HOLDING GRUDGES

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

The Apostle James had a rare insight into the human heart. He realized that it was hard for the believers of his day to stand up against the oppression and persecution of evil powers. But at the same time he knew that these trials could be more effectively encountered when they were expected. When we get ready to face an outside enemy, national defense is thought of more as a defense against an outside enemy than of one that lurks within the nation. When we come down to it, who is our worst enemy? Not a stranger, an outsider, but someone who was once an intimate friend or a loved one. A friend turned enemy becomes a deadly foe. Inside quarrels are often far worse than outside ones. Having all this in mind, James says, "Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door."

There is no doubt that here James is addressing the church, since he calls them "brethren." He is addressing the very ones whom he sought to comfort and strengthen in the oppression suffered from outside evildoers. It is as if he tells them, "You have enough to encounter with the outside enemies. Maintain unity in the family, for in unity there is strength to fight the outside enemy. After all, the longsuffering which I asked you to show toward the wicked ones is easier to show toward your brethren. You expect the wicked ones to act in the manner they do, but not the Christians." It is good to remember, however, that the feelings of others toward us are no different from our feelings toward them. Most likely other believers do not find in us what they expect, even as we do not find in them what we expect.

The admonition which James gives us, therefore, is this, "Grudge not one against another, brethren." The word translated "grudge" in the original Greek means "narrow." It is a picture of circumstances narrowing down on us. There is the onslaught of the devil from the outside and from the brethren from the inside. It is not always necessary for the devil to get into the church. He has some good workers already there, the brethren.

Things can get so tense at times that we really do not know what to do. We feel like screaming and letting our feelings out, really giving it to our brethren. But Christian decency restrains us. Already James has told us that we should exercise longsuffering toward unbelievers. Longsuffering means the avoidance of bursting out in passionate revenge. Surely if we exercise the Christian grace of longsuffering toward the wicked, we ought to exercise it toward our brethren. And we do that; we are kind to them and gentle, on the outside. But what about inside? What are the feelings of our heart toward our brethren? The Greek verb stenazoo (to sigh, to groan) actually denotes feeling that is internal and unexpressed. It refers to the grudge that is kept within, that is not expressed.

Who of us can really say that he is free from such a thing? Have we no grudge against anybody? We may never have given expression to it, but it is still there in the heart, in the innermost part of our being. Even if we do not tell anybody about our grudge against a brother in Christ, it is sin. Sin conceived, Christ taught, is sin executed. Human law punishes only sin executed, but divine law punishes sin conceived. And we shall do well to fight sin in its conception rather than in its expression.

What was this grudging about? It is easy to find out from an examination of the context. We as believers are all in the same boat. We are all oppressed and condemned in the world. If we want to live righteously, we shall undoubtedly be persecuted in some way. If we do not have somebody against us, it may be because we are trying to conciliate everybody irrespective of their evil or good.

Undoubtedly, however, there must have been degrees of oppression and suffering among the brethren. Some of them were deprived of all they had, and others of only part of their possessions. There is no uniformity in this life, either of joy or of sorrow. There is a scale of varying experiences. When we see another Christian suffering less than we do, it is natural for us to take the inward look and have pity on ourselves and immediately come to the conclusion that we do not deserve it all; the other fellow deserves it more, and gets less than we do.

Our experiences must be somewhat similar to those of the Apostle James. We estimate our share of divine chastisement to be so high because we overestimate our spirituality and our comparative value in relation to other brethren. It is difficult ever to come to the conclusion that God does not perform an injustice in allowing us to suffer more than others and to enjoy less than others. It really takes a double portion of the grace of God to do that.  

  

The verb here is in the present tense, which indicates that James is condemning this as a chronic and continuous thing. Let us not be continuous complainers. We may not express much on the outside, but let not our hearts be full of complaining. There are brethren who are chronic complainers.

To be a chronic dissenter in God's family is an awful thing. A certain father was a chronic complainer. He was sitting with his family in the presence of a guest in the parlor one day when the question of food came up. One of the children, was telling the guest what food each member of the family liked best. Finally it came to the father's turn to be described. "And what do I like?" he asked. "You," said the child, "well, you like most anything we haven't got." That was probably one of the main reasons why there were chronic complainers in the days of James and why we have them and because they have more trials than others, at least in their own estimation, they continually complain.

Of what judgment is James speaking here? Surely of the judgment of God, as he has been doing right along since this complaining will bring about God's condemnation, it must be a sin to be avoided, because for these defects of our Christian character we shall be judged. Undoubtedly as much judgment will be meted out to us as we mete out to others down here on earth.

There is a further important note that is added to this verse to induce us to correct our ways. "Behold, the judge standeth before the door." This is an expression indicating proximity, imminence, certainty. The door is often used as a symbol of man's heart, as in Revelation 3:20. The judge, who is Jesus, is standing outside the heart's door and is listening to its every heartbeat. He does not listen to the words of our mouths, but to the beats of our hearts. And when there is complaining  in the heart, the beating is different; the heart beats faster. We cannot fool God with words of hypocrisy. His ear is listening to our hearts and it is according to His own finding that He will judge us. What a sobering picture this is!