(Audio version; Music: "Let It God" by: Tenth Avenue North and "Open Heaven (River Wild)" by: Hillsong Worship)
Introduction
Very few of us go
through life without some sort of planning. I’ll concede that some people
travel through life on a whim—they fly, as we say here in America, by the seat
of their pants. But most people have some sort of plan for their lives. Some
people plan years in advance while others can’t bring themselves to plan beyond
tomorrow. For many people, the new year is the inauguration of a new set of
plans—plans to get married; plans to start a family; plans to start a new job;
plans to buy or sell a house; plans to travel; plans to go to college or maybe
some other plan. I happen to be a planner, in part because I don’t like
uncertainty. However, for the early years of my life, my plans never included
seeking God’s Will. Unfortunately,
my plans often failed and if they succeeded, they managed primarily to hurt
myself and others in some ways that often weren’t revealed until many years
later. And that’s really what I want to cover in this lesson—living our lives
according to God’s Will. How many of
us make plans for ourselves and for those we love and care about; serious
plans; life-changing plans, and never once think to consult God about whether
or not our plans are in accordance with God’s
Will for our lives and the lives of those we love and care about? This
tragic failure is understandable in unbelievers but how often do Christians
make crucial plans daily without once seeking God’s Will with respect to their plans? How many Christians have
access to the sovereign power of the Creator of the universe to guide their
lives and plans yet purposely neglect seeking His will? But this isn’t what the
Bible teaches and I believe much pain and sorrow could be avoided in our lives
if we would intentionally seek God’s
Will for our lives.
Subject Text
James 4:13-17
13Now
listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend
a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14Why, you do not
even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought
to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As
it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone,
then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Context
James was the brother of
Jesus and a leader of the church in Jerusalem. James wrote this letter to
Jewish-Christians who fled Jerusalem and were living outside Palestine. James’
purpose was to expose hypocritical practices in the church and to teach right
Christian behavior. One of the more familiar and frankly one of my favorite
verses comes from James’ letter when he says, “You have faith, I have deeds.
Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do
(2:18).” Some people try to make the leap that James is saying that we are made
righteous based on our deeds when Paul clearly teaches that we are made
righteous based on faith alone. But that’s not what James is saying at all.
Remember that James is trying to root out hypocrisy in the church. In this
case, what James is trying to root out is people whose lives don’t reflect what
they say they believe. Growing up in the home of an abusive alcoholic father who
made us sit near the front of the church on Sundays, this verse is particularly
personal for me. What James is saying is that unless your actions reflect what
you say you believe then what you say is meaningless—you’re a hypocrite. For
example, if a husband regularly abuses his wife yet apologizes after each time,
at what point is the apology meaningless? At what point do his words make him a
hypocrite based on his actions?
Fundamentally, James is trying to get his readers to
understand that all areas of their lives must reflect what they say they
believe; that God must play a role in all areas of their lives including their
plans for the future. Let me try to clarify—if we, as believers, claim that God
is sovereign over all matters including matters of the future, then our actions
should reflect that belief by seeking God’s direction for our future plans. If
God has a plan for our lives then our faith should acknowledge God’s sovereignty
over our lives both now and in the future. As such, our faith demands that we
seek God’s guidance and direction for our lives. Our faith demands that we seek
God’s Will for our lives. And that’s
what James is directing his readers to do in our Subject Text.
Text Analysis
13Now
listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend
a year there, carry on business and make money.”
We sometimes fall into a
trap of thinking that the people of the Bible are different than we are. But v. 13 reminds us that people went about
their daily lives in much the same way we do—making travel and business plans,
earning money, raising their families, living their lives. We also wrongly
assume that all believers during Biblical times lived strictly Christ-centered
lives. But that wasn’t always the case then as it is not always the case now.
People then, like people now, seemed to separate their lives into the sacred
and the secular. They placed God on a pedestal—all powerful, fully sovereign
and infinitely worthy of our praise and devotion but not necessarily involved
in the everyday mundane elements of our lives. However, nothing could be
farther from the truth. This happens when we fail to understand God’s purpose
in the world evidenced by the advent of Jesus.
Why did God in the person of Jesus come into the world?
The easy answer is to atone for the sins of humanity; to sacrifice His life in
place of ours. But that’s the easy answer. I want you look beyond the theological
answer; beyond the academic answer. I want you to see the answer that is much
more personal. Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t some impersonal action performed because
God demands atonement for sins. The real question is, why not just let us die
in our sins? Why would God care? We certainly deserve whatever punishment is
coming to us because of our sins so what would motivate God to arrange for a
sacrifice for our sins in our place? And what could possibly motivate Him to
offer His one and only Son as that sacrifice? That has to be a pretty powerful
motivation that goes beyond mere impersonal theology doesn’t it? I am fully
convinced that God is motivated by love. Let me ask you again: Why did Jesus come
to die for our sins? The answer is: Because our sins separate us from God and
He can’t bear that. God can’t bear the idea of eternity without you so He made
it possible through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for you and me to spend
eternity with Him. God went to the extreme of sacrificing Himself so that you
would have the chance of being in relationship with Him. But not just after
this life, during this life as well. And being in relationship with God means
including Him in all areas of our lives—both the sacred and the secular; the
spectacular and the mundane; the simple and the complex; the easy and the hard;
the joy and the sorrow. God went to extremes to be at the center of our entire
life—He went to extreme to be in relationship with us.
14Why, you do not even
know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears
for a little while and then vanishes.
It’s about control. We are
so often convinced that we are in complete control of our lives. However, that
belief is an illusion born out of arrogance. James reminds his audience in v. 14 that they can’t possibly know
what happens tomorrow let alone control the events of their lives beyond that. How
many of you have a three, five, and/or ten-year plan for your life? I’m not passing
judgment on you because that describes me many years ago. I once subscribed to
the belief that you had to set specific goals and a specific short, mid, and
long range plan for your life in order to succeed at life. When I was younger,
it never even dawned on me that I may not have a tomorrow. I’m not sure when
that thought process changed for me but I have been reminded often as I’ve
gotten older that having ultimate control over my life is an illusion. Many
years ago my wife and I belonged to a church where we formed a close
relationship with many of the other people in the church but we became
particularly close with two families. We met together regularly outside of our
regular church attendance. We did many things together including holiday celebrations
and vacations. I considered the two men in that small group my best friends. We
always confided in one another and shared our life experiences. Life seemed
great. We had plans for our families, for our careers, and for our respective
ministry aspirations. However, in March of 2002 while on a business trip to
Italy, one of the two men died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack at the
age of 39. And then less than a year later in 2003, the other man died of
cancer at the age of 42. Just like that, all of our lives changed in ways we
never could have imagined. As ambitious as all of our plans may have been,
control over our respective futures proved to be an illusion when two of the
three of us died within the span of nine months. Only one person knew the
future; only God knew the future; only God knows why our lives unfolded the way
they have. This is the point James is trying to make in v. 14.
“There is a problem with
these well-made plans—no one can know what will happen tomorrow, to say nothing
of a year in the future. These people were planning as if their future was
guaranteed. James is not suggesting that they make no plans because of possible
disaster, but to be realistic about the future as they trust God to guide them.
Because the future is uncertain, it is even more important that we completely
depend on God. Our lives are uncertain, like morning fog that covers the
countryside in the morning and then is burned away by the sun. Life is short no
matter how long we live. We shouldn’t be deceived into thinking we have plenty
of time left to live for Christ, to enjoy our loved ones, or to do what we know
we should. Today is the day to live for God! Then, no matter when our lives
end, we will have fulfilled God’s plan for us.”[1]
15Instead, you ought
to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
I know some people who
have taken James’ instruction in v. 15
literally and I have to tell you that it is terribly annoying. Honestly, given
the overall context of James’ letter and his obvious disdain for hypocrisy, I
don’t think James wanted them to throw around empty words like some magic
incantation and then go about the business of their daily lives. I’m not saying
that James didn’t want his audience to use those words. I’m saying that I think
James wanted them to use those words as a training tool; a tool to train them
to invite God into their lives and their plans. It is a tool to help us
acknowledge that God is the one in control, not us. I think it is a tool to remind
us that we must align our lives with God’s
Will. Remember, though, it is a training tool that forces us to acknowledge
that we are in a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe—there
is no magic to the words.
“James exhorts his
audience to have as a normal attitude a readiness to seek God’s Will in all actions and plans, that is, to live a life of
faith, not autonomy. Such an attitude is not just a matter of inserting ‘God
willing’ in sentences declaring one’s intentions or future plans; it involves
the continuing, ongoing recognition that all of life’s activities have an
ethical component, derived from the fact that all human acts are either in
obedience or in disobedience to God…A recognition of dependency on God entails
a recognition that one cannot do anything unless God intends it to happen.
Rarely, however, does James show any interest in God’s decretive will; his
primary interest is on obedience to God’s revealed ethical will…James is
indicating that merchants and others need to be conscious of and sensitive to
God’s declared ethical will (i.e. his
law) when making plans. Such a consciousness is commensurate with genuine
faith. Not all plans are easily identified as either clear obedience or clear
disobedience to God’s revealed ethical will, but all human actions do have an
ethical dimension, and if these actions do not proceed from a faithful
intention to obey God, they are sin.”[2]
16As it is, you boast
and brag. All such boasting is evil.
What could be more
boastful than presuming that we control events that are strictly under God’s
control? Do you realize what we are saying when we do that? We’re saying that
we are our own god. When I don’t acknowledge God’s exclusive sovereignty over
all areas of my life, I am saying “I am God.” Could there be anything more
arrogant or boastful? In v. 16 James
says such boastfulness is evil.
“Boasting has a place in
the Christian life—if it is done in view of the work of God. But such is not
the case with the believers James was confronting. Instead of confessing their
dependence on the will of God, their arrogance erupted and overflowed with
bragging. More precisely, to brag here means to manifest the pretense of the
self-creation and sole causation of one’s own well-being. The condemnation of
pretense is similar in 1 John 2:16 within the context of loving the world
rather than God and taking pride in one’s possessions…The relationship between ‘friendship
with the world’ and pretense should not be missed here. After all, the worldly
power of speech is all about boasting and its heart attitude of
pretentiousness. This spiritual fact is extremely difficult to grasp for
American believers who are so tempted to participate in the celebration of ‘the
self-made man.’
James wanted the
believers to have absolutely nothing to do with boasting and arrogance. All
self-referential statements of certainty about the future are wickedness. In
such statements there is no willingness to yield to God’s will; worst of all
the temptation is to make pronouncements that claim sure knowledge of God’s
will for the future to one’s own benefit…Not only did James prohibit boasting
in possessions but persons must not even boast in their plans for the future.
Such boasting stems from a prayerless, prideful, and pretentious way of life.”[3]
17Anyone, then, who
knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Verses 13-16 flow
smoothly as a cohesive narrative and then v.
17 disrupts the narrative with a statement that seems like it doesn’t
belong—at least not at first glance. But let me try to smooth out the rough
edges of the final verse in our Subject
Text and try and demonstrate how it fits in. Let’s start with a constant
that we can all agree upon: God is good all the time. I’m not trying to be
overly simple but within that simplicity is the answer to understanding v. 17 within the context of our Subject Text. Here’s what I mean: If
God is good then all that He wills must be good as well. And if our actions are
consistent with God’s Will then our
actions will be good as well. The inverse holds true as well—if our actions are
not consistent with God’s Will then
our actions will be not be good; our actions will be sinful. Although we can’t
know God’s Will perfectly, we can
have access to much of it through the Scriptures He gave us and through the
Holy Spirit who helps to enlighten us as to God’s Will for us and for the world around us.
What James is saying is that when we know what God’s Will is, then we have a duty to
act on that to the extent that we play a role in that will. For example, we
know that it is God’s Will for all
people to be reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ. It is also God’s Will that we should be the
vehicles to communicate the offer of that reconciliation to people in all ages
throughout the world. It is good that God has made reconciliation with Him
possible and it is good that God has made it possible for us to play a part in
that reconciliation offer in the lives of those around us. Consequently, since
we know these things to be good, we sin when we neglect to do our part in what
we know is good—it is the sin of omission. And this is just one example among
countless others that are part of our everyday lives—Not caring for those in
need; not upholding biblical values for our relationships; not seeking God’s Will in all areas of our
lives—these are all sins of omission.
“This verse introduces
us to a new category of sins, often called “sins of omission.” This category
emphasizes that what we fail to do in obeying God is just as important and
significant as our act of open disobedience.
The preceding verses
warn us that God holds our future in his hands. Our life and prosperity are
dependent on God and his grace. If we continue planning our lives without
demonstration of dependence on God, we fail to know the good and are guilty of
sin. Failing to seek God’s will is a sin.
These words introduce a
broader application. Whenever we fail to follow a conscious commitment to
Christ, we have omitted a deed of obedience and are involved in sin. Any action
in which we reduce or omit obedience becomes sin in God’s sight.
Our failures to seek God
by prayer, Bible reading, and worship are sins of omission. Our omission of
helpful acts of service to other human beings constitutes an act of
disobedience.”[4]
Application
We’re pretty big on
seeking God’s Will in our family. In
large part it’s because of me. It is born out of a history of making
catastrophically poor decisions without seeking God’s Will, often with the result of hurting myself and those I
love. I have learned and passed on to my family the practice of seeking God’s Will in all areas of our lives.
In truth, seeking and following God’s
Will is what has led me on this particular ministry journey.
Over many years of being
in relationship with Jesus, for me, and maybe for you too, seeking God’s Will in all areas of my life has
perhaps been one of the most difficult disciplines that I have practiced. It’s
not so much trying to discern God’s Will
based on what is written in the Scriptures, it is trying to discern God’s Will for things not written in
the Scriptures—that’s what keeps me up at night; that’s what drives me to my
knees in prayer. You and I both know that God’s
Will for all situations in our lives is not clearly spelled out in the
Scriptures so we must seek His will through prayer and by the power of the Holy
Spirit who resides within the believer and who can aid us in discerning God’s Will. I should probably clarify
that it is not seeking God’s Will
that is difficult, it is waiting and listening for God’s answer. Sometimes it
is a long and difficult time of waiting with a number of wrong turns, stops and
starts. Most of the time, however, is spent in prayer and listening quietly for
direction. Let me use the events surrounding the advent of this ministry to
illustrate my point.
Almost twenty years ago
now there were a series of events that began and eventually converged into God
calling me to ministry a few years later when I began attending seminary. It
took me ten years to get through the program and during that whole time I
assumed I knew why God had called me to ministry. I assumed I would pastor a
local church like every other pastor I knew. But the opportunity to do that
never materialized so I waited and prayed that God would make His will known to
me. But the answer didn’t come until just six months before I graduated when
God made it clear to me that it was creating this ministry in this form that
was His will. For ten years I sought God’s Will for why He called me to
ministry. I could have pursued my own will and started a church—I successfully
started two businesses over the last twenty-five years so it would have been
perfectly natural for me to start a new church. However, I never got the sense
that it was God’s Will for me to do
that so I submitted my own will to God’s
Will. The result has been a ministry that has reached more people in more
countries around the world than I ever could have as the pastor of a local
church.
However, seeking God’s Will is something that continues
every day of our lives and it didn’t end for me at the advent of this ministry.
I have prayed every day that God would use me and guide me according to His
will. And up until the middle of last year I only sensed that God’s Will for me, and this ministry,
was to continue as I always have. However, a series of events converged once
again around the middle of last year and God’s
Will for the next phase of this ministry became clear to me that I would
like to share with you. This spring, I will return to the seminary to begin my
doctoral studies. I’m hoping my studies won’t take another ten years but I will
continue to seek God’s Will as I
make my way through the doctoral program. And I am confident that God will make
His will clear to me at some point, maybe once again at the very end of the
program, as to how this next phase will fit into His plan for my life and this
ministry.
As you can see, these events unfolded over a period of two decades! That is, perhaps, the most difficult part of seeking and being obedient to God's Will--praying and waiting and listening, lots of it. The problem for most of us (including me), is that we are not very good at waiting or listening. We want action; we want something to happen; we want God to answer, and if we can't get God to answer us then we tend to just do what we want and then hope that God approves. But that's not seeking God's Will, that's imposing our own will under the guise of seeking God's Will. This year, all of us will be faced with some kind of challenge: Should I get married? Should I get a divorce? Should I look for a new job? Should I buy a new house? Where should I go to school? What will my ministry look like? What must I accomplish before I die? Whatever your challenge; whatever your question; whatever decision you are faced with, if you are unable to discern God's Will directly from the Scriptures, then this year choose to pray and wait and listing until you are able to discern God's Will to guide you and direct you and then follow that direction and guidance obediently.
[1]
Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman,
Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 1088.
[2]
Dan G. McCartney, James—Baker
Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2009), pp. 227-228.
[3]
Kurt A. Richardson, James—The New
American Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1997), pp.
201-202.
[4]
Thomas D. Lea, Hebrew & James—Holman
New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1999), p.
333.
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