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James 4:17
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
By warning us about presuming too much about the future and encouraging us to make our plans in light of God’s sovereign providence, James has conveyed an essential point: We must remember who we are as limited creatures and take the Lord into account in all things (James 4:13–16). Given our propensity to live like practical atheists, James’ point is well taken. It is easy to attend church on Sunday and then forget God during the rest of the week. Whether our current vocation is as a homemaker, business owner, student, or employee, how often do we forget that we are to remember our Creator in our vocational life? After all, we are called to do all things to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). This makes it a sin to forget Him when we are outside the church walls and a transgression to make plans without reference to Him.
Now that James has warned us not to forget the Lord, we have no excuse if we continue to do so. That is the main point of today’s verse, where the Apostle says that “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17). We should know that we must take the Lord into account in all things, but since James makes the principle clear, we cannot plead ignorance if we do not follow through, though even ignorance would not excuse us. If we fail to consider the Lord when we make our plans even though we have been told to do so, we have disobeyed, committing what is called a sin of omission.
We readily recognize sins of commission, sins whereby we do something that God expressly forbids. An example of this in light of James 4:13–16 would be making plans to commit a known sin, such as defrauding people to make a living. We often fail to see our sins of omission whereby we fail to live up to the Lord’s standards, such as when we fail to make plans while conscious of divine providence. Moreover, we often see sins of omission as less significant than sins of commission. Scripture does not allow us to draw this conclusion. If we fail to do what we know that we are supposed to do, we sin.
As noted above, ignorance of the good that we are to do does not excuse our failure to do it. As we see in texts such as Luke 12:35–48, however, it is worse to know the good and fail to act. Augustine of Hippo writes: “Does the one who does not know how to do good and does not do it commit a sin? He certainly does, but the one who knows what is good and does not do it sins more grievously.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
God’s commandments are comprehensive, each one telling us what we must do and what we must not do. One tool that helps us understand this is the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which explores what each of the Ten Commandments calls us to do and not to do. Using such resources can help us better understand the law so that we may sin less and less.
For further study
- Leviticus 5:1
- Matthew 21:28–32
The bible in a year
- Deuteronomy 23–25
- Mark 15:1–20
- Deuteronomy 26–31
- Mark 15:21–16:20