James 4:13–17 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

Those are some hard words to hear and take to heart. Not only do they remind you that you won’t be here forever, but they confront you with the reality that you spend a lot of time and effort doing things that are not God’s Will for your life. And they even tell you that you sin by NOT doing things.  Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

Are you convinced of the truth of those words? You should be. You all have things you know you should do. You should spend more time with your spouse and family. You should help your widowed neighbor with things he or she has trouble doing on their own. You should befriend those less fortunate with the wealth God has entrusted to your care. You should be a better steward of everything God has given to you. We all fall short in so many ways.

If these words make you feel uneasy, then the Law has done its work. The purpose of the Law is to show us our sin and our need for a Savior. And God has just what you need. The Gospel message is that He has provided the Savior you need in sending Jesus to be one of us, take our sin on Himself, and rescue us from what our sins deserve. Read these comforting words from St. Paul.

Romans 8:35–39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have the victory over sin, including the sin of not doing the good things we know we should do, because of what Jesus did for us. That certainty gives me the motivation to try to do the good God wants me to do.