To Encourage You

James 1:19-20 “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.”

How often have you heard the verse above quoted when someone is trying to get the point across that it is better to be seen than to be heard? Often, I’ve heard this passage quoted as support for how we should work at holding our tongue in a conversation with someone else who may say something to offend us or that we don’t agree with. And while this is good advice for anyone, it is not what this passage is referring to.

It is so easy to take a verse of Scripture out of context, and in doing so, miss the point of the verse entirely. So, what do these verses mean? How can we know what God meant when He gave them to us?

Well, the first thing we should do is see what the verses say that precede and follow what has been said. In the present instance, the words immediately preceding verse 19 are these: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” Then the passage that comes after verse 20 says this: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” We can see, then, based on what comes before and after, that verses 19 and 20 are referring specifically to our reaction to the Word of God. We are to be quick to hear it. “Quick” means to be prompt or ready. As Jesus said so often when He taught, we should have “ears to hear.” We should long for the Word of God like a baby desires milk because it is only when we do this that we can grow up, spiritually speaking (1 Peter 2:2).

For the believer, the Word of God is like food.  It sustains us. Jesus said that it is more important for us than our daily bread (Matthew 4:4). The Word of God is something that we shouldn’t just read, but we should “meditate in it day and night” (Psalm 1). Quick, hungry, ready to listen; that’s what our attitude should be regarding God’s word.

But then we are to be “slow to speak” concerning it. We should never go off half-cocked in speaking about God’s Word. His thoughts are higher than ours as the heavens are above the earth, so we should not just desire God’s Word like a baby desires milk, but we should receive God’s Word as an infant, as well. That is, we should realize that on our own we can’t understand it. We need divine help; which God will provide by His Holy Spirit. Understanding God’s Word requires an attitude of submission, dependence, and much prayer – slowly taking it all in, before attempting to spit it back out.

Bible teachers are warned of this later in James where it says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). So, while we are on one hand told to “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), we are to make sure that when we share it we’ve done our homework to know what it actually means.

Finally, we are to be “slow to anger.” How often have you heard someone say “you have no right to tell me what to do” or, “I’m a good person” whenever someone mentions the topic of sin? How often do you hear anger in the response of anyone who is confronted by what the Bible says about things like sexuality, the role of women in the family and the church, or abortion? How often did Jesus find Himself facing hostility as He shared the very words that the Father had given to Him with those He spoke to. That’s the typical reaction of the sinful heart to the Word of God, and those who react in this way are digging themselves deeper and deeper into a pit of sin rather than allowing God to produce in them the righteousness that He desires.

The Word of God: we should be quick to listen to it, slow to speak it, slow to anger regarding what it says, and quick to obey it. To do otherwise is to walk in the way of a fool rather than in the way of wisdom and righteousness that God has shown us in His perfect and precious Word.