James 4:14-15

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:13-14

‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and make ourselves gains”, whereas you do not know what will be on the morrow.’ ‘Come now.’ This is the first of two ‘come now’s which introduce two scenarios, both of which are intended to make them face up to serious facts. The first of these reveals the frailty of businessmen whose main concern is monetary gain, in view of the fact that how long they go on living is in God’s hands, and... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:14

‘What is your life? For you are a vapour, which appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.’ For what they should remember is what their lives are. They are not substantial. They are rather like a puff of smoke which appears for a short while and then disappears. They are like an early morning mist that soon clears away (Hosea 13:3). For life is brief, and in the midst of life we are in death. So in view of that it is in this light that they should measure how they ought to live, both... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:15

‘Because you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that”.’ They should therefore live each day as though it might be their last, and recognise that every day that they have after that, is a gift from God, (for the truth is that every day someone somewhere falls dead, with medical experts not knowing why it happened). They ought then to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” And if they do that they will not consider making gains so... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - James 4:13-17

James 4:13-Esther : . This and the next paragraph denounce the vices of the rich, in the spirit of Amos and Isaiah; that they are Jews, and not Christians, seems obvious, if this epistle is to be got into the first centuries of Christian history, when the rich had small power to oppress the poor. First comes a warning suggested presumably by the Lord’ s parable of the Rich Fool. They make plans for a year, and know not what will happen the very next day; human life is transitory as a puff of... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - James 4:14

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow; whether ye yourselves shall continue till then, or what else shall then be, or not be. In vain do ye boast of whole years, when ye cannot command the events of one day. For what is your life? This question implies contempt, as 1 Samuel 25:10; Psalms 144:3,Psalms 144:4. It is even a vapour; like a vapour, frail, uncertain, and of short continuance; and then how vain are those counsels and purposes that are built upon no more sure a foundation than... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - James 4:15

For that ye ought to say: it is the real acknowledgment of God’s providence, and the dependence of all our affairs upon him, which is here required; and this is to be done, either expressly with the mouth in such like forms of speech as this is, so far as is needful for our glorifying God, and distinguishing ourselves from those that are profane, as hath been customary with the saints in Scripture, Acts 18:21; Romans 1:10, and other places, but always inwardly, and in the heart. If the Lord... read more

Joseph Exell

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - James 4:13-17

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTESJames 4:13. Such a city.—“This city”; the one the speaker is supposed to have in mind.James 4:14. What shall be.—“What your life shall be on the morrow.” Vanisheth away.—Alford, “vanisheth as it appeared.”James 4:15. Ought to say.—Lit. “instead of saying.”James 4:16. Boastings.—Same word as translated “pride of life” in 1 John 2:16. The undue self-confidence of the ungodly. “Ye glory in your braggings.” Aristotle defines the term as indicating the character of the... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - James 4:13-15

James 4:13-15 What is your life? I. It is a very mysterious part of God's dealings, this making our life so uncertain. If we were not so thoroughly accustomed to the fact, we should, I think, all consider it a very remarkable thing that God should make so much depend on man's life, and yet should leave it so entirely unknown to him how long he will live. A man has a work to do, a great work, a work compared with which everything else he may do is mere trifling, and yet he does not know whether... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - James 4:14

James 4:14 There is no topic, I suppose, on which we are all so heartily agreed as that of the uncertainty of human life, and yet perhaps there is no topic, unanimous as our agreement about it may be, which produces so little effect upon character and conduct. I. The sacred writer of the text, a man of a very practical turn of mind, is speaking of the habit in which some persons indulge of laying their plans for the future without any reference whatever to the Divine goodwill and pleasure. They... read more

Charles Simeon

Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae - James 4:13-14

DISCOURSE: 2372THE FOLLY OF UNDUE SECURITYJames 4:13-14. Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.RELIGION has ever a tendency to decline. Sin has pre-occupied the ground: and though religion expels it for a time, it is ever watching, as it were, for an... read more

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