{"id":9800,"date":"2026-05-19T07:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9800"},"modified":"2026-05-19T07:18:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:18:02","slug":"james-413-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9800","title":{"rendered":"James 4:13-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

13\u00a0<\/sup>Come now, you who say, \u201cToday or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit\u201d;<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

14\u00a0<\/sup>whereas you do not know what\u00a0will happen\u00a0tomorrow. For what\u00a0is your life?\u00a0It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

15\u00a0<\/sup>Instead you\u00a0ought to say,\u00a0\u201cIf the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

16\u00a0<\/sup>But now you boast in your arrogance.\u00a0All such boasting is evil.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

17\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore,\u00a0to him who knows to do good and does not do\u00a0it,\u00a0to him it is sin.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

While the believer is not to dwell on tomorrow, the Scriptures do leave room for him to plan<\/em> for the future, but to do so properly. James uses and example of a Jewish merchant who travels to a city and makes arrangements to stay for a year, so he can become wealthy, buying and selling his goods. However, the apostle shows the foolishness of this type of reasoning, seeing that the merchant acts as though he’s in control of the future. … Life is like the mist that rises from a lake on a cool morning; it appears for a short time and then vanishes. James reminds the merchant how unwise it is to leave God out of his plans. … Since the future and the days of our lives are in God’s hands, the apostle shows his hearers how to properly plan … \u2014 Sadler, pages 119-120.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of bragging about the future (v.13), we should humbly submit to God’s sovereignty (v.15) \u2014 Grace, page 2201.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

boast (v.16) \u2014 Instead of having pride<\/em> in our self-confidence, we should\u00a0 have humility<\/em>. Satan also made arrogant “I will” statements (Isaiah 14:13-14). \u2014 Grace, page 2201.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once we have been made aware of God’s truth (v.17), we are accountable for that knowledge. Jesus was the Light of the world (John 1:4-5<\/span><\/a>; 8:12<\/span><\/a>; 12:46<\/span><\/a>), and, once seen, man was responsible for rejecting Him (John 3:19<\/span><\/a>; 9:39-41<\/span><\/a>). Likewise, our Apostle Paul said that the entire world is guilty before God for rejecting the knowledge of Him imparted through general revelation (Romans 1:18-2:5<\/span><\/a>). Everyone is without excuse before God (Romans 3:19<\/span><\/a>). \u2014 Grace, page 2201.<\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13\u00a0Come now, you who say, \u201cToday or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit\u201d; 14\u00a0whereas you do not know what\u00a0will happen\u00a0tomorrow. For what\u00a0is your life?\u00a0It is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9801,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9800\/revisions\/9801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}