James 4:13

4:11-17 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 vapour being scattered. So short, unreal, and fading is human life, and all the prosperity or enjoyment that attends it; though bliss or woe for ever must be according to our conduct during this fleeting moment. We are always to depend on the will of God. Our times are not in our own hands, but at the disposal of God. Our heads may be filled with cares and contrivances for ourselves, or our families, or our friends; but Providence often throws our plans into confusion. All we design, and all we do, should be with submissive dependence on God.

James 4:13-15 . Go to now — Αγε νυν , come now, an interjection, calculated to excite attention; ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go, &c. — As if future events were in your own power, and your health and lives were ensured to you for a certain time; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow — Whether your spirits before then shall not have passed into eternity; for what is your life? It is even a vapour — An unsubstantial, uncertain, and fleeting vapour; that appeareth for a little time — In this visible world; and then suddenly vanisheth away — And is seen here no more. Thus Isaiah, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as a flower of the field; a similitude used also by David, Psalm 103:15-16 , As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. And still more striking is the metaphor used by Asaph, Psalm 78:39 , where he terms men, even a generation of them, A wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But in no author, sacred or profane, is there a finer image of the brevity and uncertainty of human life than this given by St. James, who likens it to a vapour, which, after continuing and engaging men’s attention for a few moments, unexpectedly disappears while they are looking at it.

For that ye ought, &c. — That is, whereas ye ought to say — In consideration of this your great frailty; If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that — Intimating, even by your manner of speaking, the sense that you have of his being able, at pleasure, to cut you short in all your schemes and appointments. The apostle does not mean that these very words should always be used by us, when we speak of our purposes respecting futurity; but that, on such occasions, the sentiment which these words express should always be present to our minds.

Go to now (ἄγε νῦν) Go to is an obsolete phrase, though retained in Rev. It is a formula for calling attention: come now. Such a city (τήνδε τὴν πόλιν) More accurately, as Rev., this city. Continue there a year (ποιήσομεν ἐκεῖ ἐνιαυτὸν) Lit., we will make a year. See, for the same form of expression, Acts 15:33; Acts 18:23; 2 Corinthians 11:25. Better, as Rev., spend a year there. (Compare the A. V., Acts 18:23, rightly retained by Rev.) The word ποιήσομεν implies more than mere continuance; rather, a doing something with the year. And The frequent use of the copulative gives a lively tone to the passage, expressive of the lightness and thoughtlessness of a careless spirit. Buy and sell (ἐμπορευσόμεθα) Rev., more concisely, trade. Only here and 2 Peter 2:3.

{8} 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: (8) The other fault is this: That men do so confidently determine on these and those matters and businesses, as though every moment of their life did not depend on God.

Jam 4:13 . Ἄγε νῦν , come now ) The interjection used to excite attention, ch. Jam 5:1 .— λέγοντες , ye who say ) In plain terms, ye who boast: Jam 4:16 .— σήμερον ἢ αὔριον , to-day or to-morrow ) One says, to-day ; the same, or some other person, says, to-morrow , as it suits his convenience; as though he had a free choice. ἢ αὔριον , Beza; and my note in the Gnomon was formerly in accordance with this reading; afterwards, in the course of inquiry, I preferred καὶ αὔριον .[57] See App. Crit. Ed. ii.— πορευσώμεθα , κ . τ . λ ., we will go , etc.) The Subjunctive [ let us go ] makes the language modal,[58] and suggests urgent reasons for actions.— τήνδε ) This is put instead of a proper name, as ὁ δεῖνα .— καὶ , and ) The repetition of the conjunction, and , expresses the will of a mind at ease.— ἐνιαυτὸν ἕνα , one year ) They thus speak, as though presently after about to deliberate also respecting years to come. [57] B Vulg. and Elzev. Rec. Text have ἤ ; and so Lachm. A and later Syr have καί ; and so Tisch. and Stephens’ Rec. Text.—E. [58] See Append. on SERMO MODALIS.—E.

13. Go to now—"Come now"; said to excite attention. ye that say—boasting of the morrow. To-day or to-morrow—as if ye had the free choice of either day as a certainty. Others read, "To-day and to-morrow." such a city—literally, "this the city" (namely, the one present to the mind of the speaker). This city here. continue … a year—rather, "spend one year." Their language implies that when this one year is out, they purpose similarly settling plans for to come [Bengel]. buy and sell—Their plans for the future are all worldly.

Verses 13-17. - DENUNCIATION OF OVER-WEENING CONFIDENCE IN OUR OWN PLANS AND OUR ABILITY TO PERFORM THEM. Verse 13. - Go to ; Ἄγε , properly, the imperative, but here used adverbially, a usage common in Greek prose, and found again in James 5:1 . (For the word, comp. Judy. 19:6; 2 Kings 4:24 ; and for similar instances of the singular where more than one person is referred to, see Wetstein, col. 2. p. 676.) The Received Text (Stephens) requires some correction in this verse. Read, σήμερον η} αὔριον with א , B; the futures πορεύσομεθα ποιήσομεν ἐμπορευσόμεθα and κερδήσομεν (B, Latt., Syriac) instead of the subjunctives; and omit ἔνα after ἐνιαυτόν , with a, B, Latt., Coptic. Continue there a year ; rather, spend a year there , ἐνιαυτὸν being the object of the verb and not the accusative of duration. For ποιεῖν , used of time, cf. Acts 15:33 ; Acts 18:23 ; Acts 20:3 ; 2 Corinthians 11:25 . The Latins use facto in the same way; e.g. Cicero, 'Ad Attic.,' 5. 20, "Apamea quinque dies morati... Iconii decem fecimus." James 4:13

Go to now; either this is a note of transition, or of command to inferiors, or rather of admonition to such as are stupid or rash, and tends to the awakening their attention, and stirring them up to the consideration of their duty, danger, &c. Ye that say; either with your mouths, or in your hearts. To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city; not, let us go, but, we will go, in the indicative mood; noting the peremptoriness of their purposes, and their presuming upon future times and things, which were not in their power. And continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: he doth not condemn merchants travelling into other countries, nor trading there, nor designing gain by their trade, nor forecasting their business; but their promising themselves the continuance of their life, the accomplishing their designs, and the success of their labours, without respect to God’s providence and direction, as if their times and their works were in their own hands, not in his.

(13) Ye that say . . . . —The Apostle would reason next with the worldly; not merely those abandoned to pleasure, but any and all absorbed in the quest of gain or advancement. The original is represented a little more closely, thus: Today and tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade and get gain. “Mortals think all men mortal but themselves;” yet who does not boast himself of tomorrow ( Proverbs 27:1 ), in spite of a thousand proverbs; and reckon on the wondrous chance of “That untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever as he roams?”

13–17. Man proposing, God disposing 13 . Go to now, ye that say …] The warnings pass on to another form of the worldliness of the double-minded; the far-reaching plans for the future such as our Lord had condemned in the parable of the Rich Fool ( Luke 12:16 ). It is significant that that parable follows in close sequence upon our Lord’s disclaimer of the office of a Judge. The opening formula, “Go to,” which meets us again in ch. James 5:1 , is peculiar to St James in the New Testament. It appears in the LXX. in Jdg 19:6 ; 2 Kings 4:24 . It is obvious that the warning is addressed to Christians as well as Jews, so far as they were infected by the taint of worldliness. The MSS. vary between “to-day or to-morrow” and “to-day and to-morrow,” the latter implying the contemplation of a two days’ journey. into such a city ] Literally, into this city , that which was present to the mind of the speaker.

Jam 4:13-17 form an independent section entirely unconnected with what precedes or follows. The section is very interesting as giving a picture of the commercial Diaspora -Jew. The Jews of the Dispersion had, from the outset, to give up agricultural pursuits; since for the most part they congregated in the cities it was commerce in which they engaged chiefly. A good instance of the Diaspora -Jew going from city to city occurs in Josephus, Antiq. , xii. 2–5 (160–185), though the period dealt with is far anterior to that of our Epistle. Egypt was, of course, the greatest centre of attraction, and many wealthy Jews were to be numbered among the large Jewish population of Alexandria; Philo speaks of Jewish shipowners and merchants in this city ( In Flaccum , viii.). When such Jews embraced Christianity there would be, obviously, no reason for them to give up their calling. It must, however, be confessed that both this section and the following read far more naturally as addressed to Jews than to Jewish-Christians.