A Faith that Works Seeks God’s Will
Notes
Transcript
James 4:13-5:6 is our text today as we continue to work through this letter from James, the Lord’s brother, to the scattered Christians who apparently are having a hard time of things. Living a life of faith has become difficult for them. One, it has brought them hardship. Two, the people around them are not embracing the same ethic that faith demands. True then and true now. Living a life of genuine faith may very well bring hardship upon us. Living a life of faith means living life differently than other people. We stand out as odd. And so it becomes a temptation to claim to have faith but not act any differently than people of no faith. James’s primary argument in this letter is that faith, real faith, works. It does things. It changes us. It does make us different. A faith that doesn’t work is a dead faith. It is useless. In these to sections today James will reveal that faith affects us in two very personal ways – how we use our time and how we use our money.
Two paragraphs dealing with separate but similar issues: 4:13-17 and 5:1-6. Notice how they start – Now listen (NIV), Come now (ESV), Look here (NLT). It’s an attention-grabbing statement. Almost like when your mother would call you by your first and middle name. Like he’s wagging his finger at these people.
Now there is some debate about whether James in these two sections is addressing believers or unbelievers. He doesn’t use the affectionate language, brothers and sisters (4:11, 5:7) we have seen earlier in the letter. Maybe he’s talking to those people who are oppressing the believers – rich merchants who are persecuting these believers. James may not expect these unbelievers to read his letter but he reminds the believers that as appealing as it may be to be like these rich merchants, they are really doomed to destruction. So, don’t make it your ambition to be like them. Or maybe there were some rich people in the church that needed to hear this. In any case, I see that there is an important and relevant message here to us who live in Texomaland in 2024.
Let’s look at that first section:
James 4:13–17 (NIV) — 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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
I read that this situation was not uncommon in the first century. There were travelling merchants who would just what is described. They would make plans with the hope of making money. This seems to be perfectly normal. There doesn't seem to be anything immoral about this. In fact, Paul would say this to another group of Christians:
2 Thessalonians 3:6–12 (NIV) — 6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” 11 We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.
Is it wrong to conduct business?
You might come to that conclusion if you ignored the next few verses. What appears to be the situation is that these merchants are making these plans with no regard to what God would have them do. They are making these plans as if they know everyone. That’s why James reminds them that you don’t even know if there will be a tomorrow. And he condemns them later for their arrogance and their boasting. They are claiming all the credit for their success and the accusation of their arrogance implies that their success is only to serve their own purposes. My plans are all about me. My plans are all about my ability to predict the future.
Let’s not plan out so much that we ignore the opportunities right before us right now.
Let’s not plan out so much that we ignore the opportunities right before us right now.
Our lives are but a mist and sometimes long-term planning blinds us to short-term service. That may be why James tacks on that saying at the end of this section - If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. We can fall into the trap that I am planning to do good. If this venture succeeds, I will be able to do so much good. I will do good when I complete this task. There are good things to do right now, right here that we cannot neglect. We need to know that we may never have the chance to do good next year.
Let’s not plan out our lives ignoring the will of God.
Let’s not plan out our lives ignoring the will of God.
Notice the goal of all these plans – to make money. Now, making money is not bad but if making money is the goal instead of doing God’s will then it is wrong! James is not against making profit (remember the parable of the talents where the master applauds the man who wisely used his money to make more) but he is against making profits that ignore God’s role in the making of those profits.
James 4:15 (NIV) — 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
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.
Moo, D. J. (2015). James: An Introduction and Commentary (E. J. Schnabel, Ed.; Second edition, Vol. 16, p. 197). Inter-Varsity Press.
So James’s advice to avoid this trap that money can be is to always frame your plans with God’s will. And this is his wise advice:
Do we factor God’s will in our planning? Are our calendars formed by faith or by selfish desires? When we make decisions about things like college, job, retirement, even vacations – do we allow God to sit down with us and help us plan our future?
Why would I ever do that? Because I believe that God plans better than I do! That’s what faith is. A belief that God’s plans are better than mine, That his plans will lead me to life a life that glorifies him better and a life that will actually give me the abundant life that he promises.
Isaiah 55:8–9 (NET) — 8 “Indeed, my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds, 9 for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so my deeds are superior to your deeds and my plans superior to your plans.
Psalm 94:11 (NIV) — 11 The LORD knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.
Psalm 32:8 (NIV) — 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
Don’t we need that. We must allow God to inform and sometimes alter our plans.
God will sometimes wreck your plans when He sees that your plans are about to wreck you! – Toby McKeehan
Let’s get to that second section:
James 5:1–6 (NIV) — 1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
Sounds like you are doomed for destruction if you are rich. Let me remind you that money is a chief rival to God for your soul. Scripture warns that wealth can be a particularly strong obstacle to Christian discipleship. (Moo)
This is abundantly clear in the Bible.
Matthew 6:24 (NIV) — 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Matthew 19:23–24 (NIV) - 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
1 Timothy 6:9–10 (NIV) — 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Once again, it is not the money that is evil. It is our use of that money that can be destructive. In the case here in James, he is offering these words of condemnation to people who believe money will last forever and who accumulate their money at the expense of others. There are several things affirmed here.
1) Physical wealth is temporary.
1) Physical wealth is temporary.
This is so reminiscent of Jesus’ words:
Matthew 6:19–21 (NIV) — 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
2) Living in luxury at the expense of workers will be condemned and is tantamount to murder.
2) Living in luxury at the expense of workers will be condemned and is tantamount to murder.
James 5:5–6 (NIV) — 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
The Bible does not denounce wealth per se, but wealth immorally gained and selfishly used.
The hoarding of wealth is wrong not just because it demonstrates utterly false priorities; it is doubly sinful because it also deprives others of their very life.
The pursuit of a luxurious lifestyle that is selfish and unconcerned about others’ needs is the accusation brought against the rich.
Moo, D. J. (2015). James: An Introduction and Commentary (E. J. Schnabel, Ed.; Second edition, Vol. 16, p. 211). Inter-Varsity Press.
Most of us are willing to give God a few hours and few dollars but are we willing to hand over our calendars and our wallets to him? Are we willing to seek his advice? Do we believe he has better advice for us than we do? Do we believe he really loves us?
Commentators say that James sounds like an OT prophet in this section of the letter and he does. He sounds a little like Malachi when he says this to the people of Israel.
Malachi 3:8–10 (NIV) — 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
I said in an earlier sermon I don’t want this to just be a guilt trip. Those don’t last long and don’t take you very far. Think of it his way: God has a much better plan for my life than I do. So I am willing to turn the calendar over to Him.
God, what do you think is best because
A Faith that Works Seeks God’s Will
A Faith that Works Seeks God’s Will
God can use my money in much better ways than simply spending it on myself. Instead of using my money for things that will rust away, fall apart and end up in the dump maybe God can use my money to bring life to people. I will seek your advice on how to distribute my wealth. So I am willing to turn over my wallet to him and seek his advice because a faith that works seeks God’s will.
