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.
James 1:19-20
My husband and I had the opportunity to do the Alpha marriage course last year and learned that there are two animals associated with how people handle anger. You’re either a hedgehog:
Or a rhino:
- Hedgehogs tend to ball up the problem, internalise it, think about it, mull over it may even avoid the problem altogether.
- Rhinos on the other hand explode, they yell, they shout, they just rush into the situation with their emotions and opinions before they’ve thought through what or how they say things.
Now I’ll leave you to guess which one of us is the rhino and which one is the hedgehog…but the point is neither one reflects Christ.
That is what James is addressing. Those in the church who claim to know and love Christ are giving into ‘human anger’… Lashing out at each other… Speaking harsh words…letting their tongues run wild with gossip and slander.
Instead of being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry… They are doing the opposite. They pride themselves on their religion and yet it’s not translating to how they treat and live and treat one another.
But what I realized as I reflected on this passage this week is that the answer is not to focus on our wrong behavior and try harder to fix it. No, the Good News is he points us away from ourselves and to the only thing that can truly give us the strength and power we need to resist the temptation to give into our human anger: The Word of Truth.
Three times in this passage James brings our attention back to the Word and how it can help us live a life that isn’t ruled by the power of our tongues but by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are three things we need to know about the Word of Truth:
- The Word gives us rebirth.
Verse 18: “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” This is pointing to the regeneration, renewal, literally rebirth that happens when we put our trust and faith in Christ.
2. We need to humbly accept the Word planted in us.
Verse 21b: “Therefore…humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” James is signifying a part we have to play in living according to our new nature. In humbly accepting we need God and accepting again and again his Word. A friend sent me a perfect example of this in a message on WhatsApp about how the Word has changed her attitude in marriage for the better:
I started praying Psalms over my husband and myself and one morning read all 150 of them because I couldn’t get enough of the promises of God! When I get stuck I just start praying the word over him and over us… and things begin to change.
As we humbly accept the Word, watering the truth that’s been planted…it WILL begins to grow an abundance of fruit in our lives. And finally, James says…
3. The Word is meant not just to be listened to but acted upon.
Verse 22: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” This made me think of my annual trips to the dentist. Every time I am told “Ali, everything looks great, but make sure you keep that flossing up now.” I listen to this word, I even feel motivated by it. I go home and I’m actually successful in heeding my dentist’s words…for about a week. Then laziness, weariness, tiredness and forgetfulness creep in and…it isn’t until the next year that the dentist has to remind me all over again.
The Word of God is often like that. We come Sunday and hear the Word, we feel inspired and determined to put what we have heard into practice. But when the busyness and stress of our work and family life creep back in we forget what we have heard! James says in verses 23 and 24 it’s like looking into a mirror and forgetting what we look like. But when we hear and do James says this in verse 25–they will be blessed in what they do. There is blessing on the other side of obedience.
What I think what James is trying to get at is that is is easy in the Christian life to forget who we are in Christ…. and this impacts how we live. But let us be encouraged….that as we bring our focus back to the Word of God remembering that we have been made new…and as as we humbly accept the Word planted in us daily…doing what it says….we. Will. Be. Blessed.