James 4:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He does not abolish free choice, but shows that not everything depends on man himself. Grace from above is also needed. One may run, trade, and do everything necessary for life, but one must attribute this not to one’s own labors, but only to the love of God for mankind. Jeremiah also says, “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself” (Jer 10:23). And the writer of Proverbs says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what the day will bring forth” (Prov 27:1).

Some undertake long journeys for the sake of trade and the greed connected with it, constantly looking around with covetousness and sailing upon the waves. Others make the authority they have received an instrument of acquisition against those around them. Others fill their purses by unworthy means and impiously add profit to profit. They pour punitive fire upon their own heads.

James does not abolish free will, but shows that not everything lies within its power. It also needs grace from above. One may struggle, run, trade, and do everything necessary for life, but one must attribute this not to one’s own labors, but to God’s love for mankind.

By these words, according to Saint Mitrophanes, the divine James reproves those Christians who rely in their future works and actions only on their own reason and force of will.

They despise divine Providence, His cooperation, and His help, saying: today or tomorrow we shall go to such and such a place, spend a year trading there, and make profit.

This word, according to Theophylact, does not take away man's self-mastery. No. It shows that everything that exists in man's affairs is not in his own free choice and power.

Help from above and the grace of God are necessary, so that grace may cooperate with and perfect his works.

It is fitting for man to labor, to hasten here and there, to trade, and to carry out his stewardship, so that he may have what is needed for his life.

Verses 13-16: a rebuke of self-confidence and vainglory, which forgets the complete dependence of every human work, and of human life itself, upon God.

The rebuke is directed chiefly against those engaged in trade. This testifies that commercial activity was considerably developed in the communities of the epistle's readers, but lacked moral purity.

Those occupied with it were self-confident and frivolous. It seems that merchants are taken here only as an example.

In them is characterized, more generally, the frivolity of people who forget their dependence on God's will when striving for corruptible profits, or for earthly goods in general.

Many people, through frivolity and self-conceit, take for themselves the right to judge others, which does not belong to them. Still more often, self-confident people prematurely assign themselves to various kinds of work.

Yet not only our affairs, but our very life, does not depend on us. It can be taken from us as quickly as a light vapor passes away, appearing for a moment and disappearing.

"My life is a breath," says the prophet Job (Job 7:7). In a similar way the Wise One said: "Our life will pass away like the trace of a cloud and will be scattered like mist driven by the rays of the sun" (Wis 2:4).

If life itself is so swiftly passing, is it not clear from this that everything earthly by which rich people are puffed up is vanity?

Is it not plain how grossly those people err, and how irrationally they fall into self-conceit, who know and recognize that this is evil? More generally, they know the will of God and act contrary to it.