James 4.11

James 4.11 Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.

What does this mean? How is slandering a brother in Christ judging the Law? I think that in the Law of Moses there were both rules and remedies for breaking those rules. And so, the Law was a guardian to keep people in compliance with the Law through a system of mercy.

Of course, in Christ today, we are no longer under the Law. We've received mercy beyond the Law because the Law could never bring everlasting mercy.

However, did mercy exhibited under the Law teach us not to slander one another? Is this the commandment: "Do not bear false witness against another?"

Is persisting in defying the commandments of the Law a form of "judging the Law?" Is it judging the worth of the Law?

Leviticus 19:16-18
You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the lifea of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

17“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Matthew 22:36-40
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

"Speak not evil one of another, brethren,.... The apostle here returns to his former subject, concerning the vices of the tongue, he had been upon in the preceding chapter, James 3:6, and here mentions one, which professors of religion were too much guilty of, and that is, speaking evil one of another; which is done either by raising false reports, and bringing false charges; or by aggravating failings and infirmities; or by lessening and depreciating characters, and endeavouring to bring others into discredit and disesteem among men: this is a very great evil, and what the men of the world do, and from them it is expected; but for the saints to speak evil one of another, to sit and speak against a brother, and slander an own mother's son, is barbarous and unnatural.

by speaking evil of him for a good thing he does, he blames and condemns the law, as though it commanded a thing that was evil; and by passing sentence upon his brother, he takes upon him the province of the law, which is to accuse, charge, convince, pronounce guilty, and condemn:"

Gills Exposition of the Entire Bible