Read James 2:8-13. Just as cancer can go easily undetected without screenings and self examinations, unchecked attitudes of judgment will become a cancer of the spirit. When you judge others you demean them and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in their lives and this has no place among God’s people.

• Describe a time in the past you were judged unfairly?  What happened?

Read Luke 10:25-37 and John 13:34-35. In order to stay free of the judgmental cancer that creeps into your spirit you must fully grasp that God places primacy in people and relationships. Jesus explained this principle in the story of the Good Samaritan, emphasizing that right action is more important than right belief or right doctrine. And he commissions all his disciples to this way of life by giving THIS new command to love others as he loved you. And truly it seems that God often places hard to love people in your path for you to demonstrate this love. 

• Do you truly pay attention to Jesus’ new command to love others as he has loved you?  How do you demonstrate that love?  
• Has God ever placed a hard-to-love person in your path?  Did you take the opportunity to demonstrate God’s love to him/her?

This Royal Law of loving as Jesus loved is about sacrificial love not emotional love.  You are to love and serve people in need, in sin, in tough situations, etc., not because its fun or because you have good feelings about them.  You are to serve because Jesus calls you there, to love and help them because He loves them just as much as he loves you.

• Describe a time you acted out of a sacrificial love instead of emotional love in a close relationship.  What happened as a result?
• Have you ever served in mission multiple times in one place or in one area?  Why did you go back more than once?

Re-read James 2:9-11 and Matthew 7:1-5. The reason why judgment is so deadly is because it infects you with a sense of religious self righteousness and blinds you from your own brokenness.  Righteousness is not an earned status but is the result of the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ on the cross. As a believer with the Holy Spirit in your life you can and should discern the difference between right and wrong, sin and holiness. But spiritual discernment leads to compassion, intercession and healing, whereas judgment produces anger, slander, criticism, and a smug sense of satisfaction.

• Why is it easier to put others down for their brokenness instead of seeing your own?
• Do you more often try to earn your righteousness with God or truly rely on the grace of Jesus Christ?  Explain.

Re-read James 2:12-13. The difference between discernment and judgment boils down to receiving mercy from God and sharing that mercy with others. Mercy triumphs over judgment and you as a Christ follower are called to triumph over all sin and brokenness with the mercy that comes from Jesus Christ.

• Describe a time someone exercised discernment and corrected you in your spiritual walk. How did you respond?
• Which do you need most in your life right now: to receive God’s mercy or to begin showing mercy to others?