James 4:14

James 4:14

I. First, what is the intention of life? No man of any consideration can look on "this life" for a moment without connecting it with "the life that is to come." It is evident that the first great intention of this "life" is education, so that as in a man's "life" there is a portion upon this earth allotted to what is strictly preparatory to the rest, so is the whole immortal existence of a man arranged that there should be a period of instruction and cultivation, to be the education-time for his eternity. Allowing then that this "life" is education, education is made up of two parts: probation and cultivation. (1) Probation. I mean by that word that a man is to know himself, and to show to other men what he really is. That is probation. For the vindication of God's justice, a man develops in this world; therefore God has placed him for a certain season to show what manner of man he is going to be. The circumstances in which he is put are exactly the best to unfold his character. There is not a point of "life" in which there is not a probationary intention. (2) Education is also cultivation. Partly by instilling knowledge, but still more by drawing out powers, by establishing good habits and exercising right feelings, a child is educated for his after-life. Just such is all the machinery which surrounds us in our present state. Every variety of fortune, every little minute occurrence of life, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the very Atonement itself, are all calculated to train; they are all means to an end.

II. But now I pass to the second thought which lies coiled up in the great question, "What is life?" its duration. At the most a span; and that span is held by a thread. There is no certainty of "tomorrow," and many years are out of the question. And, with the "angel of death" thus in the air, can you sit down at your pleasures, and no "blood," on "the door"? If that "blood" is once there, upon your heart, which is a man's "door," the "door" of his existence, if "the blood of Christ" has ever been applied, everything is changed, age is happy, death is joy.

III. What is the real nature of "life"? All "life" is in the Father. Therefore he only "lives" who is united to the Father, and no man is united to the Father but by the power of "the blood of Jesus." Therefore "the blood of Jesus" is the essence of "life."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,4th series, p. 107.

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 arrange, he says, a long course of procedure, extending over many weeks or even months; they calculate the steps they will take, the transactions in which they will engage, the bargains they will strike, and all as if they were perfectly certain of a continuance of life. But is this wise or right? It is neither. It is foolish and wicked. These persons are feeling and acting as if they were masters of the situation and could command from God a prolongation of existence until their work was done, whereas such is the uncertainty of life that they positively cannot reckon upon what a single day will bring forth. St. James would be the last man to condemn a reasonable foresight. He well knew that we must look forward, must provide, must lay plans for the future. It is not this that he condemns. But the thing which he visits with the severity of his denunciation is the practical leaving of God out of His own world and the practical taking of the management of affairs into our own hands, which is implied in all confident reckoning upon the continuance of life.

II. Consider the importance of the life which we are now living in the flesh when regarded as determining our future destiny for incalculable ages. Its very uncertainty is part of the merciful Divine plan for making us thoughtful. The uncertainty is the very thing we want for rousing us to earnest seeking after salvation. When we feel it is probable that we shall continue to live, and yet possible that we may die at any time, we are in the very best state of mind for attending to religion.

G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit,New Series, No. 899.

References: James 4:14. E. Carr Glyn, Church of England Pulpit,vol. i., p. 49; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1773; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 351.James 4:17. J. H. Thorn, Laws of Life,2nd series, p. 91.James 5:7. J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year,vol. i., p. 25; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiv., p. 385; Homiletic Magazine,vol. vii., p. 340.