What is the purpose of the question, “What is your life?” in James 4:14?

Answer

James 4:14 states, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” When James asks, “What is your life?” he is posing a rhetorical question. He desires his readers to contemplate the brevity of their lives in comparison to God’s eternality. Essentially, James urges them to recall that their lives are brief. Time is fleeting.

By posing the question “What is your life?” James also challenges the significance and importance of our temporary plans. Within the verse’s context, James admonishes conceited individuals who brag about their future plans. He prompts them not to place excessive confidence in their own abilities to care for themselves, but rather to seek the Lord’s will and uncover His plans for their lives «For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. », (James 4:15).

As finite, sinful beings, we are incapable of determining our futures and knowing with certainty what will befall us. In contrast, God is eternal and all-knowing, with a magnificent plan for His people «For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. », (Jeremiah 29:11). He can and does predetermine the future and knows with certainty what will occur «For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. », (1 John 3:20). This is why James encourages us to trust God and align our wills with His. In James 4:15, he advises that instead of asserting definitively what we will do, we should say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

JaMes’s picture of the brevity of life is that it is like a breath, mist, or vapor. There are many other verses throughout the Bible that also reveal the fleeting and temporary nature of our lives. For example, in the Old Testament, Job refers to his life as “but a breath” «O remember that my life is wind: Mine eye shall no more see good.», (Job 7:7), and Psalm 102:3 says, “For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers.”

The average lifespan of a human being in the twenty-first century is about 73 years. While that may seem like a long time and feel like a full and complete life, it is “but a breath” in the larger picture of God’s eternal plan for our lives. Second Peter 3:8 says, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”

Because God is eternal and all-knowing, we should trust Him with all of our lives and future plans, just as James encourages us in James 4:14–15.