Warning Against Weariness ~ Part 2

We continue to explore what Ya’akov warns us about growing weary. Ya’akov returns to the specific worldly behavior his readers are following ~ violent speech (see also 3:1–12). He either addresses social stratification within the Messianic community or, more likely, uses brothers in its more common Jewish sense of fellow Jews. Jewish revolutionaries had already begun killing aristocrats, and inflammatory rhetoric was certainly even more common. His general principle was standard Tanakh and Jewish wisdom opposing slander, which many of his readers may not have been considering in this context. The law declared God’s love for Isra’el and commanded His people to love one another; to slander, a fellow Jew was thus to disrespect the law.^[1]

¹¹ Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge. ¹² There is but one Giver of Torah; He is also the Judge, with the power to deliver and to destroy. Who do you think you are, judging your fellow human being?

Stop speaking against each other! One who speaks against or judges a brother is arrogating to himself the position of a judge, that is, of God, who has the power to deliver and to destroy. The most important part of the Torah is, Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19;18). In saying this, the Torah does not distinguish the righteous neighbor from the wicked one. Yeshua taught that the neighbor could be a Samaritan, that is, someone who is usually the object of adverse prejudgment.

¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit”!

John MacArthur opines that: Ya’akov does not condemn wise business planning, but rather planning that leaves out God. The people so depicted are practical atheists, living their lives and making their plans as if God did not exist. Such conduct is inconsistent with genuine saving faith, which submits to God. ^[2]

¹⁴ You don’t even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If Adonai wants it to happen, we will live” to do this or that. ¹⁶ But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil.

Well, verse 14 is a real downer, but true nevertheless! However, planning is an important ingredient of today’s managerial society, but it is easy for planners to forget that they stand only as God permits – not only their plans, but they themselves. Hence, If Adonai wants it to happen, we will live to do this or that. If we don’t live, what good will the plans do? Don’t boast about tomorrow, for you don’t know what the day may bring. ~ Proverbs 27:1.

¹⁷ So then, anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is committing a sin. ~ Ya’akov 4:11-17 (CJB)

Anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is committing a sin of omission far more serious than the sin of those who are uninformed – as is clear from Luke 2:47–48, 2 Kefa 2:21. Romans 14:23 makes a related yet distinct point. In this specific situation, the sin is to announce plans as if we could control all the circumstances, failing to acknowledge that God is in charge and our plans depend on his will.

In our next post, we learn more from Ya’akov as we dig into what he says about Warning to the Rich.

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^[1] Keener, C. S. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament: InterVarsity Press.

^[2] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishers.