Friday 23rd
James 1:19-21
NIV (v19-20) – ‘My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.’
ESV (v19-20) – ‘Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.’
I wonder if I were to ask the question ‘what do you think about first when you consider the book of James’, what would you answer?
My answer would be two things, the first is his reference to the tongue and secondly the emphasis he places upon works alongside faith. It is here in our verses today that he begins to talk about the way that we speak, and he continues this more comprehensively in chapter 3.
For our devotion today, ‘be quick to hear or listen, slow to speak and slow to be angry’ and the reason being that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. James is very quickly letting the readers of his letter know that anger is not a good or positive quality in the life of a believer, anger is described as, ‘a strong feeling of displeasure or hostility’, it can be expressed through our actions or it can be so easily manifested in the way that we speak. For those who the letter was being written to, they may be having a lot of pressure placed upon them concerning their faith, opposition or persecution and anger could so easily be being manifested toward it.
James helps us to understand that one of the ways to prevent anger from arising within us is to be slow to speak and quick to listen. Someone has said that God has given us two ears and only one mouth, listen more and speak less!
We are all faced with things that can cause anger to arise, it may be when we see injustice, it may be when someone holds or expresses a view that is different to our own and they express it so fiercely that we feel we have to react and if not careful, anger can arise, it may even be when we see the way someone behaves and acts wrongly in a situation and we want to react against it and it can lead to anger, it could even be when someone speaks to us in a manner that we don’t like and we can easily react in an angry manner. We are all suspectable to anger, we all have feelings of frustration that could give rise to anger, but we need as God’s children to learn as we see in Galatians 5:22-23 to put into effect the fruit of the Spirit, especially that of self-control.
In Proverbs we read, ‘Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.’ In Matthew 5 we see the words of Jesus while speaking to the crowd, in what we call the sermon on the mount and in verse 22 he makes a challenging statement, ‘But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.’ Wow, that is a statement and a half! what a challenge to those who belong to the family of God, ‘anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement’, this behoves us to look into our hearts and see if there are any areas where anger has been shown that needs putting right and we should in particular make sure it is put right before we come to the place of communion for we are told, ‘Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.’ 1 Corinthians 11:27-34.
May God help us to keep from anger, may we be slow to speak and quick to listen.