WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? IT IS EVEN A VAPOUR

Although the picture of life as a puff of steam is one so simple to visualize and understand, it is one that we so often fail to recog­nize as applicable to ourselves. Usually these verses are read by the gospel preacher who appeals to the lost not to live as though God and death do not exist. The application is true, and many a weighty gospel message has been preached from it. However, we need to remember that James was addressing believers in the Lord Jesus, and it is to Christians that the brevity of life is brought to remembrance.

Things start to go very wrong in any believer’s life as soon as the incurable ungodliness of the old nature is forgotten. The new nature we received at conversion is able, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to subdue the old nature and bring forth fruit for God. The old nature lurks beneath the surface, ready to emerge in a moment and demonstrate its character. One of its main features is arrogance, usually in company with its sister, pride. Earlier in chapter 4, James has shown how these terrible twins are the cause of conflict between saints, and now he explains how they cause carelessness in the believer’s life.

Arrogance, pride and self-complacency speak together in verse 13. Timetable, travel and trade are all planned for the next year as though nothing could intervene. Neither the will of God nor the brevity of life have been considered in this plan for per­sonal gain. The solemn warning that the Christian merchant might never see tomorrow, never mind next year, reminds us of the boast of the ungodly farmer and the response of a neglected God: ‘I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God’, Luke 12. 19-21.

In every part of our lives we ought to say, ‘If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that’. Such language confirms our dependence on God and echoes the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, ‘not my will, but thine, be done’, Luke 22. 42.