Deo Volente

Up to this point, James has focused primarily on his readers' present struggles; now, he shifts to their future plans. James opens with the arresting phrase "Come now," a device that delivers both rebuke and warning to those clinging to misguided — and thus destructive — assumptions. Here, James confronts the sin of presumptuous planning, anchoring his corrective in a deeper theological understanding of the will of God. At its core, the issue is arrogance: these individuals boast of their future endeavors without budgeting for life's fragility and uncertainty. Even from a secular standpoint, ignoring our vulnerability is unwise; the future is inherently unpredictable, and presuming certainty blinds us to reality itself.

Instead, we ought to adopt a posture of humility, qualifying plans with "If the Lord wills"; Deo Volente in latin. The will of God is not always easy to discern, but it is easy to overcomplicate. The wrong approach is to think of God’s will as an opaque, black box, as if God were reluctant to reveal it and we must agonize to find it. Rather, the essential first step is simple: accept His will and commit to it unconditionally. Nothing is scarier than completely surrendering our autonomy, but if there is a sovereign, wise, and loving God, nothing is safer.