Responding the Right Way
James 1:19&20
James wants us to discover the freedom that comes when we respond the right way to the pressures of life.
James 1:19-20 specifically answers the question,
How do you respond properly when the heat is on, the pressure is building, and you are about to lose it?
Pay close attention to his answer:
19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
At first glance these verses appear simple don’t they. Now I don’t know about you but for me putting them into practice is a daily challenge. In context, this sort of listening starts by paying attention to what God has said in his Word.
To be swift or quick to hear God’s word implies an attitude of eagerness to take in the word from every angle.
I sometimes think our modern technology has made it so easy to hear the Word that we hardly hear it at all. When I look at my iPhone, I see tons of apps, all of them brimming with information that flows in 24 hours a day.
I have news apps, email apps, message apps, bible apps, music apps, and video apps. We have enough online stimulation to keep us occupied round the clock. No wonder we are so easily distracted.
- •As a believer, you should desire to read the word,
- •to listen to biblical preaching of the word,
- •to memorize the word,
- •and to understand all of its teaching with a view to obedience.
Psalm 119 verse 131 says I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for Your commandments.”
Then he tells us to “Be slow to speak” Someone long ago pointed out that we have two ears that we cannot close and one mouth that we can, which ought to teach us something!
Ecclesiastes 5:2 says: Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.
It’s pretty hard to argue with that isn’t it.
- •James is not forbidding us from interacting with God’s word and asking pertinent questions to gain understanding.
- •Rather, he is confronting the person who is never silent before the Lord.
- •When James says "Be slow to speak," he is thinking about our tendency to speak when we are angry and frustrated.
- •I’m sure you’ve heard it said:
- •Speak when you are angry and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret. How true it is.
- •Then 3rd he tell us to
- •Be slow to anger”.
- • Anger is something every one of us deals with, and we all deal with it in different ways.
Some are screamers. Some keep a stoic face and only yell on the inside. Some get in your face. Some give you the silent treatment. But everyone gets angry.
- •So what are we to do?
- •Is it possible to be a Christian and still get angry?
- •How can we honor Jesus in our anger?
- •Paul in Ephesians chapter 4 gives us some ideas. In verse 26 he tells us that anger is not a sin. It says,
- •“In your anger, do not sin…”
- • So, by that statement alone, you can be in a state of anger and not be sinning.
- •
- •After all Jesus got angry.
- • Anybody remember the occasion? Most people think of the time he knocked over the tables of the money changers in the Temple and drove out the animals.
- •Jesus certainly could have been angry there;
- •the scripture describes him as full of “zeal.”
- •But the writers never called it anger.
- •The only time scripture records that Jesus got angry was when he was staring down the prideful Pharisees who preferred keeping their manmade rules about the Sabbath over seeing a man healed of his withered hand.
- •Mark calls it like it is in Mark 3:5: he said “Jesus was angry”!
- •So if Jesus got angry, you know it’s not a sin to be angry.
- •Because scripture says Jesus never sinned.
- •(2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15).
- •James is not saying don’t get angry. That’s unrealistic.
- •We’re all going to get angry from time to time.
- •The word translated “anger” actually refers to a deep-seated rage.
- •It doesn’t refer to a passing moment of displeasure which is soon gone and forgotten.
- •James is speaking of that deep emotion which, when released, is like a volcano erupting.
- •It spews red-hot lava all over the room.
But notice the progression.
- •If we are quick to hear, we will be slow to speak.
- •But if we are slow to hear, we will doubtless be quick to speak.
In the garden
- •Peter was slow to hear
- •swift to speak
- •and swift to anger,
- •and he almost killed a man with the sword.
- •Quick speaking leads to quick anger. The angrier we get, the faster we speak, and the less we hear.
I reminded of Solomon’s wise counsel in Proverbs 16:32, “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
I think James knew we would have an issue with this third command so he added a reason in verse 20: “For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Did you ever know a person who was angry all the time? They get up angry, they shower angry, they eat breakfast angry, they go to work angry, they come home angry, they watch TV angry, and they go to bed angry. And When they are happy, that makes them angry. Nothing pleases a person like that.
Listen anger leads to jealousy, harsh words, and it can even lead to murder.And so In order to move away from bitterness, anger, and hurtful words, we need to take Ephesians 4:32 to heart:
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
We are to extend grace to others as God has extended grace to us.
God forgave you Thats Gods grace to you through His son Jesus Christ who is living in you and so then by God’s grace we will be . . .
Swift to hear,Slow to speak, and Slow to anger.
Amen?