James 4:14

You talk like that. You say, “Tomorrow,” but you don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Will you still be alive tomorrow? You know, your life is like a puff of smoke, it doesn’t last long. You are alive today, but maybe tomorrow you will die.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

In Context

13Listen. Some of you talk like this, you say, “Tomorrow we will go to that town over there, and we will buy things for a little bit of money, and then we will sell them for a lot of money. We will keep on doing that for a year. That’s how we will get plenty of money to keep for ourselves.”

15So don’t talk up big about something you will do tomorrow, but instead you have to talk like this, “If God wants us to, we will keep on living, and we will go and do that thing.” It is wrong to forget God and talk up big about something before you do it.

Read all of James 4

Cross References

James 1:10But the Christians that are rich can be happy too, because they know that they are not important. They know that they need God, and that he will save them. You see, money can’t make people happy, and it can’t stop people from dying. People are like flowers that grow in the bush.

1 Peter 4:7You know, God will finish up everything soon. So now you have to think clearly, and be careful about everything you do, so that you can talk to God properly when you pray.

Matthew Henry on James 4:12-17

Caution against Slander; Caution against Presumption. ( a. d. 61.) 11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? 13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study James 4:14