Choosing God's Plan

This morning I was reading through James 4, which is a great chapter talking about turning our hearts and minds fully toward the Lord, submitting ourselves to Him, and rejecting the things of the world that draw us. It was the last verse of the chapter that grabbed my attention though - James 4:17 NIV:
[17] "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."

This is such a simple statement, and such a challenging one. As always, its easy to take this statement out of context, and in this instance the sentence does stand on its own, even if you do. However, there is a richness of understanding that is gained if we keep it in context. The preceding sentences are speaking about following God's plan for ones life, or the opposite of that - trying to take control of ones own life, and speaking as if we have control over our own lives. James is really speaking about selfishness and self focus, and self promotion in contrast to following that which is right in the Lord. This is not a moral principle, where we must always do 'good' or we suffer an immediate judgement, but rather speaking about our perspective as Christians who are endeavoring to follow the Lord.

Its probably helpful to look at the original Greek here as it also is much richer than the plain vanilla English translated here. The word that was translated 'good' is the Greek word Kalos. The definition is:

1. beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable
a. beautiful to look at, shapely, magnificent
b. good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends 1. genuine, approved 2. precious 3. joined to names of men designated by their office, competent, able, such as one ought to be 4. praiseworthy, noble
c. beautiful by reason of purity of heart and life, and hence praiseworthy 1. morally good, noble
d. honourable, conferring honour
e. affecting the mind agreeably, comforting and confirming

So , the call of James is to pursue the higher, excellent, beautiful plan that God has for us. If we know what that is, but choose to follow our own ideas, or selfish desires, then that is sin. The word used for sin, really means missing the mark, missing the path, not fulfilling God's plan - which is exactly appropriate here.

Ultimately, I think James is addressing our base perspective in life as Christians. Are we Christians in name only, who do not really follow Christ, but rather live and do exactly as we want and we decide, or do we pursue the higher purposes, the greater good, that which the Lord has planned for us, and called us to do? This is about our heart's focus - either its on us or Him.

Finally, we should be encouraged that God has a higher call, a greater purpose for us. We should be encouraged to pursue this in our life, for He desires us to step into that place, and will show us and guide us. However, in pursuing this, we must also be ready to lay aside our own selfish focus, and recognize that we are called to something better than just our own plan. As I wrote yesterday, God is able to guide us and keep us from stumbling and losing our way, and is able to deliver us to The Father without fault and with great joy (Jude 1:24).

Amen, let us choose His plan over our plan.