Following the Will of God
15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it. (James 4:15-17)
Last week, we saw the incorrect attitude towards future planning from a self-centered viewpoint in verses 13 and 14. To close the chapter, James gives the proper attitude of humility and, first and foremost, following God’s will for your life, starting in verse 15, “Instead, you should say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” This style of living requires active listening to God in prayer. As Thomas Lea writes, “We must plan for the future, but we must plan with a deliberate seeking of the will of God…Have you ever asked God to show you His will on approval? If we use this method of seeking God’s will, it makes us the ultimate sovereign over our lives.” And we must also not lose the meaning of this expression, “seeking God’s will.” At times, especially among believers, we might fall into the tendency to state this phrase to one another in a casual manner. We must take into account the active spiritual walk that this phrase calls us to do, actively approaching God in prayer, aligning our lives with His will, removing any sin or distractions that draw us away from our relationship with God.
Then, in verse 16, James contrasts that positive attitude against the current state of the readers, “But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” James is telling his readers to put God first and humble themselves, not to boast about themselves. The only boasting we are allowed to do is in God only. Paul exhibited such humility and boasted of Christ’s working through Him in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.”
Finally, in verse 17, after explaining what is the right attitude, humility, versus the wrong current state, self-centeredness, James states plainly, “So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.” They now know what they need to repent of and change. To continue on in their arrogant and self-centered attitudes is to continue to sin. To ignore the will of God, the correct path, is to sin. As Anders summarizes, “As Christians, we must plan our lives in full commitment to the will and plans of God. We must also avoid omitting from our lives such important practices as prayer, Bible reading, helping the needy, and sharing our faith. To omit the latter is to commit a sin of omission. God wants our full and constant obedience.”
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
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