“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17
Sin in the context of James 4 means independent action. This is what sin is — independent action. From the beginning, the real source of all sin has been man acting independently of God. In this chapter, James is talking about those who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit” (v. 13). To those James says, “Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that” (v. 15). “If the Lord wills” is not merely a religious saying. It means we live a dependent life about everything.
Then in verse 16 James says, “But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” What is this boasting, this arrogance? It is being independent in our moves, in our daily life. He continues in verse 17, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” What is the good here? The good here is dependence upon God. I am going to the store dependent upon God. I am going to fellowship with the saints dependent upon God. To live independently is to live presumptuously and sinfully. Perhaps we have never considered sin in this way. But this is the basic definition of sin — independence from God. Every sin is traced back to our independence. So the way to be delivered from our sinning is not to act independently. How can we do this? Such a life issues from spending time with the Lord to have thorough fellowship with Him. We need to nurture and cultivate our dependent relationship with the Lord.