Planning for the Future

Setting of the Admonition

James has been speaking about how we need to be careful about our desires and feelings.

He had contrasted worldly and godly wisdom, then illustrating it with how to deal with conflict in a Biblical fashion.

As you will remember, true conflict comes from within - my heart. As I let my selfish desires control, then out comes conflict and fighting with others - I use harsh words against them and it is all wrapped up in this concept of selfishness reigning supreme in my life.

Now, James moves on to a second real life scenario - that of planning for the future. As we will see tonight, it is not just adding the words “Lord willing” to our plans and schemes, but rather the heart issue of who is in control? Am I being self-ruled or governed by God and the ministry to others.

James begins by descrbing a group of people planning to conduct business.

James 4:13 KJV 1900

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Go to now is a phrase that basically means: Listen up!

Grant Osborne:

Now listen, you” (age nyn) is a prophetic particle of disapproval telling these readers to wake up and open their ears to God and his warning.

Horizontal Planning

Notice that these merchants are dealing in definites. Are you guaranteed profits? Yet, that is what they are stating - we will do this and we will make a profit - and we will be there for exactly a year.

Grant Osborne: Everything is part of the plan, even the time limits (a year), and their assumption is that all that matters is making money and building an earthly kingdom ...

For many years, I engaged in strategic planning for organizations and helping them craft a preferred future and a blueprint for how to arrive there over a period of years.

One of the first exercises in any strategic planning process is the review of your mission statement and values. If needed, changes were made, but then the entire process would look back and try to make sure that every activity supported that ultimate mission statement.

I would phrase this scenario described by James as Strategic Planning while Ignoring the Christian’s Primary Mission

Or better still, Strategic Planning that ignores God’s priorities in favor of my personal mission!

The issue as we will see - is not the plan, but the heart that is behind that plan.

So, how does planning go in real life?

Has anyone taken a look at their retirement account lately? How definite are your plans?

High Definition Commentary: James James 4:13–17

Vaporizing Plans: James begins the section introducing hypothetical people who decide to go off to such-and-such a place to trade and earn a profit. What could be wrong with that?

We will go

today or tomorrow - signifies not only the current plan, but also the plan for the future

Nothing could derail their plan - it was definite

We will do

The word continue is actually the word “do”

They are going to do a year - in other words, they are not only going to be there, but they are planning to use their time profitably - they are not slackers, but go -getters!

We will profit

They are going to buy and sell - and make a profit!

These planners did not have any doubt or hedging about what would happen. They were in control and nothing would stand in their way.

James is not condemning the business or even the profit - here he is condemning the life of practical atheism taht they are engaging in - there is not any thought of God or His will for their life in this particular plan.

James and God’s response:

James 4:14 KJV 1900

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

The Vanishing Plan

God interjects reality into their plan.

It is strikingly similar to Christ’s parable of the rich fool who plans to build bigger barns and retire - without planning for eternity.

Yet there the message was the lack of planning for eternity.

Here the message is similar, but somewhat different. Here the concern is the lack of God’s input and the lack of doing what is good in their plan.

1) They are presumptuous about the future

You do not have any clue what tomorrow will bring.

Did we realize in February that we would be in a virtual country-wide lockdown?

We do not ever know what will happen tomorrow.

So, as a result, we need to live our life with a view to eternal values and goals.

Because, they also are:

2) They are presumptuous about their life

We cannot know when God will call us home. There are sometimes when we know that death is coming - an illness such as cancer - there are other times when death comes suddenly and without warning.

Either way, we do not know what the coming week or year will bring - we may be in the presence of God

Psalm 102:11 KJV 1900

My days are like a shadow that declineth; And I am withered like grass.

Job 7:7 KJV 1900

O remember that my life is wind: Mine eye shall no more see good.

Job 7:9 KJV 1900

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

And then what will happen to our plan?

Again, James is not condemning the idea of planning ahead and engaging in business and possibly making money.

In fact, taking out life insurance, budgeting, planning for retirement, and other types of planning for the future are all ways to properly steward or take care of the funds that God entrusts us with.

Rather, James is condemning the attitude that I can simply plan out my future in order to maximize my own personal pleasure and comfort.

Grant Osborne: “You “know” nothing about the future. Contingency controls every plan, and the God of all contingencies must at all times direct such planning.”

Proverbs 27:1 KJV 1900

Boast not thyself of to morrow; For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

James 4:15 KJV 1900

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

James 4:16 KJV 1900

But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

The Vertical Plan

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

What these merchants need to go on to reckon with is that their lives are also in the hands of God. This world is not a closed system; what appears to our senses to be the totality of existence is in fact only part of the whole. This life cannot properly be understood without considering the spiritual realm, a realm that impinges on and ultimately determines the material realm in which we live day to day.

But also notice that James specifically does not say, If God wills - rather He states, If the Lord wills.

That is significant - James states that we need to recognize the Lord’s authority and submit to the control of our Lord in our plans.

Paul exhibited this attitude - for instance in

1 Corinthians 16:7 KJV 1900

For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

James attributes no magical significance to the words themselves. “If the Lord wills” can become nothing more than a glib formula without any real meaning. James, rather, wants us to adopt the attitude expressed by the words as a fixed perspective from which to view all of life.

High Definition Commentary: James James 4:13–17

Vaporizing Plans: In this verse, rather than focusing on whether we have God’s permission to do X, James calls us to a higher standard. Instead of presumptuously asking permission, we should ask direction. What would God have us pursue?

Ephesians 2:10 KJV 1900

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Steven Runge:

High Definition Commentary: James James 4:13–17

God is not a cosmic parent from whom we must ask permission before we can do anything. He is the Creator of the universe. He created us with such intentionality that he even planned out the good things he would have us do as part of his bigger plan

James 4:17 KJV 1900

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Doesn’t do it” is in the present tense and means that on a regular basis we refuse to do what God wants us to do. In other words, this is ongoing sin and will bring God’s wrath down on our heads not just for the sins we commit but also for the good we should be doing and refuse to do in our hedonistic pursuit of personal pleasure.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

For we have a tendency, when we think of sin, to think only of those things we have done that we should not have done. I know my own confessions before the Lord tend to focus on these kinds of sins. But I should also consider those ways in which I have failed to do what the Lord has commanded me to do. Perhaps I did not reach out to help a “neighbor” in need; or perhaps I failed to bear witness to a co-worker when I had the opportunity. These also are sins for which I must seek God’s forgiveness

James Theology in Application

Arthur Simon, president of Bread for the World: “An affluent culture turns our hearts towards fleeting satisfactions and away from God,” while “unprecedented prosperity has left our lives full but not necessarily fulfilled.” Simon concludes that “the problem is not that we’ve tried faith and found it wanting, but that we’ve tried mammon and found it addictive, and as a result find following Christ inconvenient.”

How are you planning? Horizontally or Vertically?

Our plans will be revealed in our:

time - what we spend time upon

thoughts - what we think about

values - how tightly we hold to our stuff and how anxious we are to get more stuff

Practically speaking, we need to plan for the future, but we need to most importantly have the right attitude- seeking the good in our plans. What motivates us?

James Theology in Application

Barton, Veerman, and Wilson suggest five practices to avoid: envisaging retirement as a time merely to enjoy the fruit of our labor, seeing work as just a way to make the money we need to buy what we want, viewing material prosperity as a symbol of our independence, imagining God as aloof from mundane cares of money matters, and making financial decisions without consulting Christ for detailed guidance.

James 4:14 KJV 1900

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.