James has circled around three main sub-themes throughout his letter—trials, wisdom, and economic status. His main goal is to create a clear and accessible profile of Christian maturity, and, as we've noted, he seems to have lifted his profile straight from the life of Christ. And since the way we handle trials, the sources we choose to build our grid for life from, and the way we respond to our economic status will press our maturity levels, James continually writes about each.

Today's passage is going to lightly touch the trials and finances theme while diving headlong into the wisdom theme. The wisdom we receive builds the lens through which we see life or the grid we use to make decisions. The wrong wisdom leads to a poor lens. The wrong wisdom leads to a poor grid. The wrong wisdom leads to poor decisions, and poor decisions lead to a difficult life. Immaturity in the wisdom category is costly. Unfortunately, many in the churches James wrote to had built their way of doing things off the wrong wisdom, so James reached out to help them, and our passage today is one of the ways he does so.

Today's text is the first of two back-to-back invitations marked by James' words, "Come now..." (4:13, 5:1). Both passages deal a bit with finance and commerce. In the first, James exhorted Christian business people to recognize the Lord in all their ventures. In the second, James rebuked a group of wealthy people who were living in opulence while oppressing their laborers. It is quite possible the first was for the people in the churches James wrote to, while the second—a rebuke of extravagance and injustice—was directed to the non-believing community that persecuted the churches James wrote to. I will wade into that debate with you next week, as I have some thoughts, but for our purposes, we will break these texts up into two teachings. First, today, we will consider how the mature walk through life with God (4:13-17). Second, next week, we will consider how the mature navigate finances (or the lack of them) with God (5:1-6).

4:13 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”— 14 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. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

What is the problem here?

The first question we must ask is about the problem (or sin) James saw from his post in Jerusalem. As he looked out at these churches of new believers, what error were some of them engaged in that he felt compelled to address?

The text seems clear enough. There were some in their churches who, as Christians, were moving through life, making their plans and running their businesses without considering God in the slightest. Their planning, according to James, was boastful arrogance, mostly because God's will and sovereignty were not considered. This group was not asking, "What does God want us to do?" Nor were they saying, "God can intervene however he wants to intervene in our lives." Instead, they were running along as if they were effectively the lords of their own lives.

But again, what is this big sin here? You have a group of people who said, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit" (13). Or, "We are making plans for our lives. We are going to this place at this time to do this thing—and here is the result we expect."

If I am being frank, this doesn't sound like much of a crime. We talk like this all the time. We make plans and go places and conduct careers without wickedly scheming to rebel against God. We are merely living—waking, working, walking through life as best we can. In fact, the Bible does not condemn planning or commerce and often highlights planning for the future as a wise thing to do. This is the book that says, "The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty" (Prov. 21:5, NIV). This truth is reflected in the God we serve—he himself is a planner. One cannot meditate on the clear order of Genesis' days of creation, the intricate and long-range unfolding of the gospel, the plan for the new heavens and earth, or the detailed layout of the Bible itself without considering that the Triune God is a plan maker.

So why does James (by the Spirit of God, mind you) include such a stern rebuke of such a seemingly innocuous sin? Because, though it might seem to be so, there is nothing innocuous about the attitude expressed by these people. Instead, they expressed an insidious independence that decided to walk through life, for all effective purposes, without God. These were all believers—they went to church and prayed their prayers, but they had become entirely self-willed to the point that they ran their lives exactly like the non-believing world did. There was no discernible difference in the way they conducted their daily work to the world around them.

But isn't that all rather harmless? Not at all. This type of independence is like a gateway drug that introduces all forms of self-centeredness and self-sufficiency into the body of Christ. In no time at all, Christ's church, meant to walk in step with him and reflect him to a broken and dying world, loses its shine and does everything just like the world around them. It starts with something as innocent as doing career or business without considering the Lord, and pretty soon, we are doing interpersonal relationships, worship, sex, leisure, politics, fashion, attitudes towards others, and a host of other things just like someone out there in the world system.

Really, this is a sin that puts one on the wrong trajectory. Refusing to acknowledge your Father in heaven by living life with him and walking with him, puts someone off a tick or two from God's ideal. As the years go by, this person will find themselves farther and farther from God's ways. To illustrate this, consider a boat at sea. To get to its desired destination, it must find a heading. To be a degree or two off course, after hundreds of miles, will put that boat significantly off course. And James saw how this group was a degree or two off course. It might not look like a big deal now, but give it a decade or two, and the entire church could be a self-willed enterprise void of the living God, forcing God's Spirit to start afresh with a new wineskin.

This is one of the realities that scares me about middle age. In the season of youth and young adulthood, errors are still errors, but they haven't had a chance to fully bloom. But by the time you get to the middle years, the decisions and perspectives you've adopted in your younger years are more fully worked out. And, of course, as time passes, human life tends to follow the trajectories set earlier on. Financial habits, relational habits, dietary habits, worship habits, and many other habits turn into something more full-grown the longer we continue in them.

All this is why James's exhortation to these folks is such a lifeline of grace. Because of the cross of Christ, the deep love of the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit, believers have the opportunity, at millions of junctions of life, to change course.

What is the heart of this passage?

At this point, it would be wise to also question the heart of this passage. I am loathe to simply slap a God-wants-you-to-consider-his-will exhortation onto life as is and move on. Where is James coming from? Better asked, where is God coming from? I mean, he tells us we should instead say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" (4:15). Everyone recognizes that God is not looking for us to attach a trite statement about his will to whatever we're doing. He doesn't want us to throw out this little statement at the conclusion of our pre-scheduled programming. It is about, as so much is in Christianity, the condition of the heart. He wants us to acknowledge something—and to acknowledge it in the deep fabric of what makes us human. He wants us to walk through life with him, not without him or by paying him lip service. He is not interested in Christian superficiality but wants us to sense in our bones that our lives belong to him.

Who is this God inviting us to say—meaning: live, act, plan—"If the Lord wills"? He is unlike any deity or divine described in any other religion known to humankind because he is Triune. It might stand beyond our comprehension, but Christians worship one God who is three—Father, Son, and Spirit. Yet those three are routinely and continually portrayed as one. So, as theologians have often said, God is a community within himself. When we say that God is love, we can know he was expressing love within himself—Father to Son, Son to Father, Spirit to Son, on and on—before creation. Before matter of any kind existed, God existed and was love.

I mention this because this God who is a community invites you into a relationship with himself. The Lord wants to be in a living community with you. He is intensely interested in the details and fabric of your life. It is his very nature and bent to turn to others in love—it is what he has been doing from eternity past. And he made us in his image, calling us to express our own versions of love and community as we walk through life.

The people James wrote to had become a dead end, however, and had ceased to walk through life in communal harmony with God. They were going their own way. Martin Luther once called this a person curving in on himself, and life curved in on itself becomes so much less than life is intended to be. All the while, the Father stands, wanting us to walk through life with him. He longs to enter into our lives. Or as Jesus said to church people in Laodicea, people who had also caved to self-sufficiency, he stands at the door of our hearts, knocking that we might let him in (Rev. 2).

I wonder what it would be like for us to realize how entirely God wants to be involved in our lives. He is an all-consuming fire. He is not content to walk on the periphery. He wants to be, as he was in his tabernacle amid Israel's tribes, at the center. And isn't this the constant battle we believers are in? Don't we always need to fight against drift and the tendency to put God on the outskirts of some, most, or all the endeavors of our lives?

How can I walk through life with God?

Now that we have considered the problem James addressed here and the heart behind it, we are well set to consider how James advises us to walk through life with God.

1. Remember life's uncertainty.

First, we must remember life's uncertainty. James said that amid all our plans, we should recognize that we do not know what tomorrow will bring (14). This exhortation sounds so much like Jesus, who told us not to be anxious for anything, including tomorrow, partly because our worry today won't produce anything substantive tomorrow (see Matt. 6:25-34). We simply do not truly know what tomorrow will bring.

I recently conducted a little exercise with a few leaders in our church. We considered an episode in the apostle Paul's life that radically altered the trajectory of his life. Imprisoned for preaching in Jerusalem, the Lord told him he would preach also in Rome. But there, in Jerusalem, a group of religious zealots vowed to assassinate him. Fortunately, his nephew overheard their plot and reported it to the Roman authorities. Those authorities delivered Paul to a prison far away and in safety. The authorities there held onto him for years. Finally, he appealed to Caesar, and because of that appeal, he was delivered to Rome, just as Jesus had said. Such a small event—his nephew overheard—led to a massive pivot in his life. But since that is often how it is, our group of leaders meditated for a moment on some of the small moments or conversations or introductions that changed the entire course of our lives. We do not know what tomorrow will bring!

And it's good that we don't. Can you imagine showing up to the first day of kindergarten only to be given an overview of everything you are going to learn for the next thirteen years to get through high school? Our little kindergarten brains couldn't handle an overview like that, but that's what it would be like if we knew what tomorrow was going to bring. We would be overloaded. We wouldn't know what to do with that information.

But God does know what tomorrow will bring. Some say this is because he meticulously plans and plots every single detail of everything that exists. Others say this is because he is eternal (outside of time and space) and sees the end from the beginning. Agreed upon biblical evidence is that God knows where history is going—and that he is working it all together for his glorious purpose and plan. And if he knows about all that, perhaps we should trust him more with our tomorrows!

2. Remember life's brevity.

Second, we must remember life's brevity. James said, "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (4:14). James artfully compares our lives to a vapor, a wisp of fog, or a puff of smoke—they aren't forever and dissipate so quickly. And, yes, when one compares their little time on earth with even only known human history, let alone eternity, life is truly a brief mist.

Everyone recognizes this at some point, often long after they wished they'd learned the lesson. Every parent—or aunt or uncle—has felt this way as they've watched their children's lives rapidly accelerate into adulthood. We can so easily recall their toddler years—but time waits for no man. Life is so transient, so fast-paced, so quick. You blink and you miss it. But what so many learn at the end of life, James wants us to learn right now.

But why would the brevity of life nudge us to walk through life with God? Here are two reasons. First, the brevity of life should encourage us to live on purpose, and our Father in Heaven is the best source of wisdom on what purposes we should pursue. As the psalm of Moses says, "Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12). We need the Lord's wisdom, guidance, and leading in order to fill our lives with the stuff that leads to purpose and meaning. Life is too short to live accidentally.

But another reason the brevity of life might nudge us to walk through life with God is that he is eternal. If this life is truly as momentary as James says, and it is, then it should bring us so much joy to live it hand-in-hand with the God who is permanent. During these most recent Summer Olympic games, my family and I enjoyed watching the various competitions—athletes who had trained, sometimes for their whole lives, for that moment. Christina and I, having children as old as many of the competitors, began wondering what it was like for their parents to remember the earliest days of their children's exposure to their sport. What was that first gymnastics or archery class like? What was that first horseback riding lesson like? When did they first touch a basketball or soccer ball or see rugby on television? Those parents—and their little toddler athletes—had no idea what those early days were leading to.

Knowing the brevity of life, along with the God who never ends, should help us see our lives today as the brief starting point of a long and storied walk with God. These days are the first days, the starting days when we stumble out and begin walking with God. We will be doing this forever—in our glorified state, we will be good at it, but right now, we are like a just-born fawn with its buckling knees, trying to gain our balance, hoping to keep up with mother. This brief moment will give way to an eternity of knowing and walking with the Triune God, so it makes sense that we should turn to him to help us live with intention during this short period of our lives.

3. Acknowledge the Lord as you plan.

Third, we should acknowledge God as the Lord of our lives. James said we should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." Again, this is not superficial lip service but a genuine recognition of God's control over life and the future. But beyond celebrating God's sovereignty—God can do what he wants—it seems to also be a statement of submission. The person saying "if the Lord wills" means to say that they mean for their lives to be lived in response to what the Father wants. They need—they want—his guidance. He is the Lord of their lives, not just in title but in experience.

But how are we to acknowledge him as Lord? And isn't this challenging once we get into specifics? We might say we want to incorporate his will in our decision making, but doesn't this get confusing or tedious or both? And haven't we seen so many become absolutely paralyzed by the fear that they aren't living out some minutiae of God's will? Won't this take us down a dark path where we eventually end up asking God what color our toothbrush should be?

Our Father is a speaking God—that much is evident as we consider the big book he left us. And he has given us his Spirit to help us navigate life. So, how do we determine what he wants? Do we play some game of incantations? Is there a specific prayer we must say or place we must go to? Are there secrets we must learn in order to get him to show us his will? We should be cautious about those who point us in these directions. As Dallas Willard once wrote, “[Don’t] be misled into thinking that there is some sure-fire technique for squeezing what we want to know out of God. A life surrendered to God, a humble openness to his direction even when it is contrary to our wants and assumptions,” is what is most important. "God will not play little games of hide-and-seek with us… In our relationship with him there is no mysterious catch to receiving his word for us, no riddle to solve, no incantation to get just right."1

Instead, we look at the book, trust he loves us, acknowledge him in prayerful dependence, and move forward. We walk with him, learn what he sounds like as we interact with his word, and move forward prayerfully making our plans. So, for instance, we learn we are meant to be good stewards of whatever the Father has entrusted into our care—we see this from the beginning to end of his book. This information causes us to care so much less about the color of our toothbrush, but it helps us realize that it wants us to brush our teeth.

Which leads us to confess that we should make plans before him. Walking through life with God means that he wants us to mature and grow and make plans with the recognition that he is above it all. We should yield our plans to God, but we should make plans. Consider these two concepts from the Proverbs:

We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. (Prov. 16:9, NLT)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Prov. 3:5-6, NLT)

These passages help us see that making plans before God means that while we take responsibility to thoughtfully plan our lives, we must submit those plans to his sovereign guidance. We trust that he will ultimately direct our steps, acknowledging that his will and wisdom surpass our own. Planning with this mindset allows us to walk confidently, knowing that God will lead us along the right path. Finally, after doing your best to acknowledge him as Lord and make plans before him, simply do whatever is right today. James said, "Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin" (4:17).

[1] Dallas Willard, Hearing God, p. 201, 203.

Study Questions

Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding)

​ 1. According to James 4:13-17, what is the major issue James identifies with the way some Christians were making their plans?

​ 2. How does James describe life in verse 14, and what does this metaphor imply about human existence?

​ 3. What does it mean to say, “If the Lord wills,” in the context of making plans, and how does James contrast this with arrogance?

Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires)

​ 4. How do you feel when you consider that life is described as a “mist” or “vapor”? Does this perspective bring you comfort or anxiety?

​ 5. In what ways do you find it challenging to acknowledge God’s sovereignty in your personal planning? How does this passage resonate with your experiences?

​ 6. How does knowing that God desires to walk with us through life affect your desire to seek His will? Does it change how you approach your future?

Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions, Beliefs)

​ 7. What steps can you take to ensure that your plans are made with an acknowledgment of God’s will?

​ 8. Reflect on a time when you made plans without considering God’s will. What practical changes can you make to better align your decisions with God’s guidance moving forward?

​ 9. What is one “right thing” you know you should do but have been putting off? How will you commit to taking action on it this week?