Neville Goddard on James 4:11-12 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read James 4 in context

Scripture Focus

11Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

James 4:11-12

Biblical Context

James 4:11-12 cautions against speaking evil of others and judging them, equating such judgment with judging the law itself; there is only one lawgiver who achieves salvation or destruction.

Neville's Inner Vision

Think of James as a mirror of your inner state. When you allow words of contempt toward a brother, you are not condemning another person so much as declaring yourself the judge of the inner law that animates your life. The 'brethren' in you are aspects of your own consciousness; your verdicts on them reveal the verdicts you hold about yourself. There is only one lawgiver—the I AM within you who can save or destroy by the quality of your awareness. To judge another is to deny your source and to abdicate the power of your own life to a counterfeit authority you pretend governs you. The moment you grasp this, you can choose a new stance: refuse to wield judgment, and affirm that you dwell in the same divine law that gives life to all beings. Your task is not to correct others by fault-finding but to revise your own state of consciousness until you see the other as an aspect of the same reality you inhabit. In that shift, you do not change people; you liberate your mind from identification with separation and let the divine law operate through you.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit quietly and assume the posture of the one lawgiver within; silently repeat, There is one Lawgiver within me, and I am He, until this truth feels natural. Then bless the person you would judge as a facet of your own inner reality.