DEO VOLENTE

JAMES 4: 13-17

JULY 9, 2000

 

The Puritans had a knack for ending correspondence with the letters, "D.V." or Deo Volente, "as God wills." John Wesley and the early Methodists had this same practice of using "D.V." in their correspondence. There was a concern on their parts for making sure that they lived in thought, deed, and attitude in submission to the will of the Lord. Kent Hughes has rightly pointed out that during this golden age of evangelicalism, "'God willing' is the posture of a burning heart" [Faith that Works, 206.]

 

Certainly the use of "D.V." or "God willing" can develop into a superstition of sorts, thinking that if a person can just tag whatever plan he has with "God willing," then it will be fulfilled. The truth of the matter is that James is calling for the heart-attitude of humble submission to the Lord. Whether we verbalize "God willing" or not, the essential fact is that it displays a necessary attitude for a humble walk with God. Christians must learn to live the day-to-day life in submission to the Lord.

 

As he does on so many occasions, J. B. Phillips' translation of this text captures the essence of the language in lively terms:

Just a moment, now, you who say: "We are going to such-and-such a city today or tomorrow. We shall stay there a year doing business and make a profit"! How do you know what will happen even tomorrow? What, after all, is your life? It is like a puff of smoke visible for a little while and then dissolving into thin air. Your remarks should be prefaced with, "If it is the Lord's will, we shall still be alive and shall do so-and-so." As it is, you get a certain pride in yourself in planning your future with such confidence. That sort of pride is all wrong.

No doubt you will agree with the above in theory. Well, remember that if a man knows what is right and fails to do it, his failure is a real sin.

 

How do we learn to live consciously in submission to the Lord's will? Consider how James explains living daily in God's will.

 

I. The case of presumption

 

The Bible often speaks of presumption: "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Prov. 27:1); as the Israelites disregarded the word of the Lord, Moses said they "acted presumptuously" (Deut. 1:43); Nehemiah's assessment of the Israelite fathers was that they "acted arrogantly" (Neh. 9:16). At the root of presumption is once again, the sin of pride. James does not move from the context of what he has been speaking, but only amplifies the ways that our own pride can create problems of cataclysmic proportions. Here he warns of the sin of presuming upon the sovereign Lord.

 

1. A frequent malady

 

In this sense, we must say that presumption is a frequent malady. It strikes us without warning and perhaps without even the least hint it has struck. It is the arrogant attitude, whether done boastfully or in silence, that suggests that I chart my own destiny, I make my own decisions, I decide when and where I will make my way in life. Presumption recklessly presses on in life without conscious thought that every breath I have comes as a gift of God. It takes for granted that nothing will stand in the way of one's desires and plans.

 

James begins this sentence with a terse phrase, "Come now, you who say," as a way of calling attention to yet another way we fail to humble ourselves in the presence of the Lord (4:10). It is an insistent way of almost butting into the mid-sentence of life and saying, "See here! I have something to say of which you need to hear."

 

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit'." The scene may be that of a Palestinian businessman or a seafaring merchant or a trader, perhaps a Christian or perhaps not, who makes bold business plans without thought of God in mind. He sets the agenda for what he will be doing the next year, where he will travel, and the venture in which he will engage himself. He pulls out his calendar and "Day-Timer," he makes a list of what he will need to do business and of the contacts he will make; he writes out his business plan and the anticipated income. All of it looks great! But something is missing. He presumes that he will be living tomorrow or be in good health the next week or that the economy will cooperate with his plans. One thing is left out of the plan: the will of God.

 

Certainly we must not think that James insists that all planning is out of line! The Proverbs as well as other books set forth the wisdom of good planning. Jesus speaks of the man who makes his plans before building a tower and the king who plans his strategy before entering into battle. But the problem in this case is planning without thought of God's will in mind. Or at the very minimum, it is planning that tags God on to the end to add some validation to one's selfish ways. It is the "sort of self-sufficient, self-important planning that keeps God for Sunday but looks on Monday to Saturday as mine" [Alec Motyer, The Message of James, 161].

 

2. A familiar pattern

 

If we breakdown the way James sets this forth, we recognize that he is covering all of life. The man says to himself, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." He plans his life around his own goals and desires. He does not hesitate to take time into his own hands as he speaks of "today or tomorrow...and...a year" as being his to control. It is as though time and its extent rests in our own power or at the discretion of our calendars. Everyone one of us who regularly uses a calendar has had the experience within the past few weeks of marking down in ink certain plans that never materialized. Circumstances changed, new demands were made upon our lives, and what we thought was certain because it glared at us from a calendar never materialized.

 

We also make choices that we believe are ours to make. The businessman decides, "We will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business." The Greek term suggests that the businessman pours over a map and pinpoints a particular city where he will set up shop for a year and engage in business. He has clear-cut plans in mind. There was nothing wrong with him making plans, except that he presumed upon God with his plans. Does this not say something to the modern American? What is it that becomes the sure-fire way to know if something is the right thing for us to do? We will make more money faster! 'God has to be in it,' we chide, 'because I will be making so much more money and be able to do so many more things.' Yet making more money has never been criteria for the will of God. Often it is in the accumulation of more things that we move farther away from the Lord.

 

Then the businessman thinks about his abilities. He sizes up his mental aptitude, the level of his skills, and most important of all, his business-savvy. He decides to make his move, "spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." But has he been sensitive to the call of God on his life? Has he thought through on how and where he can best serve the Lord while maintaining his livelihood? He assures himself that he will make a profit. He knows that everything will go his way. He may even ask God's blessings on his plans! But he presumes that he can make it a year and follow through on his business plans and turn a profit. Presumption makes plans and even predictions without thought of God and his will in mind.

 

Are you a presumptuous person? Have you been laying plans for your life and booking your agenda, telling yourself that you'll fit God in somewhere, but not now? The living Lord will not be party to our plans. Instead he puts us on his calendar and fits us into his agenda, for he alone is sovereign over life. Do you recognize this?

 

II. The real facts of life

 

What moves us to presume upon the Lord with life's plans? Motyer points out, "We overlook frailty (mist), and ignore the fact that even the small print of life is in the hands of a sovereign God (if the Lord wills)" [160]. We can become so absorbed with the pleasures and goals of life that we seem to overlook the weakness and brevity of our lives, while at the same time neglecting to trust our lives daily to the sovereign Lord.

 

1. The future is uncertain

 

After making such bold plans and predictions, James brings the businessman back to reality: "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." How many of us know with certainty what will happen next week on the world's agendas? How about what will happen even tomorrow in our own lives? We do not live in the future. We live with expectancy and anticipation of what each day may bring forth, especially as believers. But we do not hold the future in our grasp. We have modern sophistication, plenty of technology, and skills beyond imagination, but the future does not belong to us.

 

In Constantinople of old, when an eastern monarch was crowned as emperor, the royal mason would bring before him slabs of marble on his coronation day. The emperor himself would select from the marble slabs his own tombstone. "The ancients thought it wise for him to remember his funeral at the time of his elevation, for his life would not last forever" [K. Hughes, 205]. What if we had such a practice at high school or college graduation? It might bring a sense of reality to life that the future is uncertain for it belongs to the Lord alone to unfold it.

 

Yet with this uncertainty there is a sense of certainty in the way we handle life. We have important decisions to make in regard to our relationship to Christ; and we neglect to consider them. We have commitments involving our spiritual discipline or the body of Christ that demand our attention; but we lay them aside for the convenient and pleasurable. We have areas of service that we know we must give ourselves to; but we postpone these until a more opportune time. We tell ourselves that one day we will take action upon the truths of Scripture that keep pressing our hearts; but we delay with a certainty that the future belongs to our discretion.

 

But here is the fact: "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow." On December 6, 1941, all was well for Americans. The next day, with the strike at Pearl Harbor, everything changed. The future was no longer as it had been imagined.

 

This day a preacher will preach his last sermon, but he does not know it. Church members, youth and adult, will attend their last worship service, but they do not know it. Tomorrow will be the last day some businessmen will set foot in their workplace. Some child has enjoyed his last Saturday morning playtime with the neighborhood kids. A disaster, a tragedy, a natural phenomenon will happen today, tomorrow, the next week that will change the lives and futures of hundreds of people.

 

We live as though none of these things will ever happen to us. Yet there was no exception clause in James' statement: "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow." You may be playing loosely with your spiritual life; gambling that you will have plenty of time to hear the gospel and respond to it. But your future, as mine, is uncertain.

 

2. Brevity is certain

 

The ticking of seconds on the watch or the flipping of pages on the calendar tells us virtually nothing of the brevity of life. The second hand keeps sweeping and new calendars are always being produced to replace the old. But James offers a simple image to help us grasp life's brevity. "You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." The picture is clear. You place a pot of water in a teakettle and then wait for the distinct whistling sound to let you know it is ready. Vapor ascends through the opening. But just as quickly as it appears it vanishes away. I remember canoeing as a teenager in some of the magnificent lakes of Canada. Early in the morning a fog would hang over the cool waters of the lakes. But as soon as the warmth of the sun struck, the fog would vanish forever.

 

The steam of the kettle, the fog over a lake: that is your life in light of eternity. By comparison, you may be much older than the person that is seated next to you. But you are still a vapor that is here for a moment then vanishes away. Job grappled with the brevity of his life. "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." (7:6). With words that may have been James' basis, Job declares, "Remember that my life is but breath" (7:7). Again he speaks forth, "The eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer; your eyes will be on me, but I will not be. When a cloud vanishes, it is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. He will not return again to his house, nor will his place know him anymore" (7:8-10). "One after another," writes Kent Hughes, "for thousands of years men and women have been living short lives, and the total of them is not a second compared to the endless duration of eternity" [205].

 

Just a couple of weeks back, James Montgomery Boice, the long-time pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and one of the most prolific authors among evangelicals, passed from this life. Only a few weeks before his doctor walked up to him prior to his entering the pulpit and gave him the news that he had a terminal illness and unless God intervened, he had only a brief time to live. Dr. Boice preached his last sermon that day and now gazes upon the glory of his Lord.

 

The brevity of life is not a respecter of persons. It matters not your status or wealth or position or even religious standing; the brevity of life is certain. Last year at this time the eyes of the world were glued to the television reports of John Kennedy Jr.'s missing airplane. Few young men in our day have been as admired as was he; but he came face to face with the brevity of life. I played basketball in high school with Terry Seal, a young man who had professed Christ as his Lord. Terry attended college on a golf scholarship, and then was immediately hired in a neighboring city upon graduation. Before a year had lapsed from his graduation, Terry died in a car accident.

 

Some of you have brushed death with accident or illness. You know more of life's brevity than do many among us. Others of you think that death is for everyone else; that you are somehow excluded from its grip. But be certain that each of us has an appointment with death (Heb. 9:27). Let us face the reality, that some of us may encounter debilitating illnesses or crippling tragedies or life-shocking circumstances. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. Your life is like a vapor that is here for the moment and then vanishes away.

 

So what are you doing with the gospel truths you have heard? What are you doing with the light God has given you through his Word? What are you doing with the will of God? Are you procrastinating in following Christ in baptism as a believer? Are you telling yourself that you are going to get serious one day about living for Christ, but for now, you have other things to do? Are you busy making excuses for your disobedience or bitterness or laziness or indiscipline? "Life is short. Play hard" is not the commercial you need. "Life is short. Live in God's will" is more like it.

 

III. A new course

 

With this sobering look at life's brevity, we are given instructions on how to live, how to make the most of the time God has entrusted to us. We are to live in the will of God, finding our pleasure and delight to be right in the middle of his purposes and providence in our lives.

 

Two dangers lurk on either side of God's will. First, there is the danger that we will plan our lives recklessly without reference to God. We will decide that whatever we choose to do, whatever we desire for life, that is what we will pursue. We need to see that the writer of Ecclesiastes has already saved us a world of trouble by declaring that such a life is "Vanity."

 

The second danger is that of living carelessly in hope that things will "pan out" in the end. It is the "whatever will be will be" mentality; the vapid mind that presumes that just because I happen to be a Christian or even a decent person, then God is obligated to work everything out to my liking in the end. Both courses display presumption that needs immediate change [cf. John Blanchard, Truth for Life, 316-317].

 

1. Bow to divine sovereignty

 

We can sing about God as sovereign, but do we believe it in reality? As sovereign he rules the world and directs even the slightest detail toward his ultimate purpose of eternal glory. In what happened to be the sermon published the week of his death, Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached upon this text, declaring that as God governs all things "the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as much as the stars in their courses. All things are under regulation, and have an appointed place in God's plan; and nothing happens, after all, but what he permits or ordains" [MTP, sermon 2242, Feb. 7, 1892]. Since that is true, then we must bow to divine sovereignty in all that we do. James put it so simply, "Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that"."

 

What James is calling for is a change in attitude; a change that recognizes that while I might make plans, it is the Lord alone who brings them about. Whether we tag onto our notes or conversation, "D.V." or "God willing," the important matter is the attitude of our own hearts. Do we live with a conscious submission to the Lord's rule over our lives? Yes, we are to make plans, but we are to do so with a consciousness of seeking the divine will, walking in obedience to divine revelation, and living in thankfulness for the divine working in our midst. Though the use of "God willing" might be helpful for us on occasion, Kent Hughes is right in stating, "The right mind-set-dependence on God--is more important than saying the right words" [206]. There is nothing wrong with making plans or projections about the details of life. That is not excluded here! Perhaps John Calvin's comment will prove helpful: "We read everywhere in the Scriptures that the holy servants of God spoke unconditionally of future things, when yet they had it as a fixed principle in their minds that they could do nothing without the permission of God" [quoted by Alec Motyer, 161]. Do you live with that "fixed principle" in your mind?

 

When Napoleon Bonaparte mentioned to a friend his plans to invade Russia, the man tried to dissuade him by warning, "Man proposes, but God disposes." Napoleon replied, "I dispose as well as propose." The arrogant move of Napoleon was ultimately the turning point of his own downfall. He learned that while man may propose his plans, only God could bring them to fruition. So man must bow the stubbornness of his heart to the wisdom and might of the divine will.

 

Are you pursuing a course with your life in which you have failed to bow to submission to divine sovereignty? Will you confess this as sinful pride and acknowledge that the Lord God alone is sovereign over the details of your life?

 

2. Restrain your boasts

 

To do otherwise is evil! "But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil." There was a very real problem among James' audience. Note that he shows the contrast, "But as it is" or "But actually, in point of fact" you are arrogantly boasting about your plans and intentions. To "boast" means to glory in something; in this case these people were glorying in their own ambitions. The word for "arrogance" implies an empty boasting that seeks to impress others. The people in question are making extravagant claims that they cannot possibly fulfill. All of it is due to pride: a ploy to gain the approval and attention of others. They were living with a greater consciousness of impressing others than bowing their hearts to the divine will.

 

John uses the same term when he warns of a worldly spirit that should never characterize the child of God. He calls all that the world apart from God can offer "the boastful pride of life" (I John 2:17). It is arrogant defiance of the living God!

 

So what is the believer to do? Go back to the tongue; even more so, go back to the attitude of the heart. As the believer lives with a consciousness of bowing in submission to the sovereign will of God, he is to restrain his tongue from vain boasts of arrogance. A heart bent in the right direction will surely silence the arrogant tongue.

 

3. Obey God's will

 

The final verse of this text seems to be almost an add-on. He draws a conclusive application with "therefore," thus clinching the context together. Since you know what you ought to do, now then do it! "Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." You know that the human condition tends toward presumption, leaving God out of life's equations. You know that the future belongs to the Lord, not yourself, and that life is brief at best. You know that you are not to boast arrogantly of your plans and intentions, but you are to live with the attitude of the divine will foremost in your thoughts. Since you know this, to fail to take action is sin. It is not just what we do that leads to sin but what we fail to do in light of the revelation of God that leads to sin.

 

What is the right thing to do? First, and clearest, we are to do what we see set forth in the commands of God in Scripture. There can be no quibbling over what God has spoken in his eternal Word. Let us heed the commands of Scripture. This is God's will for you.

 

Second, and somewhat more difficult in grasping, are those areas of direction, prompting, and leadership we have sensed by the work of the Holy Spirit. It may involve a calling in life, an area of service, a ministry to an individual, a financial gift to make, a new ministry to begin, an existing ministry to join or dozens of other things. But it is something that the Holy Spirit, in his own clear way, has pressed upon your heart. It is something you know that God is requiring of you. Are you doing it?

 

Conclusion

 

"If God wills" is more than a spiritual sounding slogan. It is an attitude of heart that is to dominate our lives as Christians. But if you are not a believer, what is God's will for you? It is that you believe in his Son whom he sent to be your Redeemer and Lord: "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40).

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