Speak not evil one of another; viz. unless in the way of an ordinance, by reproof, admonition, &c., Leviticus 5:1 1 Corinthians 1:11, 1 Corinthians 11:18 2 Corinthians 11:13 2 Timothy 4:14,15. He forbids all detraction, rigid censuring, and rash judging the hearts and lives of others, when men condemn whatever doth not suit with their notions or humours, and make their own moroseness the rule of other men's manners. Judgeth his brother; finds fault with and condemns him for those things which the law doth not condemn in him, or forbid to him, Romans 14:3,4. Judgeth the law; viz. either:
1. By his practising and approving what the law condemns, i.e. this very censoriousness and detraction: or:
2. By condemning that which the law allows; he condemns the law for allowing it, taxing it as too short and imperfect. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge; if thou not only judgest thy brother, and therein invadest the law's office, (whose part it is to judge him), but judgest him for what the law doth not forbid him, and therein judgest the law itself, as insufficient, and not strict enough; thou dost cast off the law's government, disown its superiority, exempt thyself from any subjection to it, and make thyself merely a judge of it.