Boasting About Tomorrow

A song was written by gospel songwriter Ira Stanphill, and I am sure many of you know are pretty familiar. It goes like this,

I don't know about tomorrow I just live from day to day I don't borrow from its sunshine For its skies may turn to grey I don't worry o'er the future For I know what Jesus said And today I'll walk beside Him For He knows what is ahead Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand But I know who holds tomorrow, And I know who holds my hand

Who knows about tomorrow? Do you think we can guarantee about tomorrow? What about meteorologists? Can they be sure about tomorrow's weather? They might be able to predict what's coming, but sure enough, they can never be certain!

Before I go to work in the morning, I usually plot my route to church in my GPS. It is not that I don't know my way to church, but I'd like to know if I'll be stuck in traffic. The one area that Google constantly gets wrong is the split between Front Street and Columbia Street. I prefer driving on Front Street because there are no traffic lights, but on Columbia Street, there is one every block. But the sad part about Front Street is that it is unpredictable! Even Google gets it wrong. What's so unpredictable is the number of trucks that Google could never detect. It is very frustrating at times because there are no alternate routes on Front Street. All you have is the Fraser River that's next to you.

Even though I like to plan, and believe me, there's nothing wrong with planning. The Bible encourages us to have a good plan. Luke 14:28 and Proverbs 16:9, plus many more. So, what today's passage talks about is not against anyone to plan out their days. God is not asking all of us to take out life insurance and the savings for retirement, but what James is rebuking, yes he is rebuking here is that, quoting from Bible translator and theologian Douglas Moo is,

…any kind of planning for the future that stems from human arrogance in our ability to determine the course of future events.[1]

Let's dive in and see…

Arrogance about ourselves

James 4:13 NIV

13 Now 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.”

James begins this teaching section by saying, "Now listen…" which means "come now." Or, if you are disciplining a child, you might hear these words, "Get over here, now!" A tone that the reader of this passage must take in seriousness. And what is so severe that James is trying to teach is presumptuous. In other words, one presumes, and, in this case, James warns about the presumptuous attitude that time is on our hands and at our disposal (Today…Tomorrow…a year…).

Nowadays, many of us rely heavily on our digital calendars, either on our phones or computers. We'd like to make sure all the events we are booking ourselves into are not overlapped or missed. I think that's a wonderful practice and something I encourage all of you to do if not already. Laying out what's essential ahead of you and having a bird's eye view is necessary. Still, if all that you are planning are for your own profitable gains, that's where the problem begins.

In the latter part of verse 13, James calls out those who only focus on personal ability (doing business) and the profit motive (make money) become their main focus in life. James is not only speaking to those who want to be entrepreneurs. Perhaps you are an athlete who dreams of competing at the highest level, such as in the Olympics. Or maybe you are a gifted musician that has the ambition to play for the VSO. Or even you are proficient with being a top-notch student and the only school you are applying to is Harvard or MIT. These are the people that James is calling out. The dreams and ambitions that become the sole focus of life! You know what I call this "Selfish Planning." It is planning for your own life. Alec Motyer, a Bible commentator, writes,

James is not trying to banish planning from our lives, but only that sort of self-sufficient, self-important planning that keeps God for Sunday but looks on Monday to Saturday as mine.[2]

If life is just about when and what you will achieve today, tomorrow, or in a year, like an arrow cutting through thin air, then you have missed out so much more in life than you can ever imagine. Joe Torre, a Major League Baseball manager of my most hated team, the New York Yankees, once said,

Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It's about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart. Winning is the result.[3]

We often call ourselves a "community," what does that term mean anyway? It is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular interest or characteristic in common. That is the dictionary definition. As Christian, we take this one step further – we call it "church" or "ekklesia" in Greek. What is an "ekklesia?" It is those that are "called out" to become different. So, to simply put it, Christians are a group of people sharing life together that are to be different from the rest of society which belongs to the universal body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Unfortunately, we speak to ourselves as if life were our right, as if our choice were the only deciding factor, as if we had in ourselves all that was needed to make a success of things, as if getting on, making money, doing well were life's sole objective.[4]

Then how can we be a community of Christians if our focus is "Selfish Planning?"

Next, circle this word in your Bibles verse 14, "mist."

We will talk about the fragility of life.

Fragility of Life

Mark Hall from Casting Crowns wrote these beautiful lyrics, says,

I am a flower quickly fading Here today and gone tomorrow A wave tossed in the ocean A vapour in the wind Still You hear me when I'm calling Lord, You catch me when I'm falling You've told me who I am I am Yours

These are from the song "Who am I?" and captured precisely the meaning of this word, "mist."

James cuts to the chase.

James 4:14 NIV

14 Why, 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.

James points to the delicate truth: we do not know what the future holds. We have no idea. As Christians, we know where we will be in a million years. That's in God's hands, and he's told us about it. But we don't know what will happen tomorrow. This is the frailty of life – you are just a mist.

I don't know if you remember the last time we met way back in December, and I casually commented about how true James' teaching applies so accurately to the 21st century. Well, just look at all the unprecedented events in the past 2 years. That should already be a lesson about the fragility of life.

We could plan for vacations, family trips, banquets, or even business trips with contingency plans or backup plans of a backup plan. We may still have the odds stacked against us. It's not something we like to think about much, but it certainly does tell us we are not in control. I may finish preaching here today, and next week, I am gone and that our LORD has taken away my last breath of life. That is a profoundly unsettling thought and one we unconsciously avoid thinking.

And so, we carry on planning our lives as if we were in control. We fill and plan our calendars with to-dos with presumptuous attitudes. Our default view is that once we plan something, it will happen. James throws a bucket of ice water at our face, "wake up!" We don't know what will happen. None of us do. Stop being the hero of your own life. Stop being the main character of your diary. James is ready to throw the next bucket of cold water, "What is life…. well, what is it?" Well, here is…

"…What is life? You are just a puff of smoke that shows up for a little while and gone the next."

Stop acting like those magic "eight ball" you find at a novelty store that tells you your future. And if you are one, stop reading horoscopes as if your life depends on it. Then what are you to do instead? Simple, let's look at verse 15.

James 4:15 NIV

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

Sovereignty of God

The words "if it is the Lord's will…." Often we hear the paraphrase of it, "Lord willing…." I hope that the importance of these words is not just flower petals on the floor which means nothing but instead treat them as the sovereignty of God. In order to combat boasting about tomorrow and the arrogance of self-sufficiency, Christians must be reminded there is only one person that is in control of our lives, which is God and our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you gave your allegiance to on the day of baptism.

I agree completely with John Calvin's opinion on "if it is the Lord's will…" where he explains that,

"We read everywhere in the Scriptures that the holy servants of God spoke unconditionally of future things, when yet they had it as a fixed principle in their minds that they could do nothing without the permission of God."

James is not just urging us to completely surround our future plans to God. He is here to tell us the danger if we refuse to include God in our daily living. Our humility before God is then in danger, and our lowly walk with God is also threatened as well. The words, "if it is the Lord's will…" is the summary of submitting to God (v.7), drawing near to God (v.8a), come to a place of repentance (v.9) and by doing so, humbling before God.

All of these can be lost if we walk away from Sunday Worship going back to the be lords of this earth and the lords of or our own time and take the reins of life back into our own lives and own hands, we forget our ignorance, frailty and dependence on God and plan our day, our week and next year as we there was no God in heaven.

However, you can guard yourselves from such detrimental attitudes by the comfort, assurance, sweetest humility by letting God be the Lord of your life by saying, "if it is the Lord's will…"

What if a Christian never goes about re-examining how they live life? The Bible calls it a sin.

The sin of presumptions

After hearing all this, I bet some will continue to say, "Come on, Pastor Mark…who doesn't live like that? We all have the right to live a good life. Isn't that what God wants us to have?"

It is a fair statement to say, and yes, God does want His children to prosper and not fail. As long as you understand that every breath that you take when you first wake up is not yours, then you have a fair argument. But if you think that it is your right to live, period, then you are under the devil's arrogant scheme.

James is about to drive home his points by verses 16 and 17.

James 4:16–17 NIV

16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Once again, our most direct challenge is to live a life of lowliness before God. It involves taking away our own hands the rein of planning and command for life. It consists in seeing life itself as not a continuing right but daily mercies.

The verb boast (kauchaomai) is actually a good and positive word in the New Testament. It's often used as exultant, abounding joy. For example, we are encouraged to boast in our hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2). But to use "kauchaomai" in an unholy and unworthy manner is when it arises from your arrogance!

The "boast" that you see here in verse 16 is the word "alazoneia." It is translated as the "pride" of life.

…when even in little, secret, almost unrecognized ways we forget how frail we are, and stop short of conscious dependence on our God, it is an element of the proud, boastful, vaunting human spirit, flaunting its supposed independence and self-sufficiency.[5]

What Alec Motyer is saying is that if whatever, whenever, and wherever you are planning for lacks the involvement of God, you are giving room for boastfulness and arrogance to provoke self-independence and selfish planning. When you give way to presumptuous arrogance, all you are doing is sinning against God.

Verse 17 sounds like an abrupt ending, but Pastor James only makes himself clear.

James 4:17 NIV

17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Since now you know what is right (from verses 13 – 16), go do it. Do not continue to sin. Change the way how you live and see life.

[1] Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, p. 256). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. [2] Motyer, J. Alec. The Message of James (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (p. 161). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. [3]https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/joe_torre_636432#:~:text=Joe%20Torre%20Quotes&text=Competing%20at%20the%20highest%20level%20is%20not%20about%20winning.,Winning%20is%20the%20result. [4] Motyer, J. Alec. The Message of James (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (pp. 160-161). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. [5] Motyer, J. Alec. The Message of James (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (p. 162). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.