Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary James 4:16

"But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil." — James 4:16 (ASV)

Some of James’s readers, however, rather than subjecting their plans to God’s will, were making it their practice to “boast and brag.” To make plans without considering God’s plan is the same thing as arrogantly claiming to be in full command of the future. The word translated “brag” (GK 224) refers to proud confidence in one’s own knowledge or cleverness (i.e., arrogance). The businessmen addressed by James were proud of their arrogant assumption that they could foresee and control the future. “Such boasting,” says James, “is evil.” It not only lacks the quality of being good, it is aggressively and viciously wicked.