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. It is foolish, and it is hurtful, to boast of worldly things and aspiring projects; it will bring great disappointment, and will prove destruction in the end. Omissions are sins which will be brought into judgment, as well as commissions. He that does not the good he knows should be done, as well as he who does the evil he knows should not be done, will be condemned. Oh that we were as careful not to omit prayer, and not to neglect to meditate and examine our consciences, as we are not to commit gross outward vices against light!

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."

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 selling, and getting gain; but that men should not resolve upon those things without consulting God, and attending to his will, and subjecting themselves to it; and without considering the uncertainty and frailty of human life; as well as should not promise and assure themselves of success, of getting gain and riches, as if those things were in their own power, and had no dependence upon the providence and blessing of God.

4:13 Come now, ye that say - As peremptorily as if your life were in your own hands.

James 4:13 Parallel Commentaries
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