy? Seriously, would we call that normal? We actually call it deviant behavior because it goes against the mores of society and those mores are created from what is most commonly believed. Is it safe to say there are people in every single family that want to be degraded? No. I don't think so. I think it might be more common than I'd like to believe but it's still not the majority. There are scandals started from such behavior when prominent people in society are found to have committed such deviant behavior.

'Grudge not one against another' - murmur not, complain not. We are not to utter a single word against another person that we would not turn around and want to have uttered against us in a similar situation, if not exact.

Imagine for a moment that you are talking with Jesus and Jesus says something like this- "Yes, he's a very lazy person, and the way he clothes himself is disgraceful. Did you see the way he eats with his mouth open and wipes his hands on his clothes? And he didn't even thank me when I gave him a meal."

Seriously, could you even imagine our Savior talking like that?! Maybe it's true the man is lazy, maybe it's true that the clothes the man wears are disgraceful and yes, he does eat with his mouth open and wipes his dirty fingers on his clothes. And mostly like the man never ever thought once to thank Him when he was fed. All of it is truth, but can you imagine Jesus speaking like that?

Just because something might be true of another person does that give us the right to speak against them? To disparage them? To murmur and complain against them? We want to have the right because we are so incredibly prone to speaking about others like this, and if we have the right then all is well and good but the truth of the matter is- we do NOT have the right no matter how true the facts are. When we choose to speak complaints- however true of another we are speaking in a way our Savior would never speak. Compassion is LOST when we choose to speak out in complaining, murmuring ways. We lose a lot of our compassion when we speak, and that compassion is born out of love for our fellow man. The complaining, the murmuring does NOTHING constructive whatsoever. Voicing our complaints against others has NO good result, NONE. It's like talking for the sake of hearing your own voice without edifying anyone and when we talk that way it bears nothing good, nothing of love. We can try and fool ourselves that we only speak out of love, but the truth is, we are speaking to hear ourselves speak and the devil loves when we do that.

The words that come from our mouths should be ALWAYS uplifting, always working for the good of God's love. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves when we speak ill of others NO MATTER HOW MUCH TRUTH there is in what we are saying.

Jas 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

WE WILL BE CONDEMNED by our own words.
With what measure…

Mat 7:1 Stop judging, so that you won't be judged.
Mat 7:2 For with the judgment you use, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, you will be measured.

Jesus' words!

With ever word we utter against another we are being measured against those words. Our lack of compassion is being measured. Our lack of love for our fellow man is being measured. When we are judged by the same standards we judge with we will mourn our foolishness, we will lament our lack of compassion, our lack of love.

'The JUDGE stands before the door.'

The Judge knows, the Judge is there listening to our every word.

Please God, please help us to pray that You'll keep the door to our lips which speak so often grudgingly, murmuring, complaining against others. Please Lord help us! We are so incredibly prone to speak from our self-centeredness and not from love. Help us, Lord, without You we have no hope whatsoever, no hope. Change our vile selfish hearts, Lord, PLEASE. Lord, You have the power to change our hearts, You and You alone can bless us and take our wickedness and forgive us, cleansing us, changing us. Please Savior, save us from ourselves, from our own wickedness we are inclined towards.

All in Your love!
All through Your grace!
All in Your mercy!
All through Your righteousness Lord!
All by Your forgiveness!

Amen!