Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. James 1:19
Many of us over the years have encountered the following pithy little ditty: ‘A wise old owl sat in an oak; the more he heard, the less he spoke; the less he spoke, the more he heard; we should all be like that bird’. Owls and their imagined wisdom aside, there is much in that old rhyme worth considering. It certainly fits in well with today’s text. Oh what a world of trouble could we avoid if only we allowed our ears and not our tongues to take the lead in our hot topic discussions!
It is surprising how many fights among people are caused, not by what somebody said, but by what somebody else mistakenly thought that the person said. So our text’s admonition to be swift to hear makes good common sense. The problem is, that is not human nature. We all want to get our own little say in every conversation. And when that conversation involves things that can lead to anger and fighting, we are naturally led to jumping into the debate feet first and at top speed. What we need to do is abandon the human nature reaction, and seek the divine nature response: swift to hear, slow to speak. Because that is what the Lord Jesus would do.
The last part of our text – slow to wrath – is not only good advice, but it is also a scriptural instruction. If we turn to Ephesians 4, we read in verse 26: ‘Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath’, and in verse 31: ‘Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice’. The Old Testament agrees, ‘Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil’ Psalm 37:8. These verses, and a good many others like them throughout the Bible would not be there if being slow to wrath were impossible. The good news is that if we are swift to hear and slow to speak, being slow to wrath will be much easier.
As Christians, you and I have a special role in this world as peacemakers. And our text today is prime slogan for the peacemaker’s club. -Jim MacIntosh