Listen Quietly!! Series

A Study of the Letter of James

James 1:19-21

September 04, 2013

Read Scripture:James 1:19-21

19 My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger,

20 for man's anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.

21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save you.

In v19 James says, "...my dearly loved brothers..." which reveals to us that this was NOT an admonition of spite or anger.

This was a brother in Christ reaching out to other brothers in Christ to teach and admonish (correct) their behavior... out of love, not harsh rebuke... out of care and concern, not seeking retribution!

We don't know how James came about teaching on the issues he was writing about... whether these were the issues were reported to him that they were present in the congregations he was addressing...

OR... that James merely knew and understood human nature and had also witnessed several of these things begin to happen in churches in which he was a part...

Either way, James was addressing several issues that the church was dealing with, and as we have seen and learned... what the church is STILL dealing with... b/c these are issues of our human nature... these are things we ALL face and deal with in our lives...

James knew that they were dealing with these things and James wanted to deal with these things in a loving, yet firm manner...

We see his compassion come thru here in this phrase that even tho' he may sound harsh... this is being done out of love!

We then see James say further on in v19, "Understand this..." James continues his instruction. He states that he loves them and the implication is that this is being done out of love, but that does NOT change the direct nature of his teaching. “Understand this...” is a definite call for the readers to pay attention to what he was about to say...

In other words James wanted the readers FULL attention for the upcoming teaching! James knows just how important this principle was going to be and always IS for the believer!

ALL of God's word is important and we are called to be obedient to ALL of it...but we know that as humans we fail MORE in some particular areas than we do in other areas.

In this passage, James dives into one of those MOST difficult areas where MOST of us fall short and have trouble...

We find him starting right here in v19 where James instructs believers to, "be quick to listen" I believe that listening to others, especially when we disagree with them is NOT something we do very well as humans... this is a human nature thing... some of us deal with it better than others, but some of us really struggle with this in our lives!

I believe that women are usually (not all the time) better listeners than men are... I believe the older we get, with more life experience we have a tendency to learn to listen first...

BUT for the most part this is a universal issue for all of humanity, but we must realize again WHO James is speaking to here, James is speaking to believers!

SO... this means he has been told OR has seen that this was a problem in these churches to whom he was writing this letter...

So, why is listening so hard for us? I believe it is b/c listening takes time & effort on our behalf, AND most of us simply do NOT want to take the time OR feel we don't HAVE the time to hear out the other person...

Instead, what we want to do is to share OUR solution (b/c ours is best...right?) to their issue and then move on... BUT James' instructin BEGINS by sharing how important listening is for the believer...

Another aspect here for the believer is that when we are willing to listen... It reveals our heart; it tells others that we are willing to put aside our own self specifically as a time to minister/listen to them.

Now understand listening to someone does NOT mean you have to agree with them... but what it DOES reveal is that you care about them, even in disagreement you show your Christian love for them by being willing to listen...

FIRST, James tells us to be quick to listen... in other words I believe what James is saying here is that for the believer, listening is the most important step we do in ministry and it should be the FIRST thing we do...

When we learn to focus on relationships with others by being willing to listen... it speaks VOLUMES about Christ to them! But NOT only with those to whom we are listening to, but with God as well. We must learn to LISTEN to God first... and not jump to telling Him what to do!