Articles
According to God's Will
According to God’s Will
When we make plans apart from seeking God’s will, we are guilty of arrogance. Such boasting is called evil (Jas 4:13-17). That may not seem like evil to us, but it is. Why? Because that is the attitude at the foundation of all evil.
We usually think of evil in terms of various moral transgressions, but the arrogance of disregarding God is an evil because pride is the basis for dethroning God and making self the final authority. Like Adam and Eve, we think we can be our own gods to decide good and evil for ourselves (Gen 3:5).
The same arrogance that lies at the heart of evil boasting is also at the heart of all other evils, for it is the basis of a self-appointed authority that comes from dismissing God in favor of the god of self.
Once we think we can decide for ourselves what is right or wrong, we have opened a door that we cannot shut, and we will not like what comes through. If good or evil, right or wrong are simply matters we decide for ourselves, then there is no reason why others cannot do the same for themselves even if they take it to levels we never would have accepted. We will be in no position to draw lines for them any more than we would want others to draw lines for us. We cannot judge them without first judging ourselves.
James 4 hits at the foundation of where evil thinking begins, and it is the point at which arrogance dismisses the will of God for one’s life.
