Catholic Commentary
Against Judging One's Neighbor: God Alone Is Lawgiver
11Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?
James 4:11–12 condemns slandering and judging fellow believers, arguing that such judgment violates God's law of love and usurps judicial authority that belongs to God alone. Only God, the sole Lawgiver and judge, has the power to save and destroy; therefore, believers must refrain from condemning others.
When you judge your brother, you're not defending God's law—you're declaring yourself above it, a seat reserved for God alone.
"But who are you to judge another?" (su de tis ei ho krinōn ton plēsion) — The final question is devastating in its economy. The word su (you) stands first and alone in Greek, emphatic and isolating. James is not constructing a philosophical argument at this point; he is confronting a person. The rhetorical question expects no answer because the answer is self-evident: you are a creature; you are a sinner; you are a neighbor, not a lord. The question does not forbid all moral discernment—James himself makes moral judgments throughout the letter—but it demolishes the spirit of contemptuous condemnation that places oneself above one's brother.
Catholic tradition reads these verses at the intersection of three great themes: the nature of divine sovereignty, the moral law as gift rather than possession, and the ecclesial obligation of fraternal charity.
On Law and Sovereignty: The Catechism teaches that God alone is the "sovereign master of life" (CCC 2280) and the ultimate judge of souls (CCC 1040). James's insistence that the Lawgiver is the one who can "save and destroy" anticipates the Catholic understanding of the Last Judgment as an act of divine mercy and justice simultaneously—not a cold legal reckoning but the revelation of a Person. St. Thomas Aquinas, commenting on similar Pauline material, notes that to judge the law is to claim a legislative authority one does not possess: only the auctor legis can stand above the law (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 96, a. 6).
On Slander as a Social Sin: The Catechism treats detraction and calumny as offenses against justice and truth (CCC 2477–2479), noting that they injure both the victim's reputation and the speaker's soul. James provides the deeper theological rationale: slander is not merely interpersonal harm but an act of usurped sovereignty—a claim to know and announce another's standing before God.
On Fraternal Correction vs. Judging: Catholic tradition carefully distinguishes iudicium (presumptuous condemnation) from correctio fraterna (fraternal correction), the latter being a work of mercy commanded by Christ (Matthew 18:15). St. Augustine clarifies in De Sermone Domini in Monte that Jesus' prohibition of judging targets the harsh, self-righteous spirit that despises the brother, not the careful, charitable effort to help him amend. James's "who are you?" targets the former, not the latter.
Contemporary Catholic life is saturated with occasions for rash judgment: social media makes it effortless to broadcast verdicts on neighbors, public figures, fellow parishioners, and even clergy. James's question—"who are you to judge another?"—is not a command to abandon moral clarity or tolerate injustice, but a direct challenge to the interior posture of contempt. The Catholic practice of examining one's conscience before Confession offers a concrete application: does my speech about others aim at their dignity or at my own satisfaction? Am I correcting a wrong charitably, or performing moral superiority?
James also challenges the modern tendency to treat the Church's moral teaching as a weapon wielded against others rather than a law under which I myself stand. Catechism 2478 counsels that we should "interpret insofar as possible all our neighbor's thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way." This is not naïvety—it is the discipline of remembering that I too will stand before the one Lawgiver who can save and destroy. The humbling effect of that reality is the antidote James prescribes.
Commentary
James 4:11 — "Do not speak against one another, brothers"
The Greek verb katalaleō (to speak against, slander, defame) opens the verse with a direct command. James has already warned against quarreling (4:1–3) and pride (4:6); now he narrows his focus to the specific sin of katalalia—malicious, denigrating speech about an absent neighbor. This is not merely rude conversation but a theological act with grave implications, as James immediately demonstrates.
"He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law." James makes a distinctive logical move: the one who slanders does not merely wrong the neighbor—he wrongs the Law. The law in view is almost certainly Leviticus 19:16–18, the prohibition against going about as a slanderer and the positive command to love one's neighbor as oneself. This text was explicitly cited by Jesus as a summary of Torah (Matthew 22:39) and had already been invoked by James himself as "the royal law" (James 2:8). To violate it by slandering a brother is to implicitly declare it negotiable—to sit as its critic rather than its subject.
The contrast that follows is stark: "if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge." The word poiētēs (doer) is a key term for James, who insists throughout the letter that authentic faith expresses itself in doing (1:22–25). A person who appoints himself judge of the Law has stepped outside the role God assigned him—that of servant and practitioner—and usurped a role that belongs to God alone. There is a painful irony here: the very act of judging one's brother, which often feels like a defense of moral standards, is in fact a profound act of moral self-elevation.
James 4:12 — "Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy"
The Greek heis estin ho nomothetēs is emphatic: "one—only one—is the lawgiver." The formulation echoes the monotheistic confession of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4) and transposes it into the realm of judicial sovereignty. James does not merely say God gave the law in the past; he is the Lawgiver—the ongoing, living source of its authority. The phrase "able to save and to destroy" (sōsai kai apolesai) is a divine prerogative drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6) and recalls Jesus' own warning in Matthew 10:28, where God alone can destroy both soul and body. Salvation and condemnation belong to the same hand—the hand that authored the Law.