by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
“Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door<\/em>” (James 5:9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Don’t forget that the Judge is not off in some distant land attending to more important matters than our words and attitudes. He is standing at the door of our hearts and minds, always observing and evaluating how we choose to help or hurt others, how we help or hurt the church, His kingdom, and righteousness. There is an all-seeing eye watching you because you matter, and what you say and do matters.<\/p>\n
Grumbling and complaining is a poison that contaminates the minds of others. You must think about giving an account for “every idle word” because they affect others either negatively or positively. They can make or ruin, contaminate, or encourage, but they matter in the battle of good and evil.<\/p>\n
James had earlier said that the tongue is a world of iniquity and can affect direction and outcomes like a ship’s rudder or a horse’s bridle. The direction of others is based on what they think and how they think, and words have the power to set a mind going in a bad direction or a good direction based upon what words you throw out into the air.<\/p>\n
The Judge is standing at the door! Which side of the battle between light and darkness does He observe coming from your mind into the mix? Words have power! Choose them wisely!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton “Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door” (James 5:9). Don’t forget that the Judge is not off in some distant land attending to more important matters than our words and attitudes. He is standing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[410,1260],"class_list":["post-68342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-judgment","tag-judgment-day"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46955,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/judging-with-righteous-judgment\/","url_meta":{"origin":68342,"position":0},"title":"Judging with Righteous Judgment","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steven Harper The world's favorite Bible passage must surely be\u00a0Matthew 7:1, where Jesus said, \"Judge not, that you be not judged.\" This verse is most often cited when someone points out a sin in the life of another and the accused one is then quick to reveal the depths\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35856,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-you-explain-what-was-meant-in-can-we-judge\/","url_meta":{"origin":68342,"position":1},"title":"Could you explain what was meant in “Can We Judge?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, \"We have a saying that we should not judge a book by its cover. We cannot judge a man's heart or his motives unless by some means that is revealed. But we can judge sinful behavior.\" This is an extract from one of your lessons. I'm not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8258,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-judge-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":68342,"position":2},"title":"How can you judge others?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Christians are not supposed to judge, only your God is supposed to. In the constitution, it states \"Freedom of Religion.\" I guess people that believe in Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. are going to hell I suppose right?\u00a0 If your a real \"Christian\" then you don't judge people by their religion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60868,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/measured-to-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":68342,"position":3},"title":"Measured to Us","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you\" (Matthew 7:2). \"Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65464,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/some-observations-on-judging\/","url_meta":{"origin":68342,"position":4},"title":"Some Observations on Judging","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by George Bosworth Some observations about judging, from I Corinthians 4:3-5: \"I (Paul) am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. So don't judge anything prematurely before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/judging-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":68342,"position":5},"title":"Judging Others","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Some think Matthew 7:1 forbids any judging of others. Actually, it only forbids unfair and hypocritical judging where the one doing the judging has a bigger issue that does not allow him to see clearly how to remove a \"speck\" in his brother's eye. Now, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}