Prepare
Opening Prayer
God, thank you for this day and for your Word. Help us understand it, and by your Spirit give us wisdom from above that changes how we think, live, speak, and act. In Jesus' name, amen.
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Scripture Passage
Do Not Boast About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), James 4:15-17.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Human life is brief and tomorrow is not guaranteed, so arrogant plans must yield to the Lord's will. The passage presses beyond merely adding a phrase to our plans: knowing the good we ought to do, we must not sin by postponing it for an imagined tomorrow.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
James 4:17
Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is a sin.
The co-host anticipates that Bryan chose verse 17, and Bryan confirms that verse 17 is underlined in his Bible while also noting part of verse 15. Verse 17 is therefore Bryan's explicit primary selection and captures the devotion's warning against postponing known good.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do
Do the good God has put before you today rather than presuming on tomorrow. Pursue holiness now, love God and neighbor now, and seek to act with the ready, self-giving heart of Christ.
Additional Notes
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Oh, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. You want some coffee? All right. Well, we're going to talk about tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow you'll like coffee. Well, we're going to talk about from James chapter four, the very last few verses. How do we think about tomorrow? Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word. Oh boy, my glasses got all fogged up there.
God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your word. Lord, we pray that as we read your word, you would help us to understand it. Lord, we pray that your spirit would give us wisdom from above. a type of wisdom that is brought by your spirit to bear on our hearts and on our lives, that we would think and live, speak and do differently. We need you to teach us, Lord, in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, James chapter 4, 13 through 17. Deborah, you want to read?
And whenever you're done, I'll pick up after you. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we'll go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is your life. It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is a sin.
All right, well, we got our preschool thing to do, right? We need to ask ourselves our A, B, and C. A, what are we called to do? B, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize? And C, what are we called to do? All right, so what is this about, Debra?
This is about tomorrow. Yeah, so tomorrow. So tomorrow, I'm going to be a good kid. Tomorrow, I'm going to be a productive pastor. Tomorrow I'm gonna go and do such and such a thing If the Lord wills, ah, that's right if the Lord wills why why would you say if the Lord wills? Because you can't you can't know what's going what's gonna happen Yeah, we don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow Do I know what's gonna happen five minutes from now?
Especially not with you kids. You keep me on my toes. I Think you've got that backwards I keep you guys on your toes. Yeah, if the Lord wills, I don't know what crazy cockamamie idea dad's going to have today. I'm sure that keeps your mom on her toes too, huh?
Yeah. So don't boast about your, right. Don't, don't boast about tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow I'll be able to do that. Right? No, no, no, no, no. Such boasting is evil, but I think specifically here, notice, notice what he says in verse 17. I think he's actually getting at a point. Look at verse 17. What is that getting at? If you know what's right and you don't do it. Don't do it when? Immediately. Yeah, because you might think, well, tomorrow I'll go and do such and such a blessing. Tomorrow I'll start helping the poor. Tomorrow I'll start caring for the orphan. Tomorrow I'll start seeking after God. Two years later. If there is two years later, your life is but like a vapor. Two eternities later.
Well, did you notice what it said? For what is your life, verse 14? Is it even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away? You can't guarantee tomorrow, so why sin? By holding off the good you're supposed to do. Do you know that? Do you know the difference between sins of commission and sins of omission? No. Okay. So sins of commission are things that you have done that are sinful, right? So there was a bad thing and you did it. So what do you think the opposite would be for a sin of omission? To do good. So there is a good thing you should have done and you didn't. You did not do it. So that's a sin of omission.
If there's good things to do today, do it today. So I think that's what the calling here is, right? That we're humble and we're seeking to bring God glory with the good opportunities He's given us today. So what would you underline in your Bible as the best verse? Before I do that, I'm going to guess you have 17. I do have verse 17 underlined. I also have part of 15, but that's just me. So what would you underline?
14. 14. Okay. Okay. All right. So why would you underline 14 to summarize this passage? Because it tells you not to look for tomorrow. All right. Yeah. Don't take tomorrow for granted. Okay. So, all right. Now let's, let's get personal.
What in the world has this got to do with your life? See, calling, what are you called to do? Or how does this, how does this lead you to Jesus Christ? To do good with a ready heart. Okay. To do good with a ready heart. Uh, so would that, how does that speak to you of Christ? Do as He would do. All right. Did you know when I was growing up, people used to wear these wristbands that said WWJD? What would Jesus do? Now, there's some people that criticize that like, oh, well, you're not Jesus. And well, that's true. That's true.
But I'm supposed to be like Jesus. So I don't see a huge right now. Obviously, Jesus would do things that I shouldn't do because I'm not the incarnate son of God. I'm not the second person. But at the same time, we are supposed to be Christ-like, and I think that's what it was getting at. So yeah. Am I loving others today? Am I loving others like Christ today? Well, let's go ahead and pray.
God, we thank you so much for this day. May I pray, God, that you would please teach us to not be so pompous, to assume that tomorrow is going to be here. Lord, I pray that you would please help us to do good. to love you. Give us wisdom, Lord, because there's often times where people in our culture today will try to take advantage of us. Father, we pray that we would be wise about that. But Lord, that we would not put off holiness, we would not put off love and good deeds waiting for someday tomorrow. But Lord, we pray that we would love you today.
And we would love others today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Your life is but a vapor here on earth, but you will live with God forever on the new heavens and new earth. So may you look to that. May you seize the seize the day today, God's glory, and to love others well. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.