Practicing God's Word

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

   For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

   Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

   But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

JAMES 1:19-22

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   There are no more worlds to conquer!

   That was the cry of Alexander the Great after he and his Grecian armies swept across the then known world. Alexander was one of the few men in history who deserved to be called "great." He was energetic, versatile, and intelligent. He was bold and impulsive; and he was strong in his loves and loyalties.

   Hatred was not generally a part of Alexander's nature. However, several times in his life he was tragically defeated by anger. On one of those occasions, Cletus, a dear friend of Alexander and general in his army, became intoxicated and began to ridicule the emperor in front of his men. Blinded by anger, quick as lightning, Alexander snatched a spear from the hand of a soldier and hurled it at Cletus. Although he had only intended to scare the drunken general, his aim was true and the spear took the life of his childhood friend.

   Deep remorse followed his anger. Overcome with guilt, Alexander attempted to take his own life with the same spear, but he was stopped by his men. For days he lay sick calling for his friend, Cletus, chiding himself as a murderer.

   Alexander the Great conquered many cities, he conquered many countries, but he had failed miserably to conquer his own spirit.

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   Throughout history there have been many men and women whose lives have been destroyed by pride and passion. Many, like Alexander the Great, have been beaten in their prime because they lacked self-control. Here in the book of James we find the solution to this conflict. In the first chapter of his epistle, James tells us how to control our passions. He demonstrates our need to practice the Word of God.

   In verse 19 James says, "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath."

BE SWIFT TO HEAR

   Psychotherapists tells us that listening is probably the most simple and effective technique for helping troubled people. Listening has been described as an art that requires as much time, effort, and perseverance as any other art form.

   Poor listening is responsible for a tremendous waste in education and industry. Many other areas of life are affected by poor listening. Thousands of marriages are ended each year because the husband and wife stopped listening to each other! Much of the talked-about generation gap is the result of parents and children who fail to listen to one another.

   Oftentimes, we are so interested in getting out our next sentence, we don't even hear the one with whom we are speaking. In reality, the way you listen to others reveals whether you yourself should be listened to.

   Many people, it seems, suffer from this disease of poor attention. Some will miss heaven and eternal life because they did not listen. Others will miss being used by God because they failed to be attentive to His voice.

   In the book of the Acts the apostle Paul spoke of those people of Rome who were poor listeners. Their ears were closed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. "For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their

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eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted" (Ac 28:27). These people refused to listen to the Word of God! They were dull of hearing.

   James said, "Be swift to hear." Swift to hear what? Swift to hear the Word of God. The first step in salvation is hearing. The Bible tells us that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Ro 10:17). We are to be "swift to hear" the Word of God.

   Paul wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith, of the value in "listening" to God's Word. "From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Ti 3:15-17).

   Moffatt translates these words, "quick to listen." Are you a good listener? Are you really hearing what God has to say? As men and women tune their hearts and minds to the signal of God's Word the Holy Spirit enables them to "hear" the voice of God.

   They begin to realize their sinful nature. They see their need of a Saviour, and they are convicted by what they hear. The Bible becomes a spiritual hearing aid.

   In the parable of the sower, our Lord likened the seed which fell on good ground to the man that "heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit" (Mt 13:23, italics added).

   It is very sad when men and women fail to listen to one another. But it is eternally fatal when they fail to listen to God. Jesus said, "My brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it" (Lk 8:21).

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   James said, "Be swift to hear." How is your hearing, my friend? Are you practicing the Word of God?

BE SLOW TO SPEAK

   There is no mistake in the order of command given by James. It stands to reason that if we are truly "swift to hear" we will then be "slow to speak" (Ja 1:19). James, of course, is not suggesting that we be slow in talking, but rather slow to talk.

   It seems as though everybody today has something to say. Never before in history have so many said so much and accomplished so little! This is an age of talkers.

   The ancient philosopher, Zeno, once said, "We have two ears and one mouth; therefore we should listen twice as much as we speak." That's good advice!

   A young man known for his incessant talking once came to Socrates for speech lessons. "I will teach you," said Socrates, "but I will have to charge you double my fee. First I have to teach you how to hold your tongue, and then how to use it."

   Unfortunately, some people shift their minds into neutral and tramp down the gas pedal of wild talk. Their tongues become, as the discarded match in the forest, a whirlwind of fire and destruction.

   James says, "Be slow to speak," weigh your words. Don't talk before you listen.

   A poet has penned:

"The boneless tongue so small and weak

can crash and kill," declared the Greek.

"The tongue destroys a greater horde,"

the Turks assert, "than does the Sword!"

   Solomon wrote, "Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles" (Pro 21:23).

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   Contentious tongues have hindered the work of God a thousand times over. Critical tongues have closed church doors. Careless tongues have broken the hearts and homes of many of God's choice servants. The sins of the tongue have dirtied the pure white gown of the bride of Christ.

   James obviously is referring here to the problems which had already been caused by the casual use of the tongue of some teachers in the church. These "creators of controversy" were, by their troublesome talk, doing more harm than good. They were tearing down rather than building up the body of Christ.

   The untamed tongue is, as James declares, "an unruly evil, full of deadly poison" (Ja 3:8). Yes, my friend, we need to be swift to hear and slow to speak.

   "Wherefore," said the apostle Peter, "laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babies desire the [pure] milk of the word [of God], that ye may grow'' (I Pe 2:1-2).

   We need to practice the Word of God!

BE SLOW TO WRATH

   The third element of James' command is closely connected to the first and second. "Be swift to hear, slow to speak," and third, "slow to wrath." There is a definite relationship between speech and anger. R. V. G. Tasker suggests that "an essential condition of listening to God is that the mind should not be distracted by thoughts of resentment, ill-temper, hatred or vengeance, all of which are comprised in the general term the wrath of man."

   Anger inflames words which are spoken in haste. And the more one talks the angrier he becomes. We need hot hearts, but we do not need hot heads. James says that if we would truly practice the Word of God we must possess a quick ear, a cautious tongue, and a calm temper.

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   In Proverbs 16:32 we read "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." A friend said to me, "I lose my temper, but it's all over in a minute." Yes, so is an atomic bomb. But what about the destruction that is wrought.

   Do you rule your spirit? Or do you become easily inflamed? Again in Proverbs we are told that "a soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger" (Pro 15:1). May Jesus Christ teach us the power of a soft answer.

   Why should we be slow to wrath or anger? Well, James continues in verse 20, "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Man's anger hinders God's work. When you lose your temper—you really lose something. You lose the ability to think sanely and to make balanced decisions. Temper clouds the mind. It confuses our judgment and creates unhappiness. It spoils our love for other people.

   Anger borders on insanity. When we are angry, we say irrational things. We need to exercise care in our discussions, even when we discuss the Scriptures.

   Paul, in his letter of instruction to Timothy, warned of this. "Again I say," said Paul, "don't get involved in foolish arguments which only upset people and make them angry. God's people must not be quarrelsome; they must be gentle, patient teachers of those who are wrong. Be humble when you are trying to teach those who are mixed up concerning the truth. For if you talk meekly and courteously to them, they are more likely, with God's help, to turn away from their wrong ideas and believe what is true" (2 Ti 2:23-25, Living Bible).

   Paul instructs that a person in a place of spiritual leadership should be one "not soon angry" (Titus 1:7). Remember, we must be angry with sin but not with the sinner.

   Is anger ever right? Is there ever a time when we should be angry? The answer is yes!

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   On one occasion Jesus took a whip and drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple. Overturning their money tables, He declared that they had made His house a "den of thieves" (Mt 21:13). It was our Lord's love for His father and His glory that issued forth in righteous indignation.

   Another time Jesus was harshly criticized by the religious leaders for healing a man on the Sabbath day. Mark's gospel tells us that afterward He looked "on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts" (Mk 3:5). He looked on them with anger, not a revengeful anger, but that of compassion. Jesus' anger was not self-serving. Martin Luther claimed that he "never did anything well until his righteous wrath was excited, and then he could do anything well."

   The basic cause of our anger is most often egotism and selfishness. We don't think of it in this way. We make excuses for our quick temper—our nationality, our heredity, or even the color of our hair. But in reality our anger is the bad fruit of selfishness. And as James declares, "It worketh not the righteousness of God." Holy wrath is free from selfishness.

   Yes, my friend, we are to be "slow to wrath." Our tongues, our nature, our total personality must be committed to Jesus Christ.

   Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).

   It is Christ in me, living His life through me. No man can tame the tongue—but I have good news, Jesus can.

   James admonished believers to "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." How do we do this? What is the secret of life free from the pitfalls of sin?

   There is an answer. There is a way out. James declares that we are to practice the Word of God in our lives. "Wherefore,"

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says James, "putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (Ja 1:21, ERV). What is the way of escape? We are to put off all wickedness and receive the Word of God which delivers us.

   The writer of Hebrews prescribes this same remedy. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb 12:1). A runner who wants to be a winner must first strip away all the excess clothing that would weigh him down and hold him back. God's Word is the instrument to deliver us from the insanity of our old nature. We are to lay aside all our sin. We are to put away all our corruption and evilness, and wholeheartedly welcome God's Word into our lives. David said, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Ps 119:11).

   The prophet Jeremiah declared, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them" (Jer 15:16). The psalmist asks, "[How] shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word" (Ps 119:9).

   James says, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only" (Ja 1:22). My friend, are you practicing the Word of God? Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (Jn 14:15). Today Jesus calls upon you to act, to do, and to practice what the Bible says.

* "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him into a wise man, which built his house upon a rock" (Mt 7:24).

* The way you listen to others reveals whether you yourself should be listened to.

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* "We have two ears and one mouth; therefore we should listen twice as much as we speak." ZENO

* When you lose your temper—you really lose something. You lose the ability to think sanely and to make balanced decisions.

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