Let's talk about James 4:13-16.

[KingsGambit]

In the NIV, this passage says: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

It seems that people don't apply it much. If taken literally, it would seem to forbid saying you're making any future plans at all. What does James really have in mind? I like how Craig Blomberg describes the attitudes he's condemning as "practical atheism" - planning for the future without God in view at all. One commentator I can't remember picked up on something like this by saying that simply adding "if it's God's will" to our statements isn't going to "get around" this passage. I'm still not sure how best to apply this one though. Does anybody else have some insight here?

[Cow Poke]

Just off the top of my head, I associate this with Paul's "you are not your own - you are bought with a price", and the whole notion that we were slaves to sin, but now we are slaves to Christ.

When we make plans apart from the direction of the Holy Spirit, and just assume we know what we're doing, we get in trouble.

[Obsidian]

James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

It's saying that you shouldn't put off doing God's work by thinking that you have all the time in the world to loaf around doing your own thing.

[Scrawly]

In the NIV, this passage says: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

It seems that people don't apply it much. If taken literally, it would seem to forbid saying you're making any future plans at all. What does James really have in mind? I like how Craig Blomberg describes the attitudes he's condemning as "practical atheism" - planning for the future without God in view at all. One commentator I can't remember picked up on something like this by saying that simply adding "if it's God's will" to our statements isn't going to "get around" this passage. I'm still not sure how best to apply this one though. Does anybody else have some insight here?

I think the verses you highlighted are self-explanatory. James is dissuading an attitude of arrogant self-sufficiency and boasting, which is evil. James persuades his readers to pay attention to the fragility and uncertainty of human life and endeavor (v.14), and recognize that God is ultimately in control of our lives and endeavors, and our attitude should align with that reality (v.15).

[robrecht]

Yes, I agree the passage is pretty self-explanatory. It reminds me of Qoheleth's reflection on life (& Abel) and Jesus' reflection on the lilies of the field. I really like the letter of James.

[The Remonstrant]

In the NIV, this passage says: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

It seems that people don't apply it much. If taken literally, it would seem to forbid saying you're making any future plans at all. What does James really have in mind? I like how Craig Blomberg describes the attitudes he's condemning as "practical atheism" - planning for the future without God in view at all. One commentator I can't remember picked up on something like this by saying that simply adding "if it's God's will" to our statements isn't going to "get around" this passage. I'm still not sure how best to apply this one though. Does anybody else have some insight here?

The creator–creature distinction is implicit throughout James 4:13–16. As is common in wisdom literature, James rebukes human pride and presumptuousness. The remedy to this improper attitude is proper humility before God (cf. vv. 6, 10) and sober recognition of his sovereignty (v. 15). The imperative is that humans live in humble acknowledgement of their mortality and the tenuous nature of existence. Verse 14 is crucial: ‘[Y]ou 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’ (ESV). By contrast, God is immortal and ultimately sovereign over all human (or creaturely) affairs. Nothing whatever can occur apart from the decree or permission of God. What James is condemning is preoccupation with the temporal or transient (i.e. living primarily for the here and now), not planning or making provision for the future per se (cf. Matt 6:19–34). If I may employ a Johannine expression, ‘the pride of life’ (cf. 1 John 2:16) that James speaks of leads humans to exclude consideration of God in their day-to-day affairs. Far from being a morally neutral area, humans living their lives for their own pleasures and pursuits without any thought of God is arrogant and evil (v. 16). Failure to humble oneself and acknowledge God and his sovereignty (not merely in abstraction, but in one’s personal life) is specifically the ‘sin of omission’ that James has in mind in verse 17.

[phat8594]

In the NIV, this passage says: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

It seems that people don't apply it much. If taken literally, it would seem to forbid saying you're making any future plans at all. What does James really have in mind? I like how Craig Blomberg describes the attitudes he's condemning as "practical atheism" - planning for the future without God in view at all. One commentator I can't remember picked up on something like this by saying that simply adding "if it's God's will" to our statements isn't going to "get around" this passage. I'm still not sure how best to apply this one though. Does anybody else have some insight here?

I think you left out the verse that ties is all together:

James 4:13-17
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.



I think where most people get mixed up is when they think of circumstance as God's will (i.e. whatever happens is God's will). However, verse 17 makes it clear (IMHO), that when James is speaking of the Lord's will, he is speaking about God's will in a non-deterministic sense. IOW, God's will is what God wants -- it is what is right. God's will is not just whatever happens in the future (or present, or past).

Therefore, when we look at the passage, we see that James is addressing those who are arrogant or prideful -- those who do not see past themselves and own importance. So what James is telling them to do is to consider what is right and what is Godly when making plans. So, another way to say it would be 'Instead, you ought to say, "If it is right in God's eyes, we will live and do this or that" ' . IOW, it is acknowledging God as Lord in everything (in deed, and not just in word).

[hedrick]

From my point of view, the problem is that if you take it literally, and say "if God wills" all the time, the phrase stops meaning anything. Here's what the Word commentary says:

"The mere verbalization of a catchphrase like “If the Lord wills” is not the intent here. Just as with any Christian teaching, this phrase can become no more than a vain, thoughtless repetition, a kind of fetish. What James is urging here is a conviction (worked out in a congruent lifestyle) that leads one to acknowledge that indeed God is in control of life’s decisions. He is also suggesting that if the sole purpose of business ventures is to make as much money as possible (for oneself; see 4:2) then such plans are wrongheaded and open to sudden change (1:10–11; 5:1–6)."