James (Program #11) – A Life Not Fully According to and for God’s New Testament Economy (2)
The book of James has many wonderful expressions and utterances that many Christians love to quote. His exhortation on bridling an evil tongue for example, and on other various Christian virtues are the stuff of many good Sunday school lessons. In chapter 4, we have another admirable example of the practical Christian perfection that James espoused. He says in verse 13 “Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit; Whereas you do not know the matter of tomorrow, what your life will be; for you are a vapor, which appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will both live and do this or that. ” Who could argue or take issue that such an expression “if the Lord wills”? But by comparison we must consider another angle, another perspective. It’s the perspective of the dominant New Testament writer, the apostle Paul, who did not exhort the believers simply to follow God’s will in an objective outward way, but rather to be those that live moment by moment under the influence and direction of the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:14, “or as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.“
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