*From verses 13 on, James addresses boasting about the future. He says that saying you are going to do certain things in the future without the caveat "if it is the lord's will" is boasting or bragging. On the surface it may sound kind of silly to have to repeat that phrase every single time you mention something you plan to do on a day that is not today. "Tomorrow we will do the laundry, if it is the lord's will." "Tomorrow I will clean toilets, if it is the lord's will." However, if James is addressing a known problem with this letter, I don't think it is everyday plans he is concerned about.
*In verse 13 he mentions people saying "we will go to this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." This is the kind of talk James finds offensive. Why? Because this is something a talented or well educated and wealthy, or a person who wants to be wealthy, might say. James has already told us the poor are special because of their richness of faith and the well off need to humbly recognize that. Openly speaking of personal plans to do things a poor person may never hope to do is boasting and bragging, which James thinks is evil. It certainly isn't considerate. Saying "if we live and it is the lord's will" softens the blow to the poor persons psyche. Of course, everything is god's will to the true believer, even the states of poverty and wealth. The richness of the poor person's faith may exceed that of the wealthy, but James thinks everyone needs to be reminded of god's will.
*The last verse says "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." This one passage has given centuries of christians reason to be afraid. There are millions of good things that could be done every day, but most people pick and choose. It is impossible to do all the good things that ought to be done. People have personal priorities and they know it. The conclusion: sins of omission are inescapable. So, christianity came up with the idea to pray for forgiveness for their sins of omission, then they are covered. Except some of them still feel guilty and torture themselves over it. But was James actually talking bout every single good thing that hasn't been done? Or was he talking about the preceding topic of saying "if it is the lord's will?" He also could be referring to what follows in chapter five, which addresses the way the rich treat the poor. There were no chapter and verse breaks in the manuscripts from which we get the book of James. Those are a much later addition.
*Just to be clear, for an atheist, there is no "will" that is deciding the life paths of individuals. People make decisions based on the cards life has dealt them. Sometimes life gives you a bad hand. Some people are much luckier than others. Poverty is not a virtue, neither is wealth. Different from a card game, the winner is not the one who had the best hand at the end of the game. That only passes his cards on to his heirs. The end of the game is the same for everyone, death. The wealthy have a human obligation to consider how to help those who have not been as lucky they have. It is right because it is a good thing to relieve human suffering, not because a god or the bible says so.
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