Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak 

 James 1:19-21 

We are in the second message of a series on the book of James 

Why the book of James? 

There are several reasons 

First of all, because I really feel this is where God wants us to be right now 

Secondly because James is one of my favorite books of the Bible! 

There is so much wisdom in the book of James 

The book was written by James, the brother of Jesus 

According to scholars the book of James was written somewhere between 46 and 49 AD, which makes it one of the earliest books of the New Testament 

It was written to Jewish Christians scattered around the Roman Empire 

These Jewish Christians were overwhelmed with problems that were testing their faith, and James was concerned that they were surrendering to impatience, bitterness, materialism, disunity, and spiritual apathy 

As a leader of the Church, James felt the need to encourage these believers in their faith – hence the book of James 

We’re picking up today in James 1:19 

James 1:19-21  My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  

This passage is one that I use quite a bit in pre-marital and marriage counseling 

It’s also one that applies directly to the lives of anyone, regardless of who they are and the circumstances that they are in 

Let’s look at this passage in detail and examine what is being said 

The first this we are being told is to be “quick to listen” 

I think there’s a reason why God gave us two ears and one mouth! 

We all should listen twice as much as we speak 

There are very practical and spiritual reasons for this 

If you look at the environment in which this letter of James was written the spiritual reason becomes obvious 

The first readers of James had no New Testament Scriptures 

Virtually all communication of the Gospel was orally.  

Believers met together in houses to hear preachers tell the story of Jesus and His saving grace.  

Good listening skills were crucial to their spiritual nourishment and growth. 

Listening is also a key need in the church today.  

We live in a world of fast food, 15 second TV commercials and 5 second sound bites.  

We are inundated with brief Facebook updates, 160 character text messages, and 140 character tweets 

The nature of our society is transforming us into poor listeners, which tends to give us limited attention spans 

If we have developed limited attention spans, our times of Bible reading are apt to be rough going. 

The devotional prayer of modern man is "Speak to me Lord, you’ve got fifteen seconds."  

Not only Bible reading is in trouble, though. Preaching is in some dire straights.  

In some cultures today sermons of 3 & 4 hours are commonplace 

Sometimes a 3 to 4 hour sermon would be short! 

Example: “can you teach us the Old Testament?”  “Can you teach us the New Testament?” 

Remember in the book of Acts how Paul preached almost all night long? 

Public speakers today are taught that the average attention span is 22 minutes – and some speculate that it’s getting shorter 

Our listening problems also affect our relationships with others 

Mark Gungor in his “Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage” conference tells about how men speak on average of 5,000 words per day while women speak 10,000 

“Cause we have to repeat everything”  “huh?” 

All of us, men and women, are guilty of this though 

I’m not saying that this is always the case, but sometimes we are so focused on what we are doing and on what we want that we cannot hear what the other person is saying 

Sometimes we are only listening for the things we want to hear and ignore what’s really being said 

As the great philosophers Simon and Garfunkle once sang “a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” 

The next thing James tells us is to be slow to speak 

Why should we be slow to speak? 

Because once you've said it, you cannot take it back. 

Our words are like shooting a gun, once the trigger is pulled the bullet is going to go down the barrel and there's nothing you can do to bring it back 

It's going to hit something – maybe what you intended to hit, maybe not, but when it hits you need to be prepared to deal with the consequences 

I can apologize and be forgiven, but the fact of the matter is that there's been damage done and it needs to be dealt with. 

When many of us get angry our gut reaction is to yell, scream and tell someone off 

The problem is that this is very rarely productive.   

Our reasons for being angry can be justified, but if we tell someone off, we are not accomplishing anything.   

The “I guess I told them” attitude may make you feel better, but it rarely changes the people you are angry at. 

More often than not only makes the situation worse, and makes the yeller look like an idiot in the process. 

1. “I’m never persuasive when I’m abrasive”  

nobody likes to be scolded 

1. I’m not saying that we should avoid the issue, but we need to be very careful about how we address it. 

• Ephesians 4:15 tells us to “speak the truth in love” 

It’s easy to speak the truth – sometimes it’s hard to do it in love 

I think we would all learn a lot more if we listened more and spoke less 

Remember though that James is not calling on us to all take a vow of silence 

What he is calling for is the common sense principle to think before we speak.  

The next thing James tells us is to be “slow to become angry” 

This comment just makes sense 

Nobody likes a hothead – we all know them and we all avoid them when possible 

I’m not saying that anger in and of itself is wrong, after all, even God gets angry  

It’s what we do in our anger that gets us in trouble 

Anger that is under control can accomplish good things 

The American revolution would have never happened if someone did not get angry 

The civil rights movement would have never happened if someone did not get angry 

So anger under control can be good, but the flip side is also true – anger out of control is a very bad thing! 

Those who are quick to become angry are the ones that generally have problems 

When we are quick in our anger we lose all common sense and tend to say and do things that we would normally never say and do 

Righteous anger, however, is generally a lot more thought out 

It may begin with a sudden burst of quick anger – especially if we encounter an injustice – but it doesn’t stop there 

Righteous anger is almost always thought through and dealt with appropriately 

Contrast this with the quick tempered hotheads, which almost always deal with their anger inappropriately, and you can see why being quick tempered is a problem 

James even goes on to say in verse 20 

“for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” 

Remember – Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.  

 `Nuff said! 

Verse 21 

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 

I know that some might be thinking “what does immorality have to do with listening, speaking, and not getting angry quickly?” 

Let’s think about it logically for a moment – what is the root cause of immorality? 

Selfishness 

When I’m being selfish, it’s all about me 

I’m not listening to others, I don’t really care what I say as long as I get my way, and if I get mad in the process tough luck 

If I have immorality in my life I’m also not listening too well to God 

The final part of verse 21 states “humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” 

What does James mean by this phrase? 

His words remind me of the parable of the sower 

(recap) 

James is talking about our salvation 

Since the book of James is written to Jewish Christians, why is he talking about humbly accepting the word planted in them? 

Didn’t they already do that? 

Yes they did, but I’ve come to realize that there are times in life that it’s easy to forget we are saved 

James had just got don talking about how the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God 

Ever notice how easy it is to be ungodly when you are angry? 

We say things we normally would never say 

We do things we normally would never do 

James is saying – hey, wait a minute!  You are Christians!  Remember the Gospel message that was given to you and stop acting like jerks! 

Good advice if you ask me! 

So, what’s our takeaway tonight? 

1 – Always listen 

2 – Think before you speak 

3 – Anger under control can accomplish great things, anger out of control will never accomplish God’s will 

4 – Regardless of what happens to you, act like the Christian that you are!