James speaks of many things in this chapter. What does he mean? In total he gives us the best advice we need. Learn and act on something. Focus on it. “Go to now.” He gives the summation of our lives apart from the Lord. He tells it just like it is. He doesn’t pull the end out of nowhere. Verse 17 begins with “therefore” or because of what I just told you. Remember what I said.
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: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Nothing in this passage out and out says something about last chances, but every bit of its advice refers to the subject. Consider how we view the Lord. The greatest mistake we make is presumption. We have had and always will have a chance. God is fair. We all have an equal chance. It’s a full chance. We had plenty of them to be saved. Turning away is not God’s fault. We have the chance to escape sin. We have to chance to escape the danger. We have the chance for a better life, an eternal life.
All day long we have chances, but we don’t take them. Verse 7 says “to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” We have to know what to do with what we’ve been given. Plenty of people in the Bible took their last chance and went to hell. The thing is we don’t know when the last chance will come. Will it be tomorrow? James speaks of “to day” and “to morrow.” He said we don’t know “what shall be on the morrow.” Our mistake is to think there will always be one. Many will have “to morrow,” but the last chance is “to day.” We can’t choose the time to be saved. One can’t come at any time; one can’t pick a convenient time and then pick up Jesus like he’d pick up a gallon of milk. The Holy Spirit must deal. The last one will come. Years from now? Or now? We don’t know. This might not be your last day, but it could be your last chance. You won’t grease yourself into heaven giving yourself the best of both worlds. You don’t have as many chances as you think.
Verse 13 begins with “go to now.” What is your focus on? What is your view of life? We consider we’ll have “to day” and “to morrow” from our own selfish perspective. We’ll look at the future like we look at the past. We made strides and assume we’ll have as many years as we’ve had. Even at 80 some think they have years and years to go. James said we’re not promised “to morrow.” We may be in eternity. If we want a right “to morrow” we have to focus on Jesus “to day.” We tend to spend most of our life on life but not on our spiritual life. Look at verse 1. Don’t assume. Spending time and energy on what we want to be, to have, and to save is ok; we have to work, but we can’t get so caught up in it to think that riches are all there is.
James said the total sum is that we can set aside the Lord for our little goodies—our positions, our roles. When we die, we’ll be replaced, and we can’t go back to the house after we die. We go into eternity. Our attitude toward our secular life should be “if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”Without the Lord life is just “this or that.” We can go as high as we can, but we’ll be dust and ashes when we’re under the ground. We can have a pretty tombstone but nothing is there. Many years will only be a vapor, one vapor. Since Adam people have died. We go out looking good, but we all end up on a slab under a sheet. How foolish we are to look at God like he’d better give us another chance. Look around at your life. It amounts to this and that. What is who we are? What are clothes? What are material things? Without God they are nothing. Only “this and that”. We’ll leave it all. If we’ve sinned away our last chance, we’ll go to hell. To day is all we have. To morrow is not ours yet. Remember that James pens these words in their understandable form. Instead of one combined word (today,tomorrow), each is actually two. “To(this) day”; “to(the)morrow”. “The” morrow doesn’t yet exist, and it might not. This day is just this- all the actual time any of us can be sure in having. Next Christmas, next year, retirement is all in God’s morrow. They belong to God.
Are you saved? Are you ready to go? James’ advice is do not throw it away. Should you shoot for to morrow? No. “Go to now.” James says all is now. If you’re not saved, what will you do with this chance? Gamble on it? It’s your choice. Consider what life really is and what we really need. To willfully throw it away is sin. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good (with this day’s chance), and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
And this is the sin that damns the soul for eternity.
Come while you have a to day.
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 