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?
Grounded in the new birth
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.
The posture of dependence
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.
Why speech should be slow
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.
Ear and tongue
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.
Slow, not never, to anger
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.
Not self-control alone
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.
Summary
- 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.