You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
Four messages in these few words:
- listen more and better
- quit talking so much
- calm down
- clean up
Eugene Peterson, in his translation, The Message, says it this way:
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
So getting very practical ... girls, we talk too much! To be fair, some men do to. When we are constantly talking ... we cannot be listening. And if we are not listening ... we cannot understand and help another.
Again, getting practical ... our anger is very seldom, perhaps never, righteous. You hear people talk about having "righteous indignation" ... but I don't think I have ever seen it. Only God is righteous ... only His anger is truly righteous. Mine is always tainted with sin and ego and self-pity.
So what are we to do with these verses from James? They actually point us to some very practical steps toward maturity for us. If you are a poor listener ... get some training. Listening is a skill. That means it is something that can be learned and practiced. Quit making excuses for being a poor listener. If you talk too much, be aware. The awareness will help you catch yourself. Particularly be aware of the content of your speaking. Gossip is never OK. Hurtful words are never OK. Ridicule is never OK. If you are hot-tempered, recognize it and quit making excuses for it. You may want to pursue 3rd party counseling to learn some anger management tools. Or do some reading. I particularly found Harriet Lerner's book, "The Dance of Anger" helpful.
And lastly, rid yourselves of the weeds that keep the word of God from growing in you. God has planted His word in you as a believer. Is it not flourishing in your life? Then you have some weeding to do! Different translations reflect different nuances of the thought:
- New Revised Standard: all sordidness and rank wickedness
- NIV: moral filth and evil
- Message: spoiled virtue and cancerous evil
- New Living: filth and evil
We live in a culture where filth and evil is rampant. We see it, hear it, read it, watch it, and almost by osmosis participate in it. In your particular life, do you see what "sordidness" needs to be weeded out? Are you willing to begin the hard work to rid yourself? And as you work, as you grow, as you mature ... James warns us against getting cocky. God's word will grow in us as the soil of our hearts is prepped and weeded ... but it only grows in a meek environment. There is absolutely no room, at all, for self-righteousness. Even the term is an oxymoron. There is NO righteousness in our - SELF. The reality that the God of the universe allows His very word to grow in our spirits leaves us humble before Him.
Lord, thank You for these rapid-fire reminders of truth that I need for my life here and now. I will work on ________ this week. Give me the strength and the will to do it. Help me not forget as soon as I close this page. I really do want to "grow up" in You!
The "slow to speak" verse made me think about Ephesians 4:29 - "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
ReplyDeleteI think most of what we reflexively want to say is according to our needs instead of the person we're speaking to. Slowing things down gives us time to think if it will help them first. J
How right you are - quick response is very much more "self" focused than the "other" focused. So we circle back to the challenge of getting the giant "self" into the background. Thanks ...
ReplyDeleteMany times in a conversation, people are thinking of their next comment rather than listening to what each person says. In 2010 when I was really sick and could not "get my thoughts together" clearly, I did become a better listener. As a teacher, my natural instinct is to speak up and tell someone how to do their business. I learned way more from listening to others than constantly trying to tell people what to do. And anger, well it is too painful to endure from either end. Forgiveness and understanding are much more rewarding and much more in tune with God's plans for us. Jacquie
ReplyDelete