James 1:19-21 – Be Quick…Be Slow…But When?

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. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:19-21

Let me be quick to say that at the top of the list of things that can quickly anger me while listening to sermons is when the pastor pulls out the Greek and Hebrew language and talks about its meaning. I feel like I’m being told that unless I know Greek and Hebrew I won’t be able to understand the Bible. Most of the time it seems that what they have to say doesn’t really impact my understanding of the verses; we could have read the English and been just fine. Although, I must admit there have been a few times that if I had been a bit quicker to hear what they were saying I would have realized that Greek and Hebrew can be extremely helpful. Maybe, I should be a little slower to speak about those things that quickly anger me…

I’m not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, but I think this portion of James is one of those times when learning about Greek can be helpful. James, in 1:19, uses the Greek word hoste, which has been translated to “Know this” in the ESV, “take note of this” in the NIV, “Understand this” in the NET, and “Wherefore” in the KJV.

All of these seem pretty similar, so why bring it up?
Good question, I’m glad you asked.

The word hoste is used to indicate a transition. James uses hoste to tell us that James 1:19-21 is the consequence of what is found in the verses immediately preceding them, James 1:16-18.

Okay. So what does that mean?
Another good question. Keep asking them!

James, if you recall, just got done telling us that every good gift — in this case, us becoming a firstfruits of God’s creation — comes from the Father’s word of truth (1:16-18). So, (hoste), we need to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger” (1:19-21).

Okay…?
So, that wasn’t really a question, but I’ll tell you why it’s important anyway.

James just told us that God’s word of truth is what makes us the firstfruits of his creation, right? And since we know that those living in James’s time listened to the letters of the apostles, and when in the synagogue they listened to the scriptures being read, doesn’t it makes sense to conclude that James is saying that they need be quick to listen to God’s word?

Okay. That makes sense.
Yeah, it does. But pay attention to what James isn’t saying.

People often use this verse as a general guiding principle for any sort of interaction with people. They seem to think the verse really means, “You just need to take the time to listen to other people and then be slow to respond and slow to act in anger.”

Yeah, I’ve heard that too.
Well, that isn’t what James is saying at all.

James is telling his audience — and us, by extension — that we need to make haste in listening to God’s word. This is the first step of God bringing “us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

Sure, it’s prudent to listen to others when they speak, but that isn’t James’s point. Listening to God’s word is something we — this race of humanity — stopped doing long ago. At the moment when Eve told herself she could find wisdom from the tree, she started the long line of her descendants — all of us — down the path of searching for wisdom in places other than from God the Father. But James tells us we need to change that pattern. We must begin listening to God’s word before we seek wisdom elsewhere. For it is from God’s word that God begins to make of us new creatures.

Okay. That does make sense. But what’s the deal with being slow to speak and slow to anger if James isn’t telling us to be civil with others?
Another good question.

The world in which most of us live is opposite to what James describes. We are slow to listen to God but we are very quick to speak and quick to anger. We rely on our own innate “sensibilities” and just respond; no thought is required. But our innate “sensibilities” are flawed, aren’t they? James told us that sin comes when we give in to the temptations that lurk within us. And nearly all of us give in to the temptation to speak quickly and get riled up about the world around us.

Just look at the news for a minute if you think I’m overstating it. Or, better yet, take a look at Twitter, Tik-Tok, Instagram, Facebook, or any other social media. How many times do others (not us, of course) post the first thing that comes to their mind? When it comes to speaking and becoming angry by our own strength we operate at light speed, but when it comes to listening to the word of God, we find ourselves in the Middle Ages riding a cart driven by a hobbled donkey. But James tells us that we should act in exactly the opposite fashion; be quick to listen, not slow, and be slow to speak and slow to anger, not quick.

But…
Patience Daniel-Son. Just hear me out.
…

The emphasis is placed first upon our listening, secondly upon our words and actions. This is because, as James says, the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. When we are slow to listen to God’s Word we are taken over by our rash words and actions and will not become “perfect and complete, lacking nothing,” we will not “receive the crown of life,” and we will not become “a kind of firstfruits of his creation.”

That makes sense now; it’s the emphasis I need to notice.
Yeah. Furthermore, and contrary to popular opinion, James isn’t just writing a lot of random things. He is still talking about how God’s work in us — while we live under persecution and in exile away from our true home — is the good thing that comes from heaven.

If you were living during the time of James’s letter don’t you think you would have wanted to give your persecutors a piece of your mind as they drove you out of town? You might even have wanted to make an obscene gesture at Saul and his followers when they threw stones at you or ripped you out of your synagogue (sort of like you do when drivers cut you off)? What about after your siblings, father, or mother were taken away? Or if they stole your children? Wouldn’t you have wanted to be quick to speak and quick to anger? But, James says that if we give in to our natural responses then we are not helping the work that God is doing in our lives.

We help God do his work?
Yes, we participate in the work God does in our lives; we are not passive as God changes us.

The first step in participating in God’s work is that we listen to God’s Word. We must undo that damnable thinking we have inherited from Adam and Eve. Wisdom is not found in creation, nor is it found in ourselves; wisdom is found in the Creator alone. And unless we seek him out we can never hope to become “perfect and complete, lacking nothing;” we will never “receive the crown of life,” and we will not become “a kind of firstfruits of his creation.” Being quick to listen to God’s word of truth slows down our tongue and our anger.

Interesting. I never thought that my listening to God’s word was a part of God’s work in me.
It is, but James continues…

James tells us to “put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.” At first, this might seem like James is telling us to stop doing filthy and wicked things — something we probably should do anyway — but that is not James’s emphasis here. In the context of this discussion, and by my understanding of the Greek terms used (in particular, the term perisseia which has been translated as “rampant,” but it can also mean “residue from our former way of life”) it makes more sense that James is saying that we are to put away — to get rid of — all of our former ways of thinking. In other words, we are to stop listening to the filthy and wicked “wisdom” coming from ourselves so that we might listen to and rely upon the good and perfect wisdom coming from God.

But I don’t like giving up control.
None of us do.

I remember golfing with my Dad and he would give me instructions on the course, and I always accepted them with a smile…No, not really. I didn’t want to take his advice; I wanted to do it my own way. Besides, who did he think he was? But since then, I’ve realized that my rebellion against other’s advice is not limited to my Dad’s advice on the golf course. I pretty much always want to do it my own way, because, let’s be honest here, I think I know better than everyone else.

Is that why James tells us to be meek?
Yes. But we are proud and arrogant.

Ever since Adam and Eve rejected God’s wisdom we have wanted to figure things out on our own; we want to become “like God, knowing good and evil.” We want to be the source of our own wisdom; we want to decide our moral standards for ourselves. But James tells us otherwise. If we are to become God’s firstfruits then we must stop listening to all the bad “wisdom” that comes from within us and start listening to God’s word, because it is only God’s word that “is able to save our souls.”

“Save our souls?” This is about salvation?
Good question, but no.

We know that James is writing to believers so it doesn’t make sense to think that he is talking about salvation. And besides, the Greek word here (yeah, again with the Greek stuff!) is sozo. While it is often translated as “salvation,” it also means “to heal” or “to make whole.” And, since James is writing to those who are already believers, James is not talking about their salvation, rather, he is saying that God’s word — God’s wisdom — is what heals the wickedness that lies within us. These are words of sanctification, not salvation.

Oh.
Yeah.

So, as a quick recap, James has been telling us that God is at work in us, but we must also make the effort to receive his word so his word can do its work. This means, at the very least, that we ignore (put away, stop listening to) our human tendencies to speak and act in anger.

But that isn’t very easy to do…
You’re right.

We need to unpack this more, as James does, but we will have to do that next week. For now, however, I encourage you to consider whether you have been quickly listening to God’s wisdom or if you have been quickly responding under your own strength and will. Remember what James wrote:

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. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:19-21