Fathers

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What the Fathers say

James 4:12

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

Therefore, do not presume, he says, to degrade and, as it were, to counter-legislate, for this will not be forgiven you, since there is only one Lawgiver — God, who is able "to save and to destroy" transgressors of His law, for to punish the transgressors of the law belongs to the law and the Lawgiver, while you have nothing more than idle talk and yourself bring upon yourself the sentence of condemnation, for doing the same thing as the one you condemn, you condemn yourself to the same degree that you condemn him. …

Commentary on James ↗

Western Saints

Bede

But who are you to judge your neighbor? He condemns the recklessness of the one who delights in judging his neighbor without taking care to consider the state of his own frailty and the uncertainties of his temporal life. And because sometimes, through the change of the right hand of the Most High, those who judged their neighbor are subjected to the power of the one they judged, sometimes they are suddenly taken from the world while still living, he subsequently also condemns the recklessness of those who, having no certainty of …

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles ↗