James 4:13

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: GO TO NOW - `Come now:' to excite attention. YE THAT SAY - `boasting of the morrow.' TODAY OR TOMORROW - as if ye had the free choice of cipher day as a certainty. So 'Aleph (') B, Vulgate. But A, 'Today and tomorrow.' SUCH A CITY - literally, this the city. This city here. CONTINUE THERE A YEAR - spend a year. They imply that when this year is out, they purpose settling plans for years to come. BUY AND SELL. Their plans are all worldly....

13_Go to now_. He condemns here another kind of presumption, that many, who ought to have depended on God’s providence, confidently settled what they were to do, and arranged their plans for a long time, as though they had many years at their own disposal, while they were not sure, no not even of one moment. Solomon also sharply ridicules this kind of foolish boasting, when he says that “men settle their ways in their heart, and the Lord in the mean time rules the tongue.” (Proverbs 16:1.) And it is a very insane thing to undertake to execute what we cannot pronounce with our tongue. James does not reprove the form of speaking, but rather the arrogance of mind, that men should forget their own weakness, and speak thus presumptuously; for even the godly, who think humbly of themselves, and acknowledge that their ste

11-17 Our lips must be governed by the law of kindness, as well as truth and justice. Christians are brethren. And to break God's commands, is to speak evil of them, and to judge them, as if they laid too great a restraint upon us. We have the law of God, which is a rule to all; let us not presume to set up our own notions and opinions as a rule to those about us, and let us be careful that we be not condemned of the Lord. "Go to now," is a call to any one to consider his conduct as being wrong. How apt worldly and contriving men are to leave God out of their plans! How vain it is to look for any thing good without God's blessing and guidance! The frailty, shortness, and uncertainty of life, ought to check the vanity and presumptuous confidence of all projects for futurity. We can fix the hour and minute of the sun's rising and setting to-morrow, but we cannot fix the certain time of a...

Verse 13. _GO TO NOW_] αγε νυν. _Come now_, the same in meaning as the Hebrew הבה _habah, come_, Genesis 11:3; Genesis 11:4; Genesis 11:7. _Come_, and _hear what I have to say, ye that say_, c. _TO-DAY, OR TO-MORROW, WE WILL GO_] This presumption on a precarious life is here well reproved and the ancient Jewish rabbins have some things on the subject which probably St. James had in view. In _Debarim Rabba_, sec. 9, fol. 261, 1, we have the following little story; "Our rabbins tell us a story which happened in the days of Rabbi Simeon, the son of Chelpatha. He was present at the circumcision of a child, and stayed with its father to the entertainment. The father b

GO TO NOW - The apostle here introduces a new subject, and refers to another fault which was doubtless prevalent among them, as it is everywhere, that of a presumptuous confidence respecting the future, or of forming plans stretching into the future, without any proper sense of the uncertainty of life, and of our absolute dependence on God. The phrase “go to now,” (ἄγε νῦν age nun,) is a phrase designed to arrest attention, as if there were something that demanded their notice, and especially, as in this case, with the implied thought that that to which the attention is called is wrong. See James 5:1. Compare Genesis 11:7; Isaiah 1:18....

EXPOSITION JAMES 4:1 REBUKE OF QUARRELS ARISING FROM PRIDE AND GREED. A terribly sadden transition from the "peace" with which James 3:1. closed. JAMES 4:1 WHENCE WARS AND WHENCE FIGHTINGS AMONG YOU? The second "whence" (πόθεν) is omitted in the Received Text, after K, L, Syriac, and Vulgate; but it is supported by א, A, B, C, the Coptic, and Old Latin. WARS … FIGHTINGS (πόλεμοι … μάχαι). To what is the reference? Μάχαι occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in...

GO TO NOW, YE THAT SAY,.... The apostle passes from exposing the sin of detraction, and rash judgment, to inveigh against those of presumption and self-confidence; and the phrase, "go to now", is a note of transition, as well as of attention, and contains the form of a solemn and grave address to persons, who either think within themselves, or vocally express, the following words, or the like unto them: TODAY, OR TOMORROW, WE WILL GO INTO SUCH A CITY; in such a country, a place of great trade and merchandise; as Tyre then was in Phoenicia, Thessalonica in Macedonia, Ephesus in Asia, and others: some render this as an imperative, or as an exhortation, "let us go", which does not alter the sense. AND CONTINUE THERE A YEAR, AND BUY AND SELL, AND GET GAIN; as is customary for merchants to do; nor does the apostle design by this to condemn merchandise, and the lawful practice of buying and...

James 4:1. _From whence come wars and fightings among you?_ Whether between nations, or parties or individuals,-if there be wars and fightings, whence do they come? James 4:1. _Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?_ Do they not arise from one desiring something, and another desiring the same thing? Is there not a competition or emulation of an evil kind, in which each one prefers himself, and seeks not the good of his neighbor? James 4:2. _Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not,-_ This is nature's way of trying to get by contention what it desires to possess,-fighting, and warring

IV. FURTHER EXHORTATIONS TO RIGHT LIVING CHAPTER 4 _ 1. Fightings and worldliness rebuked (James 4:1)_ 2. The Godly walk (James 4:7) James 4:1 A strong rebuke follows the statements concerning the wisdom from beneath and the wisdom from above. It must be borne in mind that these exhortations are addressed to the twelve tribes scattered abroad; to say that these words mean believers only would be a serious mistake; while Christians are contemplated, those of the tribes of Israel who are not believers are equally in view. It applies therefore to those who were born of God, real believers, and to those who were not, an entirely different matter from the Pauline Epistles, which are exclusively addressed to th

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 steam. They were proud of big plans which fate might turn to folly. And such idle words (Matthew 12:36) were not meaningless frivolities; there was evil in them it is a strong word, that which closes the Lord's Prayer. Finally, since these people knew how to do good did they not boast of their Law? and would not do it, they were guilty of sin. For the NT with one consent here following the spirit of the prophets makes sin...