Trevor S. Ferguson
May 7, 2011
James 4:13-17 (NKJV)
13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
INTRODUCTION
Life is short and our days are uncertain. None of us planned the day of our birth and none of us can plan the day of our death (unless we intend to commit suicide). Despite this brevity and uncertainty of life, many of us make big plans and often forget to factor God into our plans. The passage today reminds us that life is uncertain and that we should always factor God’s will and His ability to intervene in all our plans.
EXPOSITION
In the text, James seeks to correct persons who were into making big plans and forgetting about God. Their standard expressions we: “To day or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.” James asserts however: We do not know what shall be on tomorrow! He then asks: What is life? How can you be so certain that you will see tomorrow? James further states: “Life is like a vapour”, it appears for a little time, then afterwards vanishes away. The psalmist in Psalm 90 describes the situation as being like grass: in the morning it flourishes but by evening it is cut down and withers. These passages suggest to us that we should not put all our hope in this life but should acknowledge our frailty and our continued dependence on God for our very existence.
There is a little song I remember from childhood that says:
What is man? What is man?
Man is like a fading flower
In the morning fresh and blooming
In the evening withers and fades away
Man is like a fading flower
We see a similar statement in Psalm 103:15-16:
As for man, his days are as grass:
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
and the place thereof shall know it no more.
I have made these statements not for us to devalue life, but for us to view it in the right perspectives. If we live our lives without constant awareness of its brevity and our total dependence on God, we live in great danger. The parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:16-21 illustrates this error. Jesus told the story of a certain farmer who had a great harvest from his crops. Rather than giving thanks to God and offering the “first fruits” as Jewish law requires, he began to make big plans: he would tear down his old barn and build bigger barns; then he would take his ease, eat drink and be merry. In all of this he does not mention of God or express a word of thankfulness. The parable tells us however that while he makes his plans the Lord then says to him: “Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of me”. While he was planning he was unaware that the number of his days were expired!
So, in all our planning, remember the Lord! James instructs us that when we make plans, we should say “If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that”. Plans made without consideration of God will often be futile and will usually mean that we are drifting further and further away from God’s will. When we recognize the brevity and uncertainty of life and that in this life we are really preparing for eternity, we realize that we can’t afford to get this all wrong. Let us remember the Lord!
CONCLUSION
Today as we reflect on the uncertainty of life, let us remember our own mortality. None of us will be here forever! We should therefore seek to ensure that our lives are secured in the hands of God. This requires that we ensure that we are living by God’s word and we have responded to his offer of salvation i.e. through repentance, water baptism in the name of Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Ghost.
Life is uncertain. Let us therefore seek to ensure that we are certain where we go when we depart this life!
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