The faith that works rejects human arrogance and instead looks to God for guidance...

This week we are looking at a section of a letter that the half brother of Jesus wrote to early followers of Jesus, called the book of James. Yesterday, we looked on as James was attempting to grab the attention of a group of people who would be reading his letter. And that group of people, James explains, were those who a group of early followers of Jesus who were making big plans when it came to their future. These early followers of Jesus were full of confidence in their plan and believed that they were in control of their future and their destiny as they prepared to implement their plan.

We discovered that the issue that James was addressing here is not whether or not you should make plans for the future. Instead, the issue that James is addressing is how we should make plans for the future. James point here is that because of the fact that none of us know how events in the future that will impact our futures; because of the reality that our lives are temporary, we should make plans for the future by seeking God’s guidance and direction as we make our plans.

As we plan for the future, we should be asking questions like “How do my plans line up with the message and teachings of Jesus? Or do my plans place me in opposition to the message and teachings of Jesus? Do my plans place me in a position where I can reveal and reflect Jesus to others? Or do my plans place me in a position where I would have to compromise what I believe about the message and teachings of Jesus?

Are the plans that I am making wise? Are the plans that I am making about what is best for me or what is best for my family in light of what the message and teachings of Jesus say about my role and responsibility in my family? Do my plans line up with how God has wired and designed me? Do my plans match up with the gifts, talents, and abilities that God has given me? Have I run my plans by others who love and follow Jesus and who are mature enough to tell me what I need to hear about my plans and not simply what I want to hear about my plans?”

However, these were not the questions that these early followers of Jesus were asking. That was not what these early followers of Jesus were doing when it came to the plans that they were making. We see James reveal this reality for us in James 4:16:

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

Now when James uses the word boast here, this word literally means to take pride in something so as to brag about it. James then explains that what theses early followers of Jesus were taking pride in so as to brag about was their arrogance. In other words, these early followers of Jesus were bragging and boasting about their self confidence. These early followers of Jesus were bragging and boasting about their self sufficiency.

After all they had a plan: A plan that they came up with as a result of their arrogant self confidence that they were captains who were in control of their futures. And these early followers of Jesus were full of confidence in their plan and believed that they were able to control their future and their destiny as they implemented their plan.

So, instead of asking “How do my plans line up with the message and teachings of Jesus and His desires for my life”, they were asking “How do my plans line up with my desires for my life?” Instead of asking “Do my plans place me in opposition to the message and teachings of Jesus” they were asking “Do my plans place me in opposition to my desires for my life?”

Instead of asking “Do my plans place me in a position where I can make much of Jesus” they were asking “Do my plans place me in a position to make much of me?” “Instead of asking “Lord what is you plan for me” they were asking “Lord here is my plan, bless me”.

James then explained that such arrogant bragging and boasting about one’s self confidence and self sufficiency is evil. In other words, the plans that were driven by such arrogant self confidence in the belief that they were captains who were in control of their futures were morally and socially worthless.

These plans were morally and socially worthless because they overlooked the reality that the makers of these plans did not know how events in the future that would impact their futures.  These plans were morally and socially worthless because they overlooked the reality that they were only here on earth temporarily. James then hammers his point home with a powerful statement in verse 17:

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Now to fully understand what James is communicating here, we first need to understand what James is referring to when he uses the word sin. As we discovered earlier in this series, when James uses the word sin, he is referring to acts of omission or commission that hurt God and others and that flow from our selfishness and rebellion against God and the word of God.

You see, so often we think of sin as involving acts of commission that we do against God and others. In other words, we tend to think of sin as something that we do that we should not do. Here, however we see James reveal for us the reality that we sin by committing acts of omission. That is, we sin when we choose not to do something that we know we should do. 

What James is communicating and focusing on here are sins of omission, the failure to do what we know we should do that flows from our selfishness and rebellion against God. James point here is that when we know that the right thing to do is to ask God for guidance and direction as we plan for our future, but instead choose not to ask God for guidance and direction as we plan for our future, we are acting in selfishness and rebellion against God.

 And it is here, in this section of this letter, that we see James reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to the faith that works. And that timeless truth is this: The faith that works rejects human arrogance and instead looks to God for guidance.  Just as it was for followers of Jesus in James day; just as it has been for followers of Jesus throughout history, the faith that works rejects human arrogance and instead looks to God for guidance.

As followers of Jesus, we are to reject the temptation to arrogantly rely on our self importance and self confidence in our plans and in our ability to control our future. As followers of Jesus, we are to reject the temptation to think of ourselves as captains who are in total control of our futures. As followers of Jesus, we are to reject the temptation to say “here are my plans Jesus, now make sure you bless my plans”.

Instead, as followers of Jesus, we are to make plans for the future the right way by looking to God for guidance and by asking the right questions. As followers of Jesus, we are to make plans for the future by asking “Does the Lord desires us to be making these plans?” As followers of Jesus, we are to make plans for the future by asking “Do my plans place me in opposition to the message and teachings of Jesus? Do my plans place me in a position where I can reveal and reflect Jesus to others? Are the plans that I am making wise? Do my plans line up with how God has wired and designed me? Have I run my plans by others who love and follow Jesus and who are mature enough to tell me what I need to hear about my plans and not simply what I want to hear about my plans?”

So here is a question to consider: How are you planning for the future? Are you planning for the future by not planning for the future? Are you planning for the future by saying “I don’t need to plan for the future; I just need to trust Jesus for my future.” Because, the message and teachings of Jesus clearly reveal that to fail to properly plan for the future is to prepare to foolishly fail in the future.

Are you planning for the future with an arrogant self importance and self confident belief that you have the ability to predict and control future events? Are you planning for the future by demanding of Jesus “here are my plans Jesus, now make sure you bless my plans”?

Or are you planning for the future by looking to God for guidance? Are you planning for the future by asking “Does the Lord desire me to be making these plans?”

Because, the faith that works rejects human arrogance and instead looks to God for guidance...