Slow confrontation
This week's study is on James 1:19-20:
These verses fit in with the theme we've been talking about for the last few weeks on Christian confrontation and valuing what's important. James here is in the midst of a long pep talk about how to be righteous when he detours a bit to give us this advice. You can almost imagine the people reading picturing the other people they're going to confront when they finish reading the letter, prompting James' "hold on a minute" detour. The readers are probably thinking "Wait till I get out of Bible study, and then I'm going to go tell so and so that they need to stop doing their own thing and do such and such instead! I'll show them not to be rebellious against God's will!!"
But James gives us three pieces of advice that should slow us down a bit. The first is to be quick to listen. How many times do we just launch into a tirade at someone for something we thought they were doing or thinking, only to find out later that we were wrong? If we're quick to listen, listening should be the first thing to arrive to the situation, before speaking and anger.
Secondly, he tells us to be slow to speak. How many times is someone talking with us and we interrupt to tell them our urgent thoughts instead? Shut up! Find out what's going on before trying to offer your advice. Not only does it save you from putting your foot in your mouth later, but it shows respect. If you want people to listen to your advice, listen to what they have to say first.
Finally, James says to be slow to anger, because human anger doesn't accomplish God's righteousness. Most of the times I've seen Christians confront other Christians in anger, even when they spiritualise it as "righteous anger," they just make things worse. Human anger leads to blind human effort, which isn't led by the Holy Spirit. The result is you're pushing in a direction you can't see and could just as easily be pushing in the opposite direction to the one God wants things to go in.
We love "righteous anger" though because it makes us feel righteous to act on it. The news capitalises on that and works us up into a self-righteous rage over carefully edited stories designed to keep us coming back. We listen to gossip from people who we know aren't trustworthy because it makes us feel so good to be outraged by their stories. We want to set the world right, or demand that God set the world right, but we don't take the time to find out if it's wrong in the first place or what "right" is supposed to be.
What James is slyly asking us to practice is humility. A humble person knows they don't have all of the answers, and may not be capable of ever getting all of the information they need to make a sound decision. The humble person listens a lot, because they know they have a lot to learn. They are slow to speak, because they realise their words could be wrong. And they're slow to anger, because they know that everyone makes mistakes, themselves included.
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
These verses fit in with the theme we've been talking about for the last few weeks on Christian confrontation and valuing what's important. James here is in the midst of a long pep talk about how to be righteous when he detours a bit to give us this advice. You can almost imagine the people reading picturing the other people they're going to confront when they finish reading the letter, prompting James' "hold on a minute" detour. The readers are probably thinking "Wait till I get out of Bible study, and then I'm going to go tell so and so that they need to stop doing their own thing and do such and such instead! I'll show them not to be rebellious against God's will!!"
But James gives us three pieces of advice that should slow us down a bit. The first is to be quick to listen. How many times do we just launch into a tirade at someone for something we thought they were doing or thinking, only to find out later that we were wrong? If we're quick to listen, listening should be the first thing to arrive to the situation, before speaking and anger.
Secondly, he tells us to be slow to speak. How many times is someone talking with us and we interrupt to tell them our urgent thoughts instead? Shut up! Find out what's going on before trying to offer your advice. Not only does it save you from putting your foot in your mouth later, but it shows respect. If you want people to listen to your advice, listen to what they have to say first.
Finally, James says to be slow to anger, because human anger doesn't accomplish God's righteousness. Most of the times I've seen Christians confront other Christians in anger, even when they spiritualise it as "righteous anger," they just make things worse. Human anger leads to blind human effort, which isn't led by the Holy Spirit. The result is you're pushing in a direction you can't see and could just as easily be pushing in the opposite direction to the one God wants things to go in.
We love "righteous anger" though because it makes us feel righteous to act on it. The news capitalises on that and works us up into a self-righteous rage over carefully edited stories designed to keep us coming back. We listen to gossip from people who we know aren't trustworthy because it makes us feel so good to be outraged by their stories. We want to set the world right, or demand that God set the world right, but we don't take the time to find out if it's wrong in the first place or what "right" is supposed to be.
What James is slyly asking us to practice is humility. A humble person knows they don't have all of the answers, and may not be capable of ever getting all of the information they need to make a sound decision. The humble person listens a lot, because they know they have a lot to learn. They are slow to speak, because they realise their words could be wrong. And they're slow to anger, because they know that everyone makes mistakes, themselves included.
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