Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? For most people, life is simply snatching moments of pleasure, trying to find happiness or meaning in various pursuits or in relationships. Yet, there is a longing within the human heart for understanding, to be loved, and to find meaning and purpose in life.
If we are simply a cosmic accident, then life is simply reduced to surviving and trying to make the most out of our life. But what if, we were designed by a loving God who had a plan that would not only shape who we would become, but also live a life of significance and purpose?
Adam Swartz in detailing G. K. Chesterton’s journey to faith writes:
Gilbert Chesterton described the cultural atmosphere of his youth as distinctly post-Christian. There was ‘nothing new or odd about not having a religion. . .. We might almost say that agnosticism was an established church.’
In his youth, Chesterton expressed some curiosity about orthodox Christianity… and twinges of anxiety about Liberalism. These explorations soon stalled. His earliest writings extolled the French Revolution, condemned dogma, and preached the exaltation of humanity.
All of this changed, however, at the Slade School of Art, in which he enrolled in late 1892. Over the next year he went through a nihilistic phase [which is the rejection of all religious and moral principles and the belief that life is meaningless. In philosophy it is the extreme skepticism that nothing in the world has a real existence]. He called this episode “my period of madness.” Friends also feared for his sanity.
The fashion of the day was Impressionism, which celebrated the artist’s perspective while downplaying physical reality. ‘Its principal,’ Chesterton wrote, ‘was that if all that could be seen of a cow was a white line and a purple shadow, we should only render the line and the shadow; in a sense we should only believe in the line and the shadow, rather than in the cow.’
Seized by this mentality, he began to doubt the world around him. ‘It was as if I had myself projected the universe from within, with its trees and stars; and that is so near to the notion of being God that it is manifestly even nearer to going mad. Yet I was not mad, in any medical or physical sense; I was simply carrying the skepticism of my time as far as it would go.’
Chesterton had help in taking the second step toward faith. In 1896, he met and became enamored with Frances Blogg, an officer of a London debating salon. Chesterton admired her confidence and discovered that it was rooted in her devout High Anglican faith. Her religion was ‘the unique quality that cut her off from the current culture and saved her from it.’
Chesterton credited Frances with leading him from his vestigial Unitarianism to Anglicanism. But even though he was moving toward High Anglicanism at the time of their 1901 marriage, he still had a clearer sense of what he rejected than of what he believed. His criticism of modern theology and philosophy, laid out in Heretics (1905), left his affirmation of orthodox Christianity largely implied.
For example, because Christians believe in an Incarnation, they believe in matter, spirit, and interaction between the two. This gives Christians respect for both the rational and mystical aspects of life. It also saves them from the radical doubts that nearly drove Chesterton mad in art school.[i]
Once we embrace that we were designed by God, life takes on a new purpose and direction. The question then becomes, if God created me, what does He have in mind for me? What we are about to hear from James is that God will shape the course of our lives when we discover Him and then walk in obedience to His will. We begin to embark on a journey of faith that is both challenging and rewarding, in a way we could never have imagined.
There are three things we can discover regarding God’s will or purpose for our lives.
THE FIRST THING WE CAN LEARN REGARDING GOD’S WILL IS THE DIFFICULTIES WHEN WE IGNORE IT
In the last few verses of James 4, we are challenged to remember the transitory nature of our earthly life. We have no control over future events. We are entirely living on the mercies of God. Yet, many live without a regard for God and therefore fall into some very real dangers.
- The presumption of life.
When we are young we feel that we have all the time in the world. We make plans about our future. Yet, we need to understand that though it is not wrong to plan ahead, there must be an understanding that all our plans can easily be set aside by God’s providence.
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.[ii]
What the writer is staying here is that we may plan but God determines the outcome. So, how should we go about planning our future?
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.[iii]
To boast of what we are to accomplish in the future without a deep awareness of God’s sovereignty is arrogance and folly. James now challenges the rich in their self-sufficiency and plans. It is a warning that we must also hear as believers.
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.’[iv]
It seems that James is shaped by early wisdom literature.
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.[v]
Douglas Moo explains the cultural context of James’ remarks.
The first century was a period of great commercial activity, and especially the Hellenistic cities of Palestine (the Decapolis, for instance) were heavily involved in commerce of various kinds. Many Jews were active in these business comings and goings; large numbers had settled in cities throughout the Mediterranean world for commercial reasons. It need hardly be said that the people James pictures are easily recognized also by the modern reader. The distance between cities may be greater, the means of transportation quicker and the business activities different, but in James’ day and ours, the ‘bottom line’ is the same—profit. As the following verses demonstrate, however, it is not the desire to make a profit that James criticizes. He is concerned rather about the exclusively this-worldly context in which the plans are made—a danger, it must be said, to which business people are particularly susceptible.[vi]
George Stulac explains how this touches not only the business community but each of our extremely busy lives, so that we may become too busy for the most meaningful relationships in our lives, namely with God, family, and friends. We need to learn our limits, which is often difficult with the many demands continually placed upon us.
James has touched what has become a major pathology in our society. It is alarmingly commonplace, even among Christians, to be overextended in commitments, to be stressed because of time pressures and finally to become dissatisfied, compulsive people. Observing the sickness of contemporary family life, James Dobson has warned that if the devil can’t make you sin, he will make you too busy, and that’s just as bad. We are a driven people.[vii]
God wants us to be obedient people not driven, compulsive, and obsessive. Jesus’ way is one of a quiet confidence that everything does not depend upon us, but rather it depends upon Him, and in that we trust. We trust God to work out His purposes in His time. Not only should we not presume upon what tomorrow holds, but understand that each day is a gift, and we have no guarantees for tomorrow.
B. The uncertainty of life.
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.[viii]
“We don’t know what will happen tomorrow” is a powerful awakening us to appreciate today and not to live in fear, neither should we presume upon the time we have and what we will or will not accomplish.
James struck at this presumption by questioning their view of time and human life within it. Having spoken as though they had control over their own destinies and knew the outcomes of a year of days, James reminded them of their ignorance even of tomorrow. The irony of boasting believers is dramatic here. They did not know anything about their future experience. This boast served for James as another example of self-deception to be replaced by knowledge according to God’s standards (cf. 1:2–3, 6–7, 13–14, 16, 19, 26; 3:1, 14; 4:4–5). Their ignorance, of course, was rooted not only in their immature faith but in their very nature as human creatures.[ix]
We do not know what tomorrow holds for any of us. We are called to walk by faith and trust in God’s purposes being accomplished through our lives. Life is filled with complexity and decisions. We are often perplexed by the uncertainty of the future. Here we see the presumptiveness of the boast of these merchants as they make their plans. The assumption is that they will be able to go, to live for a determinative time, and make profit. They spoke as if this was about their will being accomplished. Yet, consider all the things that could go wrong. Illness, the markets change, robbery, natural disasters can easily destroy their game plan. James is challenging all of us regarding the uncertainty of tomorrow. Jesus also warns against this kind of presumption in the parable of the rich fool.
And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.”
‘Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”
‘But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
‘This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.’[x]
What is the issue that Jesus is addressing? Simply that we are living for ourselves rather than living to please God and do His will.
Not that it is wrong to make plans, not that it is wrong to engage in business, not that it is wrong to expect gain; but the uncertain tenure of life, the mystery of the future, the knowledge that God has for us a purpose and a plan, should make us conscious of our dependence upon Him, eager to know and do His will.[xi]
James challenges us with one more important consideration, so that our lives will factor in God’s will in living life.
- The brevity of life.
Life goes by quickly. James raises the question “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” In the bigger scheme of things, our life span is short and limited in scope, so how are we living our life? Warren Wiersbe challenges us with the most important investment we can make, our time.
Since life is so brief, we cannot afford merely to ‘spend our lives’; and we certainly do not want to ‘waste our lives.’ We must invest our lives in those things that are eternal.[xii]
Consider the folly of living simply for that which will perish, the material things, that which we see while forfeiting the life that is eternal in nature. God designed the human soul to live either eternally with Him in love and blessings, or to live an eternal life apart from Him, which is an absence of love and every good gift. We make decisions every day directing us toward our eternal destiny. So, how are we living? Are we living a self-direct, self-sufficient life? Or are we living life to walk with God, being directed by Him, a life pleasing to Him, and ultimately bringing meaning and purpose to us?
THE SECOND THING WE CAN LEARN REGARDING GOD’S WILL IS THAT BY DISREGARDING GOD’S WILL, IT REVEALS THE TRUE CONDITION OF OUR HEARTS
If we do not live with the understanding that God is in control and that we ought to align our lives around His will as revealed in his word, what happens is that our plans more often prove disastrous. James calls these plans ‘arrogant schemes.’ It is the ultimate way to express our self-sufficiency.
Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’[xiii]
What James encourages is not the constant verbalization of the formula If it is the Lord’s will, which can easily become glib and meaningless, but a sincere appreciation of God’s control of affairs and of his specific will for us.[xiv]
This is not a formula but an imbedded attitude of our hearts that realizes that only what God purposes will be accomplished and that even the rebellion of humanity will be worked into God’s ultimate plan. Once again we are reminded of the wisdom of Proverbs.
The LORD works out everything to its proper end—even the wicked for a day of disaster.[xv]
James now explains that such boasting of what we will do apart from God is actually sinful.
As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.[xvi]
This makes the arrogance not merely the manner of their boasting but rather the object of their boasting. The sin James is exposing is not merely a sin of omission (neglecting to recognize God’s rule over their affairs); it is a sin of commission in that they even boast about their self-sufficiency. Such boasting, kauchēsis, is therefore especially evil; further, all such boasting is evil. It is a blasphemous denial of God’s authority and grace to think that we instead of God control events.[xvii]
It is simply living life as if it is about us and denying God’s rightful place in our lives as our Creator in which He died to deliver us from sin, death, and evil. We are told in various biblical passages to “number our days” and make the most of them. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12).”
Paul picks up this very theme in his letter to the Ephesians.
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.[xviii]
We can only understand God’s will as we draw near to him through the Word of God. God desires to reveal himself and his purposes to us as found in Scripture.
THE FINAL THING WE CAN LEARN REGARDING GOD’S WILL IS THE DANGERS OF DISOBEYING IT
To disobey what we know is right is the very nature of the sin of omission, which is another way of saying we are just disregarding and disobeying what God is telling us to do. “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them (James 4:17).”
The reason it is so devastating is that we know that the outcome of sin in our lives produces death rather than life as expressed in our relationships, both with God and others. Unless we address the sin issue in our soul, our relationships are damaged and so to a degree, we become cut off from not only people, but ultimately God.
How often do people who know what God’s word has to say but choose to ignore it to their own damnation? Peter warns against those who once knew Christ but chose their own way and even promoted their sinful choices to others.
They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for ‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.’ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and ‘A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.’[xix]
We could argue that the text is speaking about false teachers, or we could say that they were just professing a faith that they never had, as their sinful nature had never been changed. The point though is that they had knowledge of God, and they turned away from it. Genuine repentance and faith leads to a change of behavior, and that’s the point.
However, consider how amazing God’s will is for each of us. When we live in obedience to God’s will, we will experience his amazing blessings, not only for ourselves but for those whom God directs into our lives.
To be sure, there are some things that must be true of all Christians. It is God’s will that we yield ourselves to Him (2 Cor. 8:5). It is God’s will that we avoid sexual immorality (1 Thes. 4:3). All Christians should rejoice, pray, and thank God (1 Thes. 5:16–18). Every commandment in the Bible addressed to believers is part of the will of God, and must be obeyed. But God does not call each of us to the same work in life, or to exercise the same gifts and ministry. The will of God is ‘tailor-made’ for each of us![xx]
It is wisdom, which brings joy for us to then “do what God” asks of us, not only collectively, but each of us as individuals. Obedience does bring about great freedom and blessing.
In one of his letters, C. S. Lewis addresses the state of our struggle to do what God requires of us and counsels us regarding God’s power to enable us to do His will:
My reason for thinking that a mere statement of even the highest ethical principles is not enough is precisely that to know these things is not necessarily to do them, and if Christianity brought no healing to the impotent will, Christ’s teaching would not help us.[xxi]
However, Christ does heal our lives and empower us to do His will. There are many biblical texts that state God’s will, but I love Psalm 143:10 which helps us to do it. “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”
Jesus made two incredible promises regarding doing the will of God and the amazing results that transpire.
Jesus answered, ‘My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.’[xxii]
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’[xxiii]
The freedom that Jesus is talking about here is the freedom to do God’s will, a freedom from the power and destructiveness of our own sinfulness.
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[i] Adam Schwartz, The Road To Rome: Chesterton’s Spiritual Journey, Christian History Magazine, Issue 75 (Vol. XXI, No. 3), 11-13.
[ii] Proverbs 16:9, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[iii] Proverbs 16:3.
[iv] James 4:13.
[v] Proverbs 27:1.
[vi] Douglas Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, E. J. Schnabel, Ed.; Second edition, Vol. 16, (Inter-Varsity Press.,2015). 196-98.
[vii] George Stulac, James, (Intervarsity Press, 1993).
[viii] James 4:14.
[ix] Kurt Richardson, James, Vol. 36 New American Commentary on the New Testament, (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997).
[x] Luke 12:16-21
[xi] Charles Erdman, The General Epistles, (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1966).
[xii] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Vol. 2, (Victor Books, 1996), 371.
[xiii] James 4:15.
[xiv] Douglas Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, 199.
[xv] Proverbs 16:4.
[xvi] James 4:16.
[xvii] George Stulac, James, (James 4:15-16).
[xviii] Ephesians 5:15-17.
[xix] 2 Peter 2:19-22.
[xx] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Vol. 2, 372-73.
[xxi] Wayne Martindale & Jerry Root, Eds. The Quotable Lewis, (Wheaton, Il: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1990), 189.
[xxii] John 7:17.
[xxiii] John 8:31-32.
[xxiv] Adam Schwartz, The Road To Rome: Chesterton’s Spiritual Journey, Christian History Magazine, Issue 75 (Vol. XXI, No. 3), 11-13.
[xxv] Proverbs 16:9, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[xxvi] Proverbs 16:3.
[xxvii] James 4:13.
[xxviii] Proverbs 27:1.
[xxix] Douglas Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, E. J. Schnabel, Ed.; Second edition, Vol. 16, (Inter-Varsity Press.,2015). 196-98.
[xxx] George Stulac, James, (Intervarsity Press, 1993).
[xxxi] James 4:14.
[xxxii] Kurt Richardson, James, Vol. 36 New American Commentary on the New Testament, (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997).
[xxxiii] Luke 12:16-21
[xxxiv] Charles Erdman, The General Epistles, (Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1966).
[xxxv] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Vol. 2, (Victor Books, 1996), 371.
[xxxvi] James 4:15.
[xxxvii] Douglas Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, 199.
[xxxviii] Proverbs 16:4.
[xxxix] James 4:16.
[xl] George Stulac, James, (James 4:15-16).
[xli] Ephesians 5:15-17.
[xlii] 2 Peter 2:19-22.
[xliii] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Vol. 2, 372-73.
[xliv] Wayne Martindale & Jerry Root, Eds. The Quotable Lewis, (Wheaton, Il: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1990), 189.
[xlv] John 7:17.
[xlvi] John 8:31-32.
