13 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." 14 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. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
We know that we are sinners because we can't help commiting sins even when we don't feel guilty. We don't know what we're exactly doing in God's view. Anyway at least we know it's sin when we feel guilty before God, like doing something wrong. But today's passage says even when we don't do the good we ought to do, we are the sinners. Not only doing bad things is sin, but also not doing the good is sin. I often think like, "okay God, I know you want this, but please just wait a little bit more, I will do that someday..or later."
There must be the things we should put first before doing our business and making money. We should remind ourselves what we are living for every moment.
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2 comments:
thanks sungeun for a wonderful reflection. i think this passage directly challenges the very sinful mindset we all have as we live day by day. what is clear is that we do not live consciously under the lordship of Jesus Christ. we are filled with our own plans, consumed with our own desires. we pay little attention to the will of the Lord, imagining that our lives are in our own hands, that we can accomplish what we want whenever we want in the manner of our own choosing.
but this passage clearly shows that our lives are truly not our own. the comparison of our lives to a "mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" shows the inconsequence of our life in its true light.
instead what we ought to say is if it is the Lord's will we will do such and such. our lives are really not in our own hands, as we so fondly imagine. james tells us it is "evil boasting" to think this way. then he makes the devastating comment: that anyone who knows the good he ought to do, but doesn't do it, sins.
the passage shows how wide and deep and high is the depth of our sin, the extent of our guilt--not only sins of commission (which are undoubtedly as countless as the sands on the seashore) but sins of omission (which are probably just as many). thinking of these things should humble us, causing us to wonder what God could ever see in us to love us as He does.
Hi Sungeun!!!!
Time can be the most deceitful tool Satan uses to distract us because we tend to think that we had loads of time to do God's will later on in our live, when we don't realized that the clock is ticking and it's uncertain when our times up. I feel like James is telling us to live in the now, but at the same time, I don't think that's what he's saying at all. We need to make each second count and have a sense of urgency to go out and live according to God's will. Truthfully, it's easier said than done, but it's a state of mind that is essential for Christians to have.
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