James 4:13-17

I believe one of the reasons is that the flow of our societal consciousness and worldview has left us today in a place where we actually see James’ point here, and we don’t have an answer to it

Modernism’s arrogance

Modernism is a broad conception of worldview that flourished from the second half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century

It was born out of the enlightenment (18th century) and industrial revolution (19th century), where human logic, ingenuity and innovation gave rise to a great optimism that we could “figure life out”

It believed that there was a true meaning to life, and that humans would ultimately reason their way to it

It was a period of great optimism because it reflected on the incredible human achievements it had led to and thought “anything is possible for us”

Postmodernism’s false humility leading to despair

The legacy of modernism

Along with the industrious innovation of the 19th and 20th century came the horrors of two world wars and the one of the greatest economic depressions in history

So the worldview itself came under intense scrutiny and gave rise to the “humility” of postmodernism

Postmodernism looks at the logic of human beings as inherently flawed due to implicit bias and faulty lenses that make us all unreliable narrators

Therefore, if there even is objective truth and meaning out there, we can’t possible find it on our own flawed reasoning

It then rejects that there is any true objective reality at all, which has led to postmodern existentialism which believes that there is ultimately nothing objectively true about what it means to exist and be human

The only purpose, meaning, justice, good is what we decide upon and make for ourselves

And that’s where postmodernism stops

I believe this leaves us in a place of extreme despair

We cannot know who we are

We cannot know what is true and what is right and what is wrong

We lack a “compass of the world”

We can’t find our way and we don’t actually know how to move forward

This is why progressivism can’t even define itself; it can’t land on a clear understanding of what actually constitutes “progress” as opposed to just “movement”

Millennials are anxious because they lay awake at night wondering what hope there can possibly be in a world where we are so unimportant and out of control

On what basis can we know we actually matter?

On what basis can we truly have hope for our future?

On what basis can we actually do justice? How can we believe that this broken world might be healed?

On what basis can we truly rely upon anything?

Postmodernism has rightly asked good questions, but it has written God off as a possible answer to those questions, and so it bears the anxious reality that it has raised questions it cannot answer

I. The illusion of human importance and control

James 4:13–14 ESV

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.

Come now = “let’s reason together, think about what you are saying”

“today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”

James doesn’t actually care deeply about this particular example he’s making, but rather trying to point out and generalize an attitude, posture, and way of looking at the world that we often adopt

Three things stick out about the way James paraphrases his readers

God is not present anywhere in their plans

Their plans are all about their intentions and decisions

Their plans are oriented only around materialistic concerns

The presumption that James is calling out is the presumption that we are in control

That we are the masters of our own destiny

That we have the power to make things go the way we want to

That we are in control

This presumption is futile because humans in and of themselves only have an illusion of control and importance

James paints a quick but profound picture of the reality of human existence to force us to consider it, and what it looks like apart from God

You do not know what tomorrow will bring; how then can you actually be in control?

You don’t know that you even have tomorrow

You don’t know for sure that you won’t die in your sleep tonight

You don’t know for sure that the world won’t go to war and obliterate everything in a nuclear holocaust

You don’t know for sure that a meteor will not come and strike our planet

If tomorrow even comes at all, you have no idea really what it will bring

Your life can completely change in a moment

One minute I was working on a project at my house, the next I had

Matt Chandler, pastor in Texas, fell down on his kitchen floor with a seizure thanksgiving morning 2009 and was rushed to the hospital to discover that he had a malignant brain tumor

He woke up that morning as if it were another normal day, and he went to bed that night a cancer patient

What if you lose your job tomorrow?

What if your loved one gets a bad diagnosis tomorrow?

What if the world enters a global pandemic tomorrow?

The point? The human belief that we control our destiny and fate is an arbitrary illusion

You are a mist that appears for a time and then vanishes

The destiny of individuals

Best case scenario for me

I will raise my children, who will marry and have their own children, and I may live to see my great grand children

I will die, and Kelsey and our kids will mourn my passing, and my grandkids will be sad for a time, and my great grand kids will be largely unaffected

After that third generation, I will be pretty much completely forgotten to the pages of history and no one will even know who I was

The destiny of nations

Every nation has a beginning and an end - every nation has a shelf life

Nations come and go, are seemingly important for a time but are then forgotten

The destiny of humanity

We have imagined all kinds of ways that we might experience an extinction event

However many thousands of years humanity is thriving in this universe, it will all be just a tiny blip on the cosmic radar

We are here today and gone tomorrow

The point: In an of ourselves, we are not important and nothing matters

Carl Sagan voiced this sentiment in his book cosmos when he said, ““The study of the galaxies reveals a universal order and beauty. It also shows us chaotic violence on a scale hitherto undreamed of. That we live in a universe which permits life is remarkable. That we live in one which destroys galaxies and stars and worlds is also remarkable. The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we.”

James wants us to come face to face with the futility of human control and effort

If this all sounds like a bit of a downer, that’s because it is, and James wants us to feel that

James wants us to deeply consider the absolute absurdity and futility of life purely from a human, materialistic perspective

He says that arrogant boasting in this presumptuous illusion of control is evil James 4:16

James 4:16 ESV

16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Boasting doesn’t always mean arrogant verbal speech, saying things that are boastful

It often means simply taking pride in or putting confidence in something

I could boast in my job - I take pride in my work, and I put my confidence in my ability to bring home a paycheck on a regular basis

I don’t ever need to say anything to “boast” in my vocation

Boasting in our presumption of control and self importance is arrogant and evil

Because there is nothing there - I am putting confidence in something that doesn’t exist

It is to ignore the truth that we are not in control and that God is; that we are not sovereign and that God is

God’s sovereignty means that he is in control, and he reigns as king over all things

Transition: James actually meets the challenge of “postmodernism” and issues his own challenge to go deeper: He actually gives an answer to the questions, an alternative worldview to make sense of the universe in which we find ourselves

II. The sovereignty of God

James 4:15 ESV

15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

His suggestion is profoundly summed up in “Instead… ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

James’s solution to the absurdity and futility of life is to appeal to the sovereignty of God

This is very counterintuitive for us

Because especially here in the West we have been conditioned to think independently and individualistically

We have inherited an arrogant human-centric worldview

So we tend toward thinking that submission to God means a freedom-less, joyless life of drudgery and dutiful obligation to archaic religious rules

But the truth is that James’ appeal here is a beautiful answer to the questions that we raise and in ourselves are unable to answer

You matter because you were created by a sovereign God who loves you and made you in his image

You can believe that justice is real and true and important because justice is an extension of God’s character, in whose image you were made

You can believe that despite the fact that the universe we live in is indifferent to our pain and callous to our sorrow, the God who made that universe is not

You can know that while you possess almost zero control over your life and destiny, you are caught up in the hands of the sovereign God who does have control over all things

James describes this worldview here in two ways

If God wills, we will live

We ought to live under the recognition that we only live because God has given us life

We ought to live under the recognition that at any point we might, and at some point we will, die - and this is not the workings of random, indifferent, chaotic chance, but the sovereign will of God

This gives us great comfort no matter if we are living or dying

It concerns me to see how many Christians have as their greatest fear discomfort, suffering and dying

What seems to often take the place of greatest priority to us in our prayers and our pursuits is the alleviating of our own discomfort and suffering rather than on the will of God

We spent a lot of time asking God to give us good days, good times, good diagnoses, good medical results, good fortune in our endeavors

We sometimes spend decidedly less time asking God to give his himself, his kingdom, his spirit, his guidance, his will

God does not owe any of us life

Yet, in his grace, love, kindness and mercy he gives life and breath to all

And he provides the means by which our lives can be ransomed from sin and death

If God wills, we will “do this or that”

Again, James is not concerned with the literal words he is using here but with the posture and worldview they represent

We choose to view our plans, our hopes, our dreams, our assumptions, our very lives through the lens of God’s sovereignty

This is not a way for James to say that you should not think about the future at all, or that you should not plan at all

Rather, James wants us to learn that having a thriving, whole, true faith means viewing our future and making our plans through the lens of God’s sovereignty and will

Application:

My every intention is to live and thrive here in central Oregon, to parent my children, to love my wife, and to pastor this church for many years, and God willing, I will do just that

But it may also be God’s will for this church that I get sick and die, or that he calls us away to another ministry, or that our society continues to become more hostile to Christians and I end up imprisoned because I’m not very good at keeping my mouth shut, or a whole host of other possibilities

If God wills, I will live and do this or that

Transition: James is setting two wildly different worldviews before us, and he is challenging us to choose which one we will live with. In light of God’s sovereignty and love, it is foolish to continue to live in the worldview that puts humanity and its plans and views in the center rather than God.

III. The choices that we do have

James 4:17 ESV

17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

So = a concluding remark. In light of everything James has said, this is where he lands.

Why does James land here?

Because he knows that one of the practical results of viewing our lives through the illusion of control is that we often neglect what is right in front us

So many times we put off what we know to be right but also difficult because we assume we will have the opportunity to do that later, and for right now it’s easy to just follow my own lead

We will take our faith more seriously once we are an adult

We will begin to give generously when we have more money

We will begin to serve selflessly when we have more time

We will forgive that person later

We will tell that person we love them later

We will have that difficult conversation later

We will submit to God in that way later, take that step of faith later

But you don’t know that later will ever even come

Even if it does, we know that more often what happens is that even when tomorrow comes, we just put things off until the next “tomorrow”

Because the truth is that we put it off in the first place not because we truly didn’t have time today, but because it is hard and there was an easier path today

That will still be true tomorrow

And before we know it, years have passed and we never took that step, we never righted that wrong, we never followed God down that road, we never did what we knew we needed to, and the opportunity for it has passed beyond our reach

Some people have wasted their entire lives waiting until tomorrow, until later

You have no idea if tomorrow will even come, so your responsibility is to do what is right today

It is above the pay grade of humanity to control the future - the choice that is available to us is what we can choose right now, today, in this moment

Once again, James has on the tip of his tongue and at the forefront of his mind the teachings of Jesus

Matthew 6:31-34

Matthew 6:31–34 ESV

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

So where does this leave us?

Urgency of a response to the gospel

At the heart of James’ teaching here is the question of whether you will essentially trust and have faith in yourself, your understanding, your control, your ability, your morality, your strength, or God.

This is actually the overarching storyline of the scripture with regard to humanity’s relationship to God

The most important decision you will ever make is simply whether you will rely on your own wits, strength and plans or whether you will submit to God

The path of your own self reliance and independence from God leads only to sin and death

You are never actually self reliant though, because God is always sovereign

To pretend that you are not dependent upon God for everything is simply to reject him and to rebel against him

But God in his great love for you has provided the means by which all of the just wrath on your rebellion and sin has been absorbed in the cross, and in this good news you are called to respond with faith and trust in Jesus

There may be some tuning in today who have heard the call of the gospel on their heart, who have felt the prompting of God to turn in faith to Jesus, to trust him, to be baptized but haven’t actually taken the step and for whatever reason are waiting for a “right moment”

You have an opportunity today to listen to voice of God

Do not put off doing what you know God to be calling you to do

Trust in the sovereign reign of King Jesus over all things

Jesus right now reigns as king over all of creation, and we are called as Christians to live our lives out of submission to his sovereign reign

We do not make plans about our futures without dependence upon Jesus and submission to his will

We don’t raise families without dependence upon Jesus and submission to his will

We don’t look for jobs without dependence upon Jesus and submission to his will

We don’t lead churches without dependence upon Jesus and submission to his will

Two questions to close

Are your plans and choices made in light of God’s sovereignty and the reign of Jesus?

What is God putting on your heart and mind to do today?

Are you putting it off, or are you going to do it?

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