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.” 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag.  All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin” (James 4: 13-17).

In this passage we are being warned about sin. But what is the sin being condemned? Is it making plans for today? Is it making plans for tomorrow? Is it moving to another city? Is it being there for a year? Is it doing business there? Is it making money? No, it would not seem so from the Bible.  There is nothing necessarily wrong with any of these things. In fact, the Bible condemns sloth and laziness as just “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest” (Proverbs 24:30-34), saying that suddenly poverty “will come on you like a bandit” (NIV).

What then is the wrong if it is not the planning? It appears to be leaving the Lord’s will out of the planning! Those dreams, hopes, and plans for today, tomorrow and the future need to be guided by God’s will at the center of our lives. It can “completely outfit” or “thoroughly furnish” us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). Whatever plans we make, then, have to take into careful consideration whether they are at odds with the Scripture. And if we do not then we are sinning because we are being guided by something else, by our own wisdom, instead of applying the Lord’s wisdom to our lives. James says it is a form of boasting and bragging, and it is evil.

With some thought we can see how this is true:

• Mom and Dad are sending their boy off to college. They know it’s a good school but have no idea about the character of the nearby congregation…
• Here’s a young girl considering a proposal of marriage. She knows he’s handsome and has a good job and money, but not much about him spiritually…
• A family is considering a move to a town for Dad to have a better job, but it is a very worldly place…
• An older couple is going to move down south to a lovely retirement community, but don’t know if a congregation is near…

What is needed in each of these situations? It is a genuine concern for the Lord’s will from a heart that will put His will into the practice of their everyday life.

This lack is what we may call a sin of neglect. It is not like actually committing a sin as when we lie or steal or hate. It is one in which we omit or neglect to do something that we ought to do, like speaking up for the truth, or sharing what we have, or loving our neighbor as ourselves. In the case of such examples as we suggested – as with all of life’s serious choices – we should look at the Scripture to see its principles and precepts for the situation at hand (1 Peter 4:11), and then pray for wisdom to deal with the choices we have (James 1:5).

James says such planning is a good thing to do! He said why earlier: “Receive with meekness .the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:21-22).

– by Robert Hines