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JAMES - Be Doers of the Word, and not Hearers Only
Studies in the Letter of James (by Dr. Richard Thomas)

Chapter IV

Warning against self-confidence (James 4:13-17)


JAMES 4:13-17
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14 Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15 For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 16 But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17 To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

We have in these verses a timely warning to the modern business tycoon with ambitious plans. The key phrase being ‘get gain’. The profit motive is a cardinal rule of capitalist enterprise, and it loomed large in the minds of Jewish traders (13). Jews of the Diaspora, whom James mentions in his address, were tireless travellers; business took them all over the Roman Empire and beyond to Parthia and Arabia.

The practice alluded to here ‘spend a year trading’ was common in the East until recently; the trader conveying the goods of one area to some faraway city, remaining there till the merchandise is disposed of and buying other saleable items for yet another distant market. He repeated the operation eventually returning with fat profits. The trader took his time and seized opportunities for the best bargains. We are reminded of the rich old farmer who hoarded his grain and his goods and laid plans for many years to come, ‘secure’ in the knowledge that he would never want (Luke 12:16-21).

But should we never make long-term plans in case our schemes go awry. After all the Lord commends the careful planning of builders and military strategists who use blueprints and charts. The point in these gospel illustrations is the need to carry through what one has begun; there is no thought of ever-increasing gain or prolonged operations (Luke 14:28-32). On the other hand, James is concerned about the presumption and overconfidence of successful men who imagine that success belongs to them by right of efficiency. Such worldly-wise folk are often believers in one God (2:19), but have Him out of their calculations, because of the disturbing implications of letting God take charge of their lives.

In two memorable sayings Jesus warned us against this common failing: He urged us not to worry about the future, and explained that to gain the world amounted to total loss, if it meant ruining one’s soul (Matthew 6:34; 16:26). Some words from Thomas à Kempis show up men’s lack of foresight: ‘For a small income, a long journey is undertaken; for everlasting life, many will scarce lift a foot from the ground”.

James proceeds to give reasons for his earlier caution against overconfidence. Even the immediate future is unpredictable; no one knows what tomorrow may bring. Secondly, life at best is brief. This may sound like a truism, but is one which many people overlook. If the point Jesus made about the infinite value of the soul is valid, men and women must constantly be reminded that life is like vapour, steam or smoke – visible for a while and then it vanishes for better or for worse (14). Life-breath itself depends of God’s will to sustain (15).

When we talk in this vein let us guard against the pessimistic assumption that there is nothing profitable in life, learning, effort, industry, pastimes (Ecclesiastes 1:3,13; 2:11; 3:9). Thoughtful pagans draw a plausible inference from the premise that life is short: Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die (cf. Isaiah 22:13; 1 Corinthians 15:32). In practice this leads them to graver despondency as death casts its sombre shadow on every occasion of mirth. What then should we do in the light of the brevity of life?. We should consider God’s place in our plans, and decide how best to redeem the time, remembering that our time is not ultimately our own, but His gift to us.

The dilemma can be resolved, when we take the advice tendered by the Apostle, simply to say we shall do something if God will (15). Not merely to say so but we adjust our programmes and act according to that conviction. We may modestly talk of our plans to others – careers, marriage, outreach (16), for boasting is excluded in this sphere as in others. Insha’allah is a precise equivalent to D.V. in the Orient, and folk out there use it casually almost as a fetish to insure success. We shall not make a fetish of it repeating it endlessly, but always bear in mind the will of God behind our best laid plans.

“Now you boast arrogantly”, says James (16); boasting of this kind and in this manner is always unseemly and often wicked. Overconfidence is bad enough, but to brag about it is utter folly and doubly evil. There is a boasting, a glorying, (the same verb in Greek) which is wholly commendable, and which alas Christians leave largely undone: Glorying in the Lord, in infirmities, in the cross of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:17; 11:30; Galatians 6:14).

Is there a link between verse 17 and the foregoing passage? Some commentators confess they cannot discover it. That passage, however, has to do with various activities specified (buy, sell, gain) and unspecified (do this or that). So, James sums up his argument by telling us to do what is right, presumably with all our might (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Verse 17 thus complements Paul’s “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). The Pauline test acts as a deterrent driving us back to test our motives and intentions. James offers us a stimulus to action, do what you ought to have done. If any course of action sounds dubious avoid it. If, on the other hand, we know it to be good, noble, right, nothing should deter us from going ahead with it by faith and in love.

Having taken our stand as Christians we freely accept responsibilities, not to gain respect, but to do God’s will. Those who do accept what is laid upon them find that the circle of responsibility widens steadily with spiritual growth: Casting bread on the waters, going the second mile, bearing the burdens of others, and generally doing more than the law or society requires of us; but not more than God expects (Luke 17:10).

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