MISDIRECTED PRIORITIES: JAMES 4:13-17

Verses 13-15: 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.”

 In verses 13-17, James continues the discussion of the problem of arrogance. In verses 13-15 we find an illustration of believers who fail to observe the commands to submit and draw near to God and to humble themselves in His presence. But instead, they go about their lives disregarding their Christ-centered relationship with God.

Come now is an idiom meant to alert the reader to pay attention to what is about to be taught. What James presents is the hypothetical thought process of a typical businessman planning out his sales strategy. It should be noted at the outset that there is absolutely nothing wrong with making business plans—or for that matter, personal plans. And there is nothing wrong or sinful in seeking to gain a profit from your business—so long as one maintains ethical business standards.

The point of contention is indicated in verse 14 where James states yet you do not know. There may be nothing wrong with planning your sales route and making profits, but James points out a deficiency in their reasoning. The bottom line being that they do not know what their life will be like tomorrow—good fortune, poverty or even will they still be alive.

Their wake-up call is this: they are just a vapor in this life. The word vapor is likened to the steam that rises from a pot;1 the trace element of what is boiling is visible for only a moment and then dissipates. The only remnant may be the odor of what is cooking. That is an apt description of our lives while on earth. We are here for a short moment in comparison to the entire history of mankind. The believer dies and is present with his Lord (John 14:3; 2 Corinthians 5:8), leaving everything behind to remind others of the vapor trail he left.

By way of application, in verse 15 James instructs them that instead of saying “Today or tomorrow we will go, etc.,” they should preface their statement with “If the Lord wills.” The will of God here refers to His divine plan for our lives. Recognizing our absolute dependence upon His will and not upon my will should be the essence of our relationship with the Lord—total confidence that He knows what is best for us and what activities of ours will glorify Him. When we seek and accept His leading, we are following the Apostle Paul’s directive that “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31; cf. 1 Peter 4:11).

But take notice that our first consideration of the Lord’s will is whether we will live—or will the vapor of our lives be extinguished, to be with Our Lord. Do we believe like the Apostle Paul, that to be with Christ would be “very much better” (Philippians 1:23)? Whether we live or die, we should have the same outlook as his:

“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home [in this body] or absent [with the Lord], to be pleasing to Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:9)

The second consideration should be whether the Lord wills that we do this or that. The Greek construction of this or that presents unspecified “activity options...listed in order of priority.”2 This implies that we should seek out His guidance in prioritizing our activities. Are we determined to know His will for all of our endeavors and ensure that what we do is pleasing to Him? Before we venture out, we should ask ourselves this: “Will God be glorified by what I am about to do?”

Verses 16-17: 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.

“But as it is” is James’ way of pointing out their fundamental error: that when they announce what their plans are (Today or tomorrow we will go, etc.) they are boasting in an arrogant and pretentious manner. This revisits his pronouncement in 3:14 where he tells them that they should not boast and lie against the truth because of their selfish ambitions. He immediately states a generic Biblical principle—something which is true at any time—that all such boasting is evil, “because it forgets God and unduly exalts self.”3

With this concluding verse, James has in mind the immediate context regarding the boasting about one’s business plans. This is the believer failing to prioritize their plans to do this or that without any regards to God’s will.

But there is a sense in which James may be implying that this also applies to the directives already given in this epistle. He especially desires that they disassociate themselves from earthly, natural, demonic wisdom (3:15) and instead align themselves with divine wisdom enabling them with a basis to determine God’s will. His objective is that they reach spiritual maturity by following his guidelines. Dr. Blue summarizes this viewpoint:

To attain spiritual maturity a believer must do the good he now knows. He must stand confidently on God’s Word even in trials and temptations. He must compassionately serve his brethren without prejudicial favoritism but with practical faith. He must speak carefully with a controlled tongue and wise, cultivated thought. He must submit in contrition to his all-powerful Father, Law-giver, and Judge with a humble spirit, just action, and a trusting heart. He must be what God wants him to be, do what God wants him to do, speak as God wants him to speak, and sense what God wants him to sense.4

With the knowledge of Biblical truth (divine wisdom) in the streams of their consciousness—they can determine God’s leading for them at any given moment. Thus, they will be able to glorify Him by knowing the right thing to do. Failure to do the right thing once they possess divine wisdom amounts to sin.

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[1] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1979). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian literature. University of Chicago Press, p. 120.

[2] Wallace, D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. Zondervan Publishing House and Galaxie Software, p. 328.

[3] Oesterley, W.E. (1990). The Expositor’s Greek Testament (Nicoll, W. Robertson, ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 4.464.

[4] Blue, J. R. (1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck, Eds.). Victor Books, 2.832.

  

© 2023 David M. Rossi

SLANDER AMONG THE BRETHREN: JAMES 4:11-12

Verses 11-12: Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

In chapter 3, James discussed how the unbridled tongue emits both “blessings and cursing” (3:10). Now he examines how those who are unfaithful to the Lord (adulteresses), friends with the world (4:4) and sinners (4:8) are prone to slandering other believers.

The Greek construction of this verse is more forceful than in the English. James commands his readers to stop doing what they are presently doing: speaking against one another. The one Greek word translated here: speak against, plainly means “to accuse someone, with a suggestion of the false and exaggerated.”1 However, it is translated slander2 in 1 Peter 2:12 & 3:16 as is the noun elsewhere in Romans 1:30; 2 Corinthians 12:20, 1 Peter 2:1.

Slander is what James is talking about—running each other down. They have degraded themselves to slandering and judging their brothers in Christ. This judging which they do is a form of criticizing—picking apart some characteristic they personally dislike, whether real or imagined. Those who slander and criticize other believer, slander and criticize the law, in essence, implying that the law is invalid and unnecessary.

What law is James referring to, the Mosaic Law? No, he is indicating the royal law which he first mentioned back in chapter 2. The Greek word for royal in 2:8 actually means ‘kingly.’ James ranks this law the greatest over all other decreed laws of God: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This particular edict was first proclaimed to the Jews in Leviticus 19:18. It is one of the two great commandments which the Lord Jesus proclaimed their supremacy when He stated:

“On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40; cf. 22:37-40)

For argument’s sake, James maintains that if believers are critics of the royal law then they are not doers of the royal law of loving their fellow believers in Christ. They are in reality merely critics of the law and therefore guilty of disobedience to the Lord. And as he stated in chapter 1, these believers have failed to humbly study His Word to prove that they are doers of the Word and not simply hearers (1:21ff). Ryrie concludes that,

The person who judges his brother disobeys the law, thus putting himself above it and treating it with contempt.3

One Lawgiver and Judge

 James believes we need to be reminded of the fact that there is only one Lawgiver and Judge: God. The word only is not found in the Greek, but the word one “excludes all others but God”4 to be both Lawgiver and Judge. As Lawgiver, God the Father handed down the Mosaic Law to Moses (Exodus 34:32); and the Lord Jesus summarized the greatest commandments of the Law (Matthew 22:37-40) as noted in the previous verse as the Royal Law (cf. 2:8). And pertaining to His being the only Judge, both the apostles Peter and Paul assert that Jesus Christ is the ultimate Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 1 Peter 4:5; 2 Timothy 4:1; cf. Revelation 20:11f).

Able to save and to destroy means that He has the almighty power and the divine capability to administer His plan and program for the ages. Barnes notes that,

He is entrusted with all power, and is abundantly able to administer his government; to restrain where it is necessary to restrain; to save where it is proper to save; to punish where it is just to punish.5

The Greek word able expresses God’s innate power. Considering that He is the Supreme Creator of the universe, He is the only One Who is able to save mankind from the eternal punishment of sin. He made salvation possible by the substitutionary death of His Son, Jesus Christ, on our behalf (1 Peter 2:24) and His resurrection from the dead (Romans 5:10; 1 Peter 1:3). The writer to the Hebrews explains the eternalness of this great salvation He provides,

Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

He also has the power to destroy. The words to destroy convey the idea of causing something or someone to perish. Within the context of this verse, God as Supreme Judge and on the basis of His righteous character will determine the eternal destination of all mankind. Those who have trusted in Christ as their Savior will be forever with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Matthew 25:31-34); those who reject God’s free gift of eternal life—the divine “remedy infinite love has provided”6—their names will not to be found in the Book of Life and will suffer God’s eternal retribution (Revelation 20:11-15).

This gives meaning to James’ final sentence. In essence he is saying: “Who do you think you are, judging your neighbor?” For God is the ultimate judge over all the living and the dead which means that judging other believers is none of our concern—we are not to be poking our noses into His business.

Lenski aptly sums up these two verses:

What James thus says is perfectly true; he looks at the vilifier and slanderer with a clear eye and sees him as a usurper who is in conflict with the position that is occupied by God alone.7

But consider this: those who judge their neighbor are not only usurpers of God, but they also usurp the devil's work when they slander their brother in Christ. The devil is the one who slanders the brethren before God (Rev. 12:9, 10 [cf. Job 1–2]). “He is called our adversary (1 Peter 5:8) or opponent.”8 That would make the one who slanders their brother in Christ the devil’s co-worker.

Therefore, three questions we should answer before indulging in criticism of others—What good does it do your brother? What good does it do yourself? What glory for God is in it?9

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[1] Kittel, G. (1964–). λαλέω. In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich, Eds.). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 4.3.

[2] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1979). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian Literature. University of Chicago Press, p. 412.

[3] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, p.1973, note.

[4] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament. Broadman Press, James 4:12.

[5] Barnes, Albert (2005). Notes on the New Testament (R. Frew, Ed.). Baker Books, 13.2.77.

[6] Chafer, L.S., (1976), Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 4.430.

[7] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers, 10.636.

[8] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). AMG Publishers, G1228.

[9] MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.). Thomas Nelson, p. 2238.

  

© 2022 David M. Rossi