James: More GraceSample

How do you talk about your future plans?

It sounds as if some of James’ readers have been speaking exactly like unbe- lievers (v. 13). They are planning their lives with no reference to God and their goal in it all is making money. James calls their schemes ‘arrogant’, and he calls the way they speak and boast about these plans ‘evil’ (v. 16).

• What truths does James point his readers back to (vv. 14–15)?

This again is very humbling. We like to believe we are in control of our lives, but the idea that we control the future is a mirage. We cannot be certain what will happen tomorrow. And our life is just a disappearing mist, here for a little while and then gone; it’s just the dash between two dates on a gravestone.

So believers should speak very humbly about the future. It is God who decides if we will even wake up tomorrow. We will live another day only if it is the Lord’s will. We can make plans for tomorrow, but we need to remember who rules the world – and it is not us; it is God who holds the future.

These Christians need to start thinking about ‘the Lord’s will’, not just their proud selfish plans. They need to keep in mind how they depend on him for their every breath.

James’ readers are ‘believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ’ (2:1). They know who is Lord. James wants them to humbly acknowledge his Lordship in how they speak about the future.

James’ readers know a lot actually. Their problem is that they have not been doing what they know. This church doesn’t seem to be in danger of being deceived by false teachers just now, but they are in danger of deceiving themselves. They are thinking that all is well with their spiritual lives when there are massive gaps between what they claim to believe and how they behave.

Now their ‘friendship’ with the world needs to be replaced with wholehearted devotion to God. Double-mindedness must end. How these Christians speak and live needs to start consistently reflecting what they claim to believe.

Maybe we have never thought about how our planning and speaking might arrogantly dismiss and ignore God’s sovereign rule. But now we know and so we need to act.

• What does James tell his readers about failing to change (v. 17)?

We must not sidestep James’ challenge here: not doing the good we know we should is sin. This matters to God.

Pray

Pray you remember how dependent you are on God for everything, and that this would be reflected in your speaking and planning.