Be Rightly Human
Wisdom From Above
August 29, 2021
Rev. Gabe Sylvia
James warns against human overreach and boasting about tomorrow—urging us to abandon arrogance, stop using God as an add‑on to our plans, embrace our created limits, and submit to God's will to recover the rightness of life.
Summary
Using contemporary examples of overextension (credit cards, national debt) and the biblical witness of Adam and Eve, James confronts our impulse to live beyond our created limits by boasting about tomorrow and tacking God onto our plans. He reminds us that life is like a mist—uncertain and brief—so our confident plans and anxiety about the future are misplaced. True life is recovered when we humble ourselves, diminish our self-exaltation, stop presuming knowledge of tomorrow, and submit our plans with the posture of 'if the Lord wills,' which enlarges our view of God and others and restores rightness to human living.
Key Points
- Culture pushes us to transgress limits (credit cards, overdraft, national debt) and demand options beyond our created design
- James identifies our tendency to ignore createdness and God's word, repeating Adam and Eve's error
- Overextension includes not just finances but thinking and presumption about the future
- Worrying about tomorrow presumes certainty we do not have; life is compared to a mist—brief and uncertain
- Boasting about future plans is arrogant and evil, especially when we tack God onto the end of those plans
- We should diminish self-exaltation so God and others grow larger in our view
- Recovery comes through humility and submitting plans with 'if the Lord wills,' thereby restoring the rightness of life
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