What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14
Ancient scholars Jerome and Tertullian referenced stories of how in ancient Rome, after a general triumphed in an epic victory, he would be paraded atop a gleaming chariot down the capital’s central thoroughfares from dawn to sunset. The crowd would roar. The general would bask in the adoration, reveling in the greatest honor of his life. However, legend has it that a servant stood behind the general the entire day, whispering into his ear, Memento mori (“Remember you will die”). Amid all the adulation, the general desperately needed the humility that came with remembering that he was mortal.
James wrote to a community infected with prideful desires and an inflated sense of self-sufficiency. Confronting their arrogance, he spoke a piercing word: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). What they needed was to “humble [themselves] before the Lord” (v. 10). And how would they embrace this humility? Like Roman generals, they needed to remember that they would die. “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow,” James insisted. “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (v. 14). And owning their frailty freed them to live under the solidity of the “Lord’s will” rather than their own fading efforts (v. 15).
When we forget that our days are numbered, it can lead to pride. But when we’re humbled by our mortality, we see every breath and every moment as grace. Memento mori.
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil,r and he will flee from you.
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.s Wash your hands,t you sinners,
and purify your hearts,u you double-minded.v
9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.w
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.x
11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.y Anyone who speaks against a brother or sisterd
or judges themz speaks against the lawa and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it,b
but sitting in judgment on it.
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge,c the one who is able to save and destroy.d
But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?e
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen,f you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city,
spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”g
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.h
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,i we will live and do this or that.”
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.j
17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.k
INSIGHT
- What does this story of the Roman generals and the phrase Memento mori say to you?
- Why do you need to remember your mortality?
Several men in the New Testament are named James, including the son of Zebedee/brother of John (Matthew 4:21; Acts 12:2) and the son of Alphaeus (Matthew 10:3). The James who authored the book of James was the half-brother of Jesus (13:55). While early in Jesus’ ministry James didn’t believe in Him, after he saw the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:7), he moved from unbelief to belief. In Acts 1:14, James appears to be present in the upper room after Jesus’ ascension and became a leader in the Jerusalem church (12:17; 15:13).
PRAYER
God, I like to think that my life is in my control. I sometimes act as though I’ll live forever. Humble me. Help me find life only in You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: James 4:7-17 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: Leviticus 6–7; Matthew 25:1–30
