So that, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
James has just said that God brought us to birth by the word of truth. These three commands come next. Why should hearing come first? Why hold back speech? And what is wrong with anger that feels justified?
One writer draws the line from creation to the new birth, and shows what went wrong in between:
Obedience to the Creator's voice marks every intelligent creature that has not fallen. Fallen man shuts his ear to God's voice and insists on talking. He would like to make the rules for himself and for everybody else. From this come the anger and strife that fill the earth. We were always creatures, but now, born of God, we are a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. What should mark all creatures should be especially characteristic of us. Hearing God's word should attract us. We should run eagerly to it as those who delight to listen to God.
Being quick to hear is the stance of someone who expects everything from God:
Hearing is exactly the attitude of dependence. Now one who is the servant of God looks up to God, trusts God, and expects from God. This is the place that suits the one who is born of God.
The same writer turns to Christ, and to a prophet's picture of a servant whose ear God opens each morning:
Christ Himself is the model of this, as of all else that is good. Though He was the Holy One of God, no one was ever so quick to hear God's word. So the prophet marked Him out: "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward." It was no different when He faced the tempter. The word of God was His constant resource. That was even more true when Satan twisted it. "Again it is written" was His humble, God-honouring answer.
Slowness to speak has a reason. God's thoughts take time to sink in:
We only speak rightly when God controls our thoughts. If we think God's thoughts we shall be able to say things that are right. We may be quick to hear God's thoughts. But we shall only speak them after we have taken them in and made them our own. We take them in slowly, and so we should be slow to speak. A healthy sense of how little we have yet grasped of God's mind sets us free. It frees us from the self-confidence and shallow self-assertion that makes people ready to speak at once on any matter.
The two commands are linked. Both rest on what James has just said about God's giving and about the human heart:
The "ear" and the "tongue" are connected in more ways than one. But in moral and spiritual terms, if my ear is closed and my tongue is loose, I am certain to talk a great deal of folly... This warning comes at the right time. It rests on two facts. Everything good comes from above, and the heart is full to the brim with wickedness, ready to overflow.
Commentators do not treat all anger as sin. But they do call for it to be short and watched:
How often our anger is powerless, hasty self-will! We are now set apart to do His will, to obey as Christ obeyed. There is of course a right occasion for anger. So the Lord looked around at those who used the sabbath day to oppose God's grace in an evil world. But we are urged to be slow to anger, and to let it be over quickly. "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil" (Ephesians 4:26-27).
The next two verses show where our temper really belongs:
People sometimes feel their anger is for God's glory. Verse 20 makes that very doubtful: the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Instead, verse 21 links man's anger with filthiness and overflowing wickedness, something to put away. Losing your temper is plainly the overflow of wickedness.
The answer is not tighter restraint but something received:
We are to deal with the evil that lies behind the malicious words and the outbursts of anger. We will not do this by trying to keep an outward law, which only stirs up our sinful nature. It is done by laying aside every form of it, and receiving with meekness the implanted word of God. This is the word taken into the soul. We receive it not with arguments and questions, but in the meekness that submits to what God has to say.
- Born to listen. The command rests on the new birth. Obedience marks every creature that has not fallen, and those born of God should run to His word.
- Ear open. Being quick to hear is dependence: looking up to God, trusting Him, expecting from Him. Christ did the same, with an ear wakened morning by morning.
- Tongue slow. We take in God's mind slowly, so we speak slowly; a closed ear with a loose tongue guarantees folly.
- Temper last. There is a right occasion for anger, but it must be short. James groups anger claimed for God's glory with the wickedness we must put away.
- Word implanted. The remedy is not an outward rule, which only stirs up our sinful nature. It is the word received in meekness. That alone reaches the evil behind the harsh word and the flare of temper.
for man's wrath does not work God's righteousness.
James has just said that God gave his readers new life by the word of truth. He now tests that life by how a person listens, speaks, and gets angry — which raises the question of what "the righteousness of God" means here.
Anger itself is not forbidden. One writer names what usually drives it, and how long it may last:
We are warned of another danger when James adds "slow to anger." How often it is powerless, hasty self-will! ... There is of course a right occasion for anger. So the Lord looked around at those who misused the Sabbath to oppose God's grace in an evil world. But we are told to be slow to anger, and to let it soon be over.
Some readers hear Paul's phrase here and see a clash. One writer says the two are not answering the same question:
James never takes up the question of how a sinner is justified. So he in no way contradicts Paul; he is not treating the same question that Paul has before him. ... Here, for instance, we have the righteousness of God clearly in a different sense from the one so familiar to us in Paul's letters. He is speaking of what is not pleasing to God, because it is inconsistent with His nature; and clearly the wrath of man is offensive to Him. It works nothing suitable to His moral nature. The passage speaks of practice, not of doctrine.
Where does this anger come from? One writer traces it back to the old nature, in contrast with a life that receives everything from grace:
So, with self-will broken and self-confidence destroyed, he urges us — as those who receive everything from grace — to be willing to hear rather than to speak. We are to be slow to anger, which is only the impatience of the old man. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. The one who is taught of God is subject to Him.
The hardest case is anger that claims to defend God. Another writer tests that claim by the next verse:
Men may sometimes feel their anger is for God's glory. But verse 20 makes that very questionable: the righteousness of God is not worked out by the anger of man. Instead, verse 21 links man's anger with filthiness and overflow of wickedness, as something to lay aside. Losing your temper is clearly the overflow of wickedness.
Anger also shows where a cause comes from. One commentator applies the verse to the men who fought the rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall:
The spirit in which the people go on with the work proves the movement is of God. In the same way, the spirit of the opposition proves it is a work of the enemy. Behind this joint attack there is "wrath" and "conspiracy." "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:20). The Spirit of God will be no party to underhand human schemes. So the true character of opposition can often be detected by its worldly methods.
God does turn human rage to His own ends. That still does not change what the anger itself aims at:
A Christian too — a new-born creature of God — is to be slow to anger. Remember that even righteous anger easily sinks into a mere outburst of human passion. Such an outburst does not express, does not advance, and never in itself produces the righteousness of God. God can make it praise Him. He does this continually, turning it to carry out His will and harnessing it to work out His purposes. But in itself — in its own aim, intent, direction and purpose — anger does not seek the righteousness of God, and is not likely to advance it.
So what is the cure? Not tighter self-control in the moment, but dealing with what lies behind the outburst:
We are to deal with the evil that lies behind the malicious words and the outbursts of anger. This will not happen by trying to obey an outward law, which only stirs up the flesh. It happens by laying aside every form of that evil, and by receiving with meekness the implanted word of God. It is the word received into the soul, not with reasonings and questions, but in the meekness that submits to what God has to say.
- Source — This anger is the impatience of the old nature. It is self-will in a hurry, not the new life God gave by the word of truth.
- Standard — Here "righteousness" means conduct that suits God's nature. James is speaking of practice, not doctrine.
- Self-deception — Anger that claims to serve God's glory is the anger this verse questions. The next verse calls it overflowing wickedness.
- Sovereignty — God can overrule human rage for His purposes. The rage itself still aims at nothing of His righteousness.
- Substitute — What anger cannot produce, the implanted word can, received in meekness. So the cure is listening, not louder self-defence.