ARROGANCE AND HUMILITY (6 OF 8)
by Craig Smith
Scripture: James 4:13-17
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Arrogance and Humility (6 of 8)
Series: Real Religion
Craig Smith
James 4:13-17
I. Introduction
What James has been talking about up to this point is two different ways of approaching life: God's way and the world's way. But he doesn't just call it the world's way...he keeps connecting the world's way with demons and with evil, and that might seem a little bit extreme, but there's a very particular reason why James says does that. It's not just shock language, and in the passage that we're looking at today, I think we begin to see why James consistently makes this connection.
II. Main Body
A. Arrogance
The passage we're looking at today is actually pretty short and it's not complex. What James is going to say here is actually very easy to understand. It's applying it that's hard:
13 Now listen, you who say, ''Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.'' 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, ''If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'' 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.
So, obviously, what James is talking about here is arrogance, right? He talks about boasting in arrogant schemes. But what's interesting is that the one example of an arrogant scheme that he gives us really doesn't sound all that arrogant, does it? ''Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.''
That doesn't sound all that arrogant, does it? I mean, if the plan was, ''I'm going to move to New York, work on Wall Street for a year and then become the CEO of J.P. Morgan''...now that would be arrogant. Honestly, the plan that James gives us here sounds pretty tame. And yet, he ...
Series: Real Religion
Craig Smith
James 4:13-17
I. Introduction
What James has been talking about up to this point is two different ways of approaching life: God's way and the world's way. But he doesn't just call it the world's way...he keeps connecting the world's way with demons and with evil, and that might seem a little bit extreme, but there's a very particular reason why James says does that. It's not just shock language, and in the passage that we're looking at today, I think we begin to see why James consistently makes this connection.
II. Main Body
A. Arrogance
The passage we're looking at today is actually pretty short and it's not complex. What James is going to say here is actually very easy to understand. It's applying it that's hard:
13 Now listen, you who say, ''Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.'' 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, ''If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'' 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.
So, obviously, what James is talking about here is arrogance, right? He talks about boasting in arrogant schemes. But what's interesting is that the one example of an arrogant scheme that he gives us really doesn't sound all that arrogant, does it? ''Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.''
That doesn't sound all that arrogant, does it? I mean, if the plan was, ''I'm going to move to New York, work on Wall Street for a year and then become the CEO of J.P. Morgan''...now that would be arrogant. Honestly, the plan that James gives us here sounds pretty tame. And yet, he ...
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