What is the purpose of the question, "What is your life?" in James 4:14?

But Christian profession, and perhaps especially among the Israelites, was fast slipping into worldliness and naturalism, as we hear it pungently described in these verses. Not only is it unworthy of God's child; it is practical impiety. Who and what is a man that fears God to talk of his plans for to-day or to-morrow without a thought of Him? Who and what is he to leave where he is and go to this city here, to spend there a year? And how? To traffic and make gain! "Whereas," says our Epistle, "ye know not what will be on the morrow." How simple yet withering! "Of what sort is your life? Why, it is a vapour that appeareth for a little and then disappeareth." Of course no more is here spoken of 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." Impossible to resist the force of this appeal. Our living here below falls as much under the Lord's will, as our doing this or that. How wretched to ignore Him! How happy to know His will and to do it!

There is another form of this forgetfulness of God to which the apostle turns — a very common one. "Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain; ye who know not what will be on the morrow." It is not, as we see directly, that he means to forbid all exercise of thought as to the morrow, but only the spirit of those who plan without God, who forget the uncertainty of everything here: "For what is your life? it is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." It is the spirit of self-confidence he is condemning, which boasts of what it can do without God: "For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, and we shall live, we will also do this or that; but now ye glory in your vauntings. All such glorying is evil."

The word again condemns false confidence as to the intentions of our own hearts. The heart of man afar from God thinks to direct his own steps, and decides what he will do, without thinking of the will of God, or even of God at all. Possibly the thing intended may not be evil, it may not wound conscience, nor make it uneasy; but God is entirely forgotten; the man acts without God, as though the earth had been left to man, and God had withdrawn, and as though His will counted for nothing. Such a man, as far as regards religion, in the practical things of everyday life, lives in atheism. God is not in his thoughts; money and worldly ambition govern his heart, though he may not be exactly living in sinful pleasures. He has no sense that he belongs to God - bought, if he be a Christian, with the precious blood of Christ. He lays out his plans according to his own will, his own wisdom, and his worldly interests. God has no place in them, he is without God in the world, he seeks earthly things, and truly it is not in them that God is to be found. It is according to the will of God that we should labour to obtain what is necessary, and His blessing can be sought because it is His will. But this is not the question here. James speaks of one who would dispose of his time, and go and seek gain for himself without thinking of God, or looking to Him for guidance and the manifestation of His will. He does not know what the morrow will bring forth; he does not know whether his life will be prolonged until the next day; it is as a vapour which vanishes away. Such is life down here. It becomes us to say, "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that."

(Vv. 13, 14). Without reference to God or our brethren, the flesh can say, “we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.” 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. Life is viewed as if our days were at our disposal. We forget that we know not what may be on the morrow, and that our life is but a vapour.

The final paragraph urges dependence on the Lord and warns against making plans for the future without looking to the Lord and His will concerning His people. "Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and buy and sell, and get gain; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow." Such a language shows self-will, forgetfulness of God, and self-confidence. It is planning with God left out. No one knows what the morrow may bring forth; but God knows. "For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will and we live, we will also do this or that."

But verse 13 reproves another matter that also stems from conceit, that is, the confidence in well-laid plans for the future, which depends upon personal wisdom end ability, and with material gain as the object. This is not taking the place of a child before Father, dependent and subject. For we actually know absolutely nothing as to the future. Even our entire life is as a. vapor, appearing momentarily, then vanishing: we have no control over it. Therefore, it is only wisdom to depend utterly upon the Lord, and always modify our plans by the sensible words, "If the Lord will."

It is too common for men to rejoice in anticipation of the fulfilment of their own plans, and to speak as though these things were perfectly certain. This is boasting, of course, and all such rejoicing is evil. How precious it is however, in contrast, to rejoice in hope of the glory of God!

True piety brings God and His will into everything. It is wholesome to recognize our own littleness and the brevity of our days. In a boastful spirit we may begin legislating for our own future, but it is evil work. We have no power to legislate, since we cannot even command what shall be on the morrow. But why should we wish to legislate when we are the Lord's, and He has a will about us? Shall we not recognize His guidance and be satisfied with that?

"Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this city here and spend there a year, and traffic and make gain, whereas ye know not what [will be] the morrow. Of what sort [is] your life? Why, it is a vapour that appeareth for a little and then disappeareth, instead of your saying, If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that" (vers 13-15).

But he presses also the necessity of dependence on God in another form in the end of our chapter. That is, we are warned against forming resolutions, plans of our future doings and the like. This too is a practical subject. We ought all to know how much we need to watch against such an ignoring of God above us, and the coming of the Lord. As he says here, "Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow" — not even on the morrow. "For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away, instead of your saying, If the Lord will, and we live, we will also do this, or that. But now ye glory in your boastings: all such glorying is evil." He does not conclude, however, without another appeal to conscience. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." It is the law of liberty, and of infinite purity and power. It is not only that sin consists in doing evil, but in not doing the good that we know. May we never forget what the new nature loves and feels to be true and holy according to Christ.

"of such explanation we do not find a trace. Where we do find an inspired writer defining the meaning of 'life' he defines it exactly as a heathen would do: 'What is your life?' saith the apostle James. 'It is even,' he replies, 'a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.' Life, with St. James, himself a Jew, meant but what it meant with a heathen, existence."