Therefore, judging should never involve backbiting or talking bad about someone behind their
back.
Look at James 4.11, it says, "Speak not evil one of another brethren.
For he that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of
the law, and judgeth the law.
But if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.
Who art thou that judgest another?"
So here we're talking about judging in the sense of finding something wrong with someone
else, and then going and passing that on to other people behind their back.
Now the Bible, and I'm going to get to this a little later in the sermon, but the Bible
does tell us how to properly judge, and it involves going to that person directly and
telling them what the problem is, to their face.
But even if you're judging a righteous judgment, even if you're right, even if that person
is sinning, even if that person is wrong, and you're going behind their back and telling
a third party that has nothing to do with it, that has no jurisdiction over that, that
is a wrong judging, that is just evil speaking.
For example, if I saw your kid being a brat, here's a perfect example, and I just go tell
some other parent that has nothing to do with the situation, "Can you believe what a brat
so-and-so's kid is?
They must never spank that kid.
They must be so lazy.
They must never take the time to teach that kid anything or discipline that kid, and I'm
just passing it on to a third party."
That's always wrong.
Even if what I'm saying is gospel truth, even if they really are lazy, even if they really
are not disciplining their kid, even if they are not teaching it to be good, when I'm just
going and passing that on to some random person who can't do anything about it just for the
sake of talking bad and gossiping, that's wrong.
That's evil speaking.
That's the wrong type of judging.