Sermon Tone Analysis

*17—Responding to the Will of God (**4:13–17**)*

*Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

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

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

*(4:13–17)

The Scriptures give many marks of a true Christian, such as love for God, repentance from sin, humility, devotion to God’s glory, prayer, love for others, separation from the world, growth, and obedience.

But nothing more clearly summarizes the character of a genuine believer than a desire to do the will of God.

In Psalm 40:8 David wrote, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart”; in Psalm 143:10 he added, “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God.” Jesus taught that “whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35), while in John 7:17 He declared, “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”

In Matthew 7:21 He gave the sobering warning, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”

Peter exhorted Christians to “live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Pet.

4:2).

The apostle John described believers as those “who [do] the will of God [and live] forever” (1 John 2:17).

The greatest example of one who did the will of God was the Lord Jesus Christ.

In John 6:38 He defined His messianic mission when He said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (cf.

John 5:30).

To His shortsighted disciples, focused as they were on earthly things, Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).

In agony in Gethsemane, facing the awful reality of the cross, the Lord nonetheless prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt.

26:39; cf.

v.

42; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42).

The Lord Jesus Christ perfectly modeled the most essential element of a relationship to God—obedience to His will.

For James, doing the will of God identifies another test of genuine saving faith.

True Christians are characterized by “doing the will of God from the heart” (Eph.

6:6).

They joyfully, willingly pray, “Your kingdom come.

Your will be done” (Matt.

6:10).

The apostle Paul’s delight in God’s law (Rom.

7:22) is another way of expressing the same attitude.

The words of the familiar hymn “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” reflect the desire of every true Christian:

Have Thine own way, Lord!

Have Thine own way!

Thou art the Potter;

I am the clay.

Mold me and make me

After Thy will,

While I am waiting,

Yielded and still.

—Adelaide A. Pollard

On the other hand, a constant disregard for or disinterest in God’s will is a certain mark of the presence of pride—the ugly sin also underlying conflict, worldliness, and slander (4:1–12).

To disregard God’s will is tantamount to saying, “I am the sovereign ruler of my own life.”

Such a prideful attitude is antithetical to saving faith; as James has already pointed out “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (4:6).

Those who refuse to submit to God’s will give evidence that their lives have not been transformed by His saving grace (cf.

Titus 2:11–12).

True to the pattern he has followed throughout his epistle, James takes a practical approach to the issue of responding to God’s will.

In a fascinating passage built around the seemingly mundane illustration of businessmen’s plans, James gives significant insights into how people respond to God’s will.

In so doing, he presents three negative responses and one positive one.

*The Foolishness of Ignoring God’s Will*

*Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

*(4:13–14)

The first negative response to God’s will is foolishly ignoring it, living as if God did not exist or was indifferent to and benign toward human behavior.

James addressed such people in familiar Old Testament prophetic style (cf.

Isa.

1:18); his words *come now* are an insistent, even brash call for attention.

They also indicate disapproval for the conduct they address.

James is in effect saying “Listen up!” or “Get this!”

The phrase *come now* appears in the New Testament only here and in 5:1.

The targets of James’s rebuke are those *who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”*

The Greek text literally reads “the ones who are saying,” indicating people who habitually live without regard for God’s will.

The underlying Greek verb, /legō/, means to say something based on reason or logic.

James rebuked those who habitually think through and articulate their plans as if God did not exist or care (cf.

4:11–12).

The specific illustration James chose was one that would have been familiar to his readers.

Many Jewish people dispersed throughout the ancient world were successful businessmen, itinerant merchants who naturally sought out the flourishing trade centers in which to do business.

Wise planning and strategizing in business is not, of course, sinful in and of itself but commendable.

No spiritual principles are violated by anything the businessmen said.

The problem lies in what they did not do.

They did extensive planning, but in the course of their planning, they totally ignored God; God was not part of their agenda.

Like Satan’s five self-centered “I wills” (Isa.

14:13–14) that caused his fall, the businessmen’s statement contains five presumptuous elements indicating their ill-advised confidence.

First, they chose their own time, *today or tomorrow.*

Second, they chose their own location for doing business, *such and such a city.*

Third, they chose their own duration, deciding to *spend a year there.*

Fourth, they chose their own enterprise, to *engage in business* (literally, “to travel into an area for trade”).

Finally, they chose their own goal or objective, to *make a profit.*

James is not attacking their profit motive, but their exclusion of God.

Allowing for no contingencies, they planned as if they were omniscient, omnipotent, and invulnerable.

In Luke 12:16–21 the Lord Jesus Christ told a parable illustrating the folly of presumptuously leaving God out of one’s planning:

And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.

And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’

But God said to him, ‘You fool!

This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’

So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

In verse 14, James gives two important reasons those who presumptuously leave God out of their planning are foolish.

First, James says to such people, *You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.*

Like the rich fool in our Lord’s parable, they were ignorant of the future.

Proverbs 27:1 expresses the same principle: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”

Life is far from simple.

It is a complex matrix of forces, events, people, contingencies, and circumstances over which we have little or no control, making it impossible for anyone to ascertain, design, or assure any specific future.

Despite that, some people foolishly imagine that they are in charge of their lives.

Sadly, such people ignore not only the existence of God’s will, but also its benefit.

Christians have the comfort of knowing that the sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent God of the universe controls every event and circumstance of their lives and weaves them all into His perfect plan for them (Rom.

8:28).

David wrote, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it” (Ps.

37:3–5).

In a similar vein, Solomon wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Prov.

3:5–6).

James gave those tempted to do so a second reason that leaving God out of one’s planning is foolish: the brevity of life.

*You are just a vapor that appears for a little while,* James reminded them,* and then vanishes away.*