We are now living amid COVID-19 crisis. Our President declared a nationwide lockdown to stop the rapid spread of the coronavirus. It is important to follow the government during this troubled time. I understand that we should be together for prayer and worship. But wisdom declares that we should stay at home and not to gather. We want to stop the virus from moving around. If people keep moving around, we are making a way the virus spread rapidly more than our healthcare professionals and front-liners can handle.
It is in time like this that we also the best and worst among us. I believe that people are good, God created us in His own image anyway. Sin may have marred God's image in us but it still there. However, in a situation like this, sin also exposed the worst among us. Our self-centeredness.
We are going to see from our text that self-centeredness sickness infected even Christians. We can read it in James 4:13-17. We will learn that the cure for self-centered sickness is following the will of God.
“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. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”Verse 13 gives us the symptoms of our disease: “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.’” People, even Christians make plans without any regard for God’s will.
The statement “come now,” is found only in this verse. It is a forceful warning to businesspeople. In James’ day, sellers would buy goods from one city and travel to a distant city and remain there until they sold those goods at a profit. Then with the profit, they will buy goods from that city and move to another city to sell the goods.
These business people had a good business plan. They had everything figured out or so they thought. They answered all the questions:
- When? “Today or tomorrow”
- Where? “such and such a town”
- How long? “spend a year”
- What? “trade”
- Why? “make a profit”
Making plans is a good thing but planning without acknowledging God is selfishness and arrogance. Acknowledging God’s will over our lives is a cure for our self-centeredness sickness.
Admit we do not know the future (14)
Listen to the first part of verse 14: “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.” We don’t know what will happen tonight, much less next week or next year. Proverbs 27:1: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring”. The COVID-19 pandemic proves this point. The only time we know for sure is this time, right now.Yesterday is called “the past” because it has already passed. Tomorrow is yet to come. To be honest, we will not know what will happen tomorrow. That is why, a quotation says: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift—that is why it is called the present”.
The rich fool made plans he thought would give him security for the rest of his life. He planned for what he knew would happen, but according to Luke 12:20, he was caught unprepared, “God said to him, ‘Fool!’ This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’”
We don’t know our future; our future is in God’s hands alone. Unless we commit ourselves and our plans to God, our future is meaningless.
Acknowledge the brevity of life (14)
Life is not only uncertain; it’s also short. We see this in verse 14: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” J. B. Philips version says it this way: “You are like a puff of smoke visible for a little while and dissolving into thin air.”The Greek for “mist” is atmos, from which we get the word “atmosphere.” James is thinking of the morning mist which appears for a “little time” and goes away when the sun comes up. The word “vanishes” has the idea of utterly disappearing.
Have you ever thought of yourself as fragile as the mist? You’re here one moment and then gone the next. Even if you live to be 100, time goes by quickly and like vanishing steam from a hot cup of coffee, you will eventually evaporate from the earth.
Brothers and sisters, life is too uncertain and too short to live it without God at the center. We count our lives in years, but God tells us in Psalm 90:12 to number our days. Everyone in this room is just one heartbeat away from eternity.
Because life is short, live as if this is the last day of your life. Have you admitted ignorance about the future? Have you acknowledged the brevity of life?
Align with God’s will (15)
The third directive is found in verse 15: “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” We’re called to move from arrogant independence to dependence upon God. God is actively and personally involved with His people. Because He has plans and purposes for us, we must seek Him and His will. The little word “if” makes all the difference. “If” the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.No amount of money, influence, power, or planning can guarantee tomorrow. Only God can grant us another sunrise or another breath. Let’s declare with David in Psalm 31:15: “My times are in your hand.” It would be helpful for us to say, “Lord willing” whenever we make plans. The key is not to make this phrase a trite formula but to really mean, “If the Lord wills.”
One commentator offers this helpful insight:
- We should refer to God’s will.
- We should defer to God’s will.
- We should prefer God’s will.
Avoid arrogance (16)
According to verse 16, God does what He chooses in my life. Therefore, I must accept what He chooses to do: “As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” The word “boast” means to exult oneself higher than God.If we plan without aligning ourselves with God’s purposes, we become arrogant. 1 Corinthians 5:6: “Your boasting is not good…” We might call ourselves Christ-followers but by leaving God out of our lives, we are acting like atheists. Boasting is evil because we are defying the true state of our lives and living like we don’t need God for anything.
I appreciate Charles Spurgeon’s advice for conquering pride:
- Embrace your Nothingness – “Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace.”
- Embrace Christ – “Pride cannot live beneath the cross.”
- Embrace Suffering – “The benefit of the furnace; it melts, tries, and purifies.”
Act in obedience (17)
We’ve been challenged by the Book of James to live out what we’re learning. The final directive is found in verse 17: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” This literally reads, “sin it is to him.” This attitude says something like this, “God, I know what you want me to do, but I’m not going to do it. I know better than you do.”Some of us think we haven’t done anything bad, so we’re good to go. Perhaps we even point out others who’ve done awful things. But the truth is we can sin by doing nothing. It was Edmund Burke who said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”.
James is addressing the sins of omission, which result from failing to do something God’s Word commands us to do. A sin of commission is a sin we actively commit.
The best way to deal with the future is to be faithful today. Now is always the right time to act because it is the only time you can be sure of it. The only moment you can guarantee is this moment. When you procrastinate doing the right thing, you end up doing the wrong thing.
We could say it like this: Delayed obedience is disobedience. Do you have any delayed obedience in your life? Do you know what God wants you to do or to stop doing, but you’ve been delaying?
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