Go to now, ye who say, To-day or to-morrow will we go into such a city and spend a year there, and traffic and make gain,
James calls out people who make confident plans about travel, time, and profit. A whole year is mapped out in one sentence. Nothing in the plan is dishonest, so what is wrong with it? The answer turns on one missing name.
The fault lies not in the business but in the silence about God. One writer describes the man in this verse as religious in name and godless in practice.
Perhaps the thing intended is not evil, it may not wound the conscience or make it uneasy; but God is entirely forgotten. The man acts without God, as though God had left the earth to man and withdrawn, and as though His will counted for nothing. Such a man, as far as religion goes, lives in atheism in the practical things of everyday life. God is not in his thoughts; money and worldly ambition govern his heart, though he may not be living in sinful pleasures.
Each part of the speech marks a decision the speaker has taken for himself.
Self-will decides where to go, how long to stay, and what to do. There is not necessarily anything wrong in these things. The wrong is that God is not in all our thoughts. The life of self-will is a life without God. We treat life as if our days were ours to spend.
Some read the verse as a ban on all thought about the future. Commentators are careful to block that reading.
He does not mean to forbid all thought about tomorrow. He condemns only the spirit of those who plan without God, who forget how uncertain everything here is… He is condemning the spirit of self-confidence, which boasts of what it can do without God.
The claim to own a year collapses the moment you test it against a single day.
It is wholesome to recognise our own littleness and the brevity of our days. In a boastful spirit we may begin laying down the law for our own future, but it is evil work. We have no power to do that, since we cannot even command what tomorrow will bring. But why should we want to, when we are the Lord's and He has a will about us? Shall we not recognise His guidance and be satisfied with that?
James gives the speaker a better sentence to say. Adding "If the Lord wills" is a habit worth forming.
When we speak of the future, it is a wholesome habit to add always, "if the Lord wills and we live." This pleases Him. It is a testimony that we submit to Him and depend on Him. Otherwise it is the boasting, self-glorying of the self-secure world, which boasts and plans without thinking of God and His will.
If God's will covers travel and trade, it covers most of the waking day.
To bring Him in and to refer to His will with integrity would cover the greater part of every day. Christ, and Christianity too, shows this: nothing is too great for us to receive from God, and nothing is too little for God to direct us in. His will embraces all that is humble, all that is glorious.
The boast can wear devout clothing. Announcing in advance that you know God's will about a move or a decision falls under the same rebuke.
Some are very sure about such decisions. They say, for instance, that they know it is God's will for them to go to a certain place. But if Scripture does not say so, they do not know this beforehand. Why should they tell others they know it? This is only pride in their supposed powers of discernment. James 4:13 warns us that all such boasting is evil. Time will prove whether it was God's will or not.
- Will — self-will sets the plan: it decides where to go, how long to stay, and what to do, all without God.
- Omission — the sin is not trading or travelling. It is leaving God out. A plan with no room for Him is atheism in practice, however respectable it looks.
- Ignorance — the boast fails on its own terms, since we cannot command even tomorrow, let alone a year.
- Correction — "If the Lord wills" is the sentence James supplies. Say it until it becomes a habit that shows real dependence.
- Reach — once His will governs the small decisions, it covers most of every day. Nothing is too little for God to direct.
ye who do not know what will be on the morrow, ([for] what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then disappearing,)
James 4:14 breaks into a piece of confident business talk. It answers that talk with two things the speakers had not counted on. They do not know what tomorrow holds, and they do not know how long their life will last. The question here is not whether planning is allowed. It is whether God has any place in the plan.
The people James addresses are not doing anything wicked. That is what makes the fault easy to miss.
The heart of man far from God plans to direct his own steps. He decides what he will do, without thinking of the will of God, or even of God at all. The thing he intends may not be evil. It may not wound the conscience or make it uneasy. But God is completely forgotten. The man acts without God, as though the earth had been left to man and God had gone away, and as though His will counted for nothing. In the practical things of everyday life, as far as religion goes, such a man lives in atheism.
Another writer names who is doing the deciding. Self-will sets the whole itinerary:
Without reference to God, our sinful nature can say, "we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit." Self-will decides where to go, how long to stay, and what shall be done. There is not necessarily anything wrong in these things. The wrong is that God is not in all our thoughts. The life of self-will is a life without God.
James asks "What is your life?" of a person who has just mapped out a year. The answer collapses the map. The commentators quote an older translation, which says "vapour" where the ESV says "mist".
"You do not know what tomorrow will bring." How simple, and how crushing! "What is your life? It is a vapour that appears for a little and then disappears." Of course nothing more is spoken of here than our earthly existence, our life in the world. Instead of that we ought to say, "If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that." Our life here below falls under the Lord's will just as much as our doing this or that. How wretched to ignore Him! How happy to know His will and to do it!
Does the verse forbid thinking ahead at all? One writer answers plainly.
He does not mean to forbid all thought about tomorrow, as we shall see in a moment. He condemns only the spirit of those who plan without God, who forget how uncertain everything is here… It is the spirit of self-confidence he is condemning, which boasts of what it can do without God.
God's will reaches into the ordinary day — travel, trade, timetables.
Bringing Him in, and honestly referring things to His will, would cover the greater part of every day. Christ shows this, and Christianity too: there is nothing too great for us to receive from God, and nothing too small for God to direct us in. His will embraces all that is humble, all that is glorious.
The phrase is not a formula. It admits that we control nothing about the next day:
For we really know nothing at all about the future. Even our whole life is like a vapour. It appears for a moment, then vanishes, and we have no control over it. So it is only wisdom to depend completely on the Lord, and always to shape our plans by the sensible words, "If the Lord will."
A vapour sounds like something not worth fighting over. One writer says the opposite: this short life is what Satan wants to seize.
This life seems too small to be worth thinking about, yet it is full of results afterwards. And it is this life that Satan seeks to seize completely for his own use, as a wilful child does with a toy — to destroy it, and then throw it away.
Yet the short span leaves something behind:
Our lives are only a vapour, come and gone, like the grass and the hay. Yet something is gathered. Fruit borne for the Lord in this brief span of our lives here will be of lasting value long after the history of our lives is past.
- Ignorance — the charge starts with what we do not know. Not knowing tomorrow exposes plans we lay as if the future belonged to us.
- Vapour — the image covers only our life in this world, and it strikes at self-confidence: the boast of what we can do without God.
- Atheism — decent, ordinary planning that leaves God out is a life without Him in practice, whatever a person claims to believe.
- Dependence — "If the Lord will" is the cure. It covers the whole day, because nothing is too small for God to direct.
- Fruit — the vapour is brief but not empty. Fruit borne for the Lord inside it lasts long after the life itself is over.