In James 4:13-17 he gives us a pause when it comes to planning. James rebukes the kind of heart that lives and makes its plans apart from a constant awareness of the hand of God, and with an underestimation of our own limitations and ignorance of the fact that God alone is in control of what happens in our life day to day and moment by moment. “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
Life is fragile and short. And the reality is that we live only at the permission of God. James does not discourage us from planning and doing, only from planning and doing apart from reliance on God. Spurgeon reminds us that “knowing that life is short, we must be diligent and energetic about the common duties of everyday life. “It is sinful to neglect the common duties of life, under the idea that we shall do something more by-and-by.” It is nothing but sheer arrogance that makes us think that we can live and move and have our being independent of God. This boastful arrogance is the essence of sin: a proud independence, the root of all sin, as was the case with Lucifer”.
The right response: “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” We must recognize that our life is under the control and direction of a God who loves us, but nevertheless is in complete control. When we pretend like we’re in the driver seat – we are in denial of reality and filled with arrogance. “As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” Moffatt wrote “All such boasting, when life is so precarious, is worse than absurd, it is wicked, a positive sin, a specimen of the ungodly haughtiness of which men should repent.”
But it goes beyond the things we do that we know we shouldn’t. Our sin also includes the things we know we should do but don’t. Sins of omission are sins just like those of commission. And sin is sin no matter the form it takes. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James knows that it is far easier to think about and talk about humility and dependence on God than it is to live it. Yet he makes the mind of God plain: as we know these things, we are accountable to do them. Genuine faith is proved by action. The uncertainty of life should make us ready to recognize what is good and then do it. Moffatt wrote “This uncertainty of life is not a cause either for fear or inaction. It is always a reason for realizing our complete dependence on God.”
“Portions of this blog post have been taken from the Enduring Word commentary, (c) 2023 The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – ewm@enduringword.com“
“Scripture (bold and italicized) has been taken from the English Standard Version, © ESV.org – www.esv.org”
Arlin Sorensen's Thoughts on Scripture 