What Does James 4:15 Mean in the King James?

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

James 4:15 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The verse places living before doing because every plan rests on life you do not command.

THE MEANING

Your life and your plans share one condition: if the Lord wills, you live, and then you do. Even the next ordinary step rests on a life you cannot guarantee.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that planning can secure tomorrow when both life and action remain beyond your control.

THE ROOT

ζήσομεν

zēsomen

GROWS FROM

ζάω

to live, to be alive

The verb translated “live” belongs to the same word family as ⁨ζωή⁩ (zōē, life) and ⁨ζῷον⁩ (zōon, living being). James places life before every planned deed: existence comes first, and doing follows.

ALSO GROWS

zōē: life, living

ζωή

The related noun keeps the idea of being alive close to the verb James uses for living.

zōon: living being, creature

ζῷον

This word names one who is alive, showing the same word family reaching from living to the living being.

THE PATTERN

Plans remain contingent because life and action both depend on what the Lord wills.

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

Proverbs 27:1 · KJVThe next day exceeds what anyone can claim to control.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

Luke 12:20 · KJVThe verse confronts the belief that possessions and plans secure the life that holds them.

But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

Acts 18:21 · KJVA concrete travel plan is held open to God’s will.

THE THREAD

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Acts 17:28 · KJV

James uses the same Greek word family for “live” that appears here. Acts opens the thought further: life, movement, and being all rest in God.

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