James 4:11

Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law; but if thou judgeth the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Speaketh against the law ... "James does not here use `the law' as a reference to the Mosaic Law, because he is writing to Christians, not to Jews."[24] All efforts to dissociate James' teaching from the religion of Christ and move it back into Judaism should be resisted. Lenski noted that all such efforts are "unsupported by the context."[25]

"The law" spoken of here is the law of Jesus Christ, the law of the gospel, the law of the New Testament, the Christian law. Gibson summarized concerning this question, thus:

What law? According to Dean Plumptre, "the royal law of Christ, which forbids judging (Matthew 7:1-5)." Alford said it was: "The law of Christian life: the old moral Law, glorified and amplified by Christ, the royal law of James 2:8." Luther made it: "The law of Christian life, which, according to its contents, is none other than the law of love."[26]

In the scholarly opinion thus cited by Gibson, the admission is clear enough that the teachings of Jesus Christ are the law James here referred to; but it should be particularly noted that such opinion does not consider the whole of Christ's teaching as "the law." They restrict "the law of Christ" to the "moral" pronouncements of the Old Testament as expanded by Jesus, or to "none other than" the law of love! By such devices as these, modern theologians get rid of the great Christian ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, the obligations of church membership and attendance, and everything else except "the law of love," rather nebulously interpreted to mean "merely being a nice guy!" Let the servant of the Lord beware of this. Extensive treatment of this question is given in my Commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, pp. 102-117.

"The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law" (Hebrews 7:12). Inherent in this is the fact of there still being a law that men must obey, the law of Christ. The Mosaic law's being abrogated could never mean that God's eternal principle of governing mankind through law was thereby repealed. Law was not done away with; it was "changed" to the law of Jesus Christ our Lord. Salvation "by grace" does not abolish law as a principle, though it did abolish salvation by "Moses' law." "Not under law but under grace" is not a denial that men must obey the law of Christ, but rather emphasizes the grace and liberty of Christ's law contrasted with Judaism.

Therefore, James' words in this verse refer to the law of Christ in its entirety, and to the specific instance of certain Christians having broken it by their speaking against and judging one another, the specific part of that great law of Christ which they had violated being Matthew 7:1ff.

[24] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 637.

[25] Ibid.

[26] E. C. S. Gibson, op. cit., p. 56.