“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
James 1:19–20

Knives are a practically helpful. Thanks to knives we can cut rope, eat delicious food, and open boxes. But in the wrong hands, a knife is extremely dangerous. Anger may be seen in a similar light. It is an emotion given to us by God and is useful when properly arrived at. But in the wrong hands, anger is dangerous.

In the first century, James was dealing with the problem of anger. Through it, people were inappropriately seeking to establish God’s justice against the wicked and usher in God’s righteous deliverance to the faithful. But why? Injustice.¹ It makes sense for people to want to react to injustice and oppression with anger. But James instructs us that there is a better way.² James commands that we be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”

Quick to Listen

Reigning in emotions of anger begins with being quick to hear. But hear what exactly? Context suggests they are to “hurry up and listen” to one-another.³ Failure to listen to one-another is the first step towards building inaccurate judgments accompanied by their resulting emotions. How many times have we passed judgment with misunderstood or partial information and been angry about it?

Listening is the first step as it builds a bridge for wisdom and love. By listening you are gaining insight into what the other person has to say and valuing words that come from their heart. Undoubtedly, steps in wisdom and love are steps away from anger. Listening gains perspective and helps to prevent eruptions of anger. However, failing to listen is the first step towards eruptions of anger.

Our American culture struggles to listen to one another and erupts quickly in anger. May the church play a different tune—a God honoring one.

Slow to Speak

While listening is to be sprinted into, speaking is to be slowly embarked on. This kind of speech “safeguard[s] against shallow, immature, and immoderate reactions.”⁴ Quick speech without listening can turn into quick verbal jabs between people causing internal battles.⁵ Before you know it multiple verbal quips have been shot back and forth striking one another like punches. This further escalates the animosity and irritation between people.

Therefore, the tongue is not, nor is it ever, the first up to bat. It will likely strike out. But when the tongue follows the ears and the mind, it is set up to score more runs. The saying, you have two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you talk holds insightful truth here. Remember, it is difficult to edit speech after it leaves the mouth.

Slow to Anger

Lastly, the hearers are to be slow to anger. That is to say, they are to be slow with their strong emotional displeasures. The phrase implies that the hearers can feel strong emotional displeasure but that they must come to it in a controlled manner. Anger is not allowed to drive the car of your life. It has failed its driver’s test and has been banned by the federal government for its countless DUI’s and wrecks. However, anger is still allowed to ride in the car, but it can never have the wheel. Strong emotional displeasure must be arrived at in a slow and controlled way for anger leads to other problems, such as physical violence. And the context of James suggests anger was being expressed with physical violence.

James’ words do not seem to be a random proverb but rather wise commands for real people encountering real situations, likely of injustice.⁶ When injustice is encountered at any level, people flaring up in anger against it does not work God’s justice in the situation or His righteous purposes. People’s angry and potentially violent response does not fix things but rather makes things worse. James says let every person to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry lest they make the situation worse and dishonor God. Let us have a controlled response to injustice and know that vengeance belongs to the Lord.