Build Day 14 Building Security: Digging Deeper

Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
The Questions
1) These verses make it seem like planning ahead is a bad thing, am I reading this correctly?
2) How can I know if my plans line up with God’s?
3) What does it mean to “know the good and not do it”? (verse 17)
James 4:13-17
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit. “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
Original Intent
1) These verses make it seem like planning ahead is a bad thing, am I reading this correctly?
To answer this question, we should first understand the audience James was originally writing to as well as the theme of his entire letter. Throughout his letter, James calls believers in Jesus to take action and “walk the talk”. His audience called themselves Christ-following Christians, but weren’t necessarily being Christ-like or obedient to God’s commands in real, everyday life. They were showing favoritism (James 2:1-12), being prideful (James 4:1-12), spoke without integrity of worship (James 3:9-12), and incorrectly believed that faith without actions could pass for genuinely, saving faith (James 2:14-3:18). With that understanding as a backdrop, it becomes easier to understand the point James is making in these few verses, which is, don’t be so full of pride that you lay out, detailed plans for your entire life. If we are really serious about following God, we absolutely must allow room for God and His leading and prompting. God is not in the business of rubber stamping our plans and clearing away any obstacles that stand in our way. James wants his readers to remember the commitment they made to Jesus, then live accordingly with full surrender.
2) How can I know if my plans line up with God’s?
The first step is to ask God for wisdom and listen for His response. This initial act of surrender is worshipful as we prioritize God’s ways over our own. (Proverbs 9:10) As we learned, the first recipients of this letter weren’t taking time to ask God, but pridefully planning their own ways. There was no way of confidently knowing whether their plans aligned with God’s. In their favor, James’ audience knew their history and were familiar with how God had led Israel since the time of His promise to make Abraham into a great nation. (Genesis 12:1-3) Their parents and grandparents had undoubtedly recounted the stories of crossing the Red Sea, watching Jericho’s walls tumble down, and King David’s defeat of countless enemies time and time again. Not to mention, they personally knew Jesus, had sat under His teaching, had witnessed His miracles and were now scattered to share the gospel message of Christ’s offer to forgive and make new. You can almost see how excitement, perhaps even fear got the best of them, ideas and plans of their own making began to form and take over the awe of humble worship to a God who sacrificed Himself for them. This is how pride sneaks in, for them, and us. What had begun as excitement to share the God’s love with others had turned into running ahead of God instead of waiting for His direction and timing. We often forget, or overlook, that Jesus told His original followers the same thing He tells us today, “Love the LORD your God with all you’ve got.” (my paraphrase of Matthew 22:37) When you lose sight of walking daily in this command, it’s a pretty safe bet your plans won’t line up with God’s.
3) What does it mean to “know the good and not do it”? (verse 17)
The theme of our study has been Build and what it means to be totally dependent on God. Keeping this in mind, along with what we’ve learned of James’ purpose in writing, we can conclude that his audience struggled to obey God in everyday living. It’s one thing to claim to be a follower of Jesus, but another to live it out day after day. Maybe they were running too far ahead, maybe they were tired of being different and just wanted an easy life, maybe they trusted their own leadership more than God’s. Regardless, following and obeying God is sometimes hard whether you were a first-century believer or a 21st. Truly following God requires full reliance on the Spirit of God Who lives inside every believer to not only know and understand “the good way”, but to follow through and actually “live it”. These early followers of Jesus were experiencing the growing pains of living differently from the world around them. James, having learned this lesson firsthand as one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, is lovingly sharing his learnings with those God had put under his leadership.
Everyday Application
1) These verses make it seem like planning ahead is a bad thing, am I reading this correctly?
Much like James’ original audience, as Christ followers we must live with an awareness of Whose we are and live like we mean our commitment to follow Him. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says it pretty bluntly “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we willingly give up our rights and will for the sake of His. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make plans for the present and the future, but it does mean our planning should begin with God (Proverbs 2:6) by asking for His will to be done in and through us, just as Jesus did while on earth. (John 5:19) Once plans are made, we should hold them loosely because there may come a time when God asks us to change course and keep surrendering ourselves to Him; we must be willing to trust Him and follow as He leads.
2) How can I know if my plans line up with God’s?
In today’s society, we place immense pressure on youth to have their entire lives planned out when entering high school (secondary education for my non-western friends J). We expect them to choose a lifelong career path with little room for experience or gaining wisdom. Ironically, this method is what James speaks against, because it leaves no room for God! Maybe God is calling our sons and daughters to be doctors and lawyers, but He also may be calling them to be auto-mechanics, moms, preachers, or receptionists. Yes, plan for college, retirement, and future trips, but do so with God leading the way. This means we must ask His guidance while also waiting and listening, then compare what we think we hear to Scripture. If the two don’t align, we’ve misheard and need to ask again. Making plans isn’t really a “one and done” situation. Honestly, there are very few people I know where God has not changed their course mid-stream. Our oldest daughter planned to be a journalist for most of high school, and began college studies toward this direction. This was her plan, but God’s was elementary (primary) education. Even after course correcting, her plans had her teaching in a certain district and school, but once again, God’s plans were different. This lesson was hard and required time, but God is faithful to guide us and today she teaches first graders in our city’s urban core at a privately funded Christian school. Not at all what she would have picked for herself years ago, but exactly God’s intended direction. Amazingly, her heart is now more open and willing to wait for and listen to God. Her desire is to walk in obedience to His call, not hers, even when it’s not easy.
3) What does it mean to “know the good and not do it”? (verse 17)
Can I be honest with ya’ll? I have a love/hate relationship with writing studies. Angst explodes in seeing my assignment topic and Scripture references; I sense the coming turmoil of wrestling with Scripture. I can almost feel the questions I will wade through, and I begin praying God will somehow string together my wrestlings into sensible words that honor Him. Simultaneously, I love that God ALWAYS provides, often in the midst of my tears, conviction, and fresh insight. In this messy, but sacred place, I have been stuck, knowing the good I’ve been called to do, yet choosing not to act. Honestly, most often, we know the right answer. We know we should resist temptation; we know we should share truth instead of gossip, we know we should turn the other cheek, but it’s much easier to be self-righteous instead. When we choose sin, we choose to worship the fleshly desires Paul discusses in Romans 7 & 8. Believe me, I get it! I fail every single day because it’s easy; failing allows me to fit with the crowd and build my kingdom, my way. Romans 8:9 says, “You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” Verse 12 reiterates, “we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh!” Do you see it?! Because the Spirit of Christ lives in believers, we are no longer forced to obey the deceptive chant, “Who cares?! Do what you want!” When we choose not to do the good we ought, we are choosing neither to trust God nor rely on His Spirit. Paul speaks the remedy in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who is against us?” It’s terrifying to fully submit to God’s ways and start rejecting our ways. We fearfully wonder, “What if God wants me to give up what I love?” So, we reflect, are we living from pride of self or love for God? Taking it from James, pride sucks! As I wrestled through this, God insistently whispered, “Do you really trust me or not?” I tried my best to avoid this wrestling session, but God has led me to look at strong truth and walk away choosing differently in my everyday life.
P.S. If you’re up for a challenge, read the short book of Malachi. It’s full of opportunities to wrestle with truth, see the Savior, and walk away changed to be more like Him!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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