Our Will and God’s Will

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”(A) 14 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.(B)

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.(C) 17 So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.(D)

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Arrogant Boasting About the Future

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there, and carry on business and make a profit,” 14 you who do not know what will happen tomorrow[a], what your life will be like[b]. For you are a smoky vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears. 15 Instead you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to the one who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:14 Literally “the circumstance of tomorrow”
  2. James 4:14 Literally “of what sort your life”