James presents a wisdom saying to remind his readers of an important part of the trial of living out God’s Word. He may be alluding to Proverbs 17:267-28. Other Proverbs also speak to the issues of speaking and anger (Proverbs 1:5; 10:1; 12:15-16, 18; 13:3; 14:29; 15:1, 18, 23; 16:32; 18:13; 19:11; 21:23; 25:11; 29:11, 20).

Everyone loves to be the speaker. You have an important point to communicate. Of course, you are a great communicator, and everyone should listen to you. Instead, James calls us to become master listeners. How do we do this? Stop talking. Choose when to speak so that your words carry more weight.

He gives the word “quick” to listen. But he repeats “slow” for speaking and anger. This shows he emphasizes being slow to avoid anger. It is good to listen because that is where you understand where a person is coming from. You hear all the details and can better craft your response. When you rush in and speak, you may have not diagnosed the problem and have disrespected the speaker. We can get ourselves into a lot of trouble when we don’t listen first.

We consider communication to be something we do. To communicate, you think you need to be giving input by speaking. However, communication experts teach us that there are three requirements for communications there must be a message, a sender, and a receiver. If you never receive, you are not communicating even though you haven’t said a word.

We are surrounded by noise. When I was in Bible College, one of my friends on my hall would be silent for probably a minute when somebody asked him to pray. At first, I found the silence unnerving. Did he realize he was called on to pray? I learned quickly from him that just because we pray, we do not have to talk the whole time.

There are monasteries where you can go and practice the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude. Most Americans find these extremely difficult spiritual disciplines to master. Our society teaches us to talk, and so we do ad nauseam. How would your life, work, and relationships be if you learned how to master the spiritual discipline and art of listening?

Notice how the inability to become a listener leads to talking and then to wrath. The process happens so fast when we choose to speak instead of listen that when we speak, we do it from ignorance because we didn’t really hear the issue being presented. My mother used to always tell me that when my mouth is open, my ears are closed. How biblically accurate she was!

We think we heard enough of the issue to produce the blanket statement that fixes all problems. But we missed all of the details that make the issue worth the speaker’s time to explain what’s going on. It is disrespectful of us, and that leads the speaker to anger because her voice is not being heard.

We get angry ourselves because we are too impatient to listen. Maybe listening is taking too much time from our busy schedules. What would your life, work, and relationships look like if you mastered the discipline of listening?

James 1:20. James gives the reason anger does not solve anything in our communication. Anger does not produce God’s righteousness. I think the best way is not to understand God’s righteousness as Paul uses it in his letters as the righteousness God gives to us, but James is talking about the end result, the plan of God. Another word for righteousness that fits this context is justice. James may be saying that when we are angry, we are not doing what is just for others or ourselves. We are certainly not doing God’s justice.

The Bible teaches that vengeance belongs to God (Deuteronomy 32:35; Leviticus 19:18; Proverbs 20:22; 24:29; Nahum 1:3; Romans 12:17-21; Hebrews 10:30;). We consider anger to be a volatile emotion that can result in dire consequences. It can ruin relationships, hurt the people we love, and reverse hard-fought victories in our lives.

James is not talking about righteous anger. That is the kind of anger we have when we see injustice. Most of what we feel when we get angry is volatile. Jesus linked it to murder. Matthew 5:21-22). Perhaps you feel slighted at work or someone has violated you or offended you. Anger is a natural emotion.

You cannot stop from feeling the emotion. You can decide what to do with it. But the kind of anger James talks about here comes from how we talk, or the lack of listening, to one another. Words can wound deeper than any physical cut.

When we feel that we have been wronged, we put the boxing gloves on and head into the ring. Some of us have a mean left hook, too. You see, our wrath is misplaced. God’s wrath is much different because it is always from a wider perspective. We see only the here and now, stuck in the hourglass of time with no way to see the bigger picture. God is outside of time and when He gets angry, it’s for the right reasons at the right time to the right issue.

When you think you’ve been wronged, if you can forgive instead of allow your wrath out, then you’re moving toward being like Jesus. Emotions are a part of God’s image in us. But our emotions are marred along with the rest of God’s beautiful creation, so that they cannot be trusted as easily. It’s not a sin to become angry because it is part of us. All our emotions are gifts from God and resemble His image and character.

When we wrongly become enraged, we allow a devilish cat out of the box that is beyond control. That hissing cat does things that are so uncharacteristic of who we usually are. Isn’t it so hard to fix what that dirty cat does when we let it out? It may even create wounds on the closest of friends that may never heal. That’s one mean cat.

James 1:21. James moves to what we need to do when we face uncontrollable anger because of our lack of listening and abundance of speech. We are doing two actions at once. We are putting off filthiness and receiving the implanted Word. The word “putting off, laying off, getting rid of” has the idea of taking off a filthy garment. Paul uses this word often when he talks about taking off the old self (Romans 13:12; Ephesians 4:22, 25; Colossians 3:8).

“Filthiness” is only used here by James in the New Testament. It is more common to the classical Greek period. Even there, it is a rare word. It refers to moral filth and the deceit and shame that follow it. James is linking filthiness as a result of our improper anger. It may also be part of the speech that could be used in such a situation.

The other thing we are taking off is excessive wickedness. This is an unusual way of putting it because no one should find any kind of wickedness, no matter how small, among Christians. Some translators have given phrases like, “abundance of wickedness, overabundance of wickedness, and evil that is so prevalent, and rampant ungodliness.” It is possible James refers to the remnant of our old desires and old self.

While we are doing the first action of putting off filthiness and excessive wickedness, we are doing the second action of receiving the implanted Word with humility. It is hard to know if “with humility” is the condition with which we put off wickedness for the condition with which we receive the implanted Word. Most Bible versions put it with receiving the implanted Word.

There is another issue with the way James phrases “receive the implanted Word.” What is it? Many scholars lick it to the “Word of truth” from James 1:18. If this is so, it may refer to the gospel. Some commentators have a problem with receiving what has already been placed in Christians. They opt for the word “accept.” The word here can mean “receive, accept, welcome.”

This is the human action working in partnership with God’s action of implanting the Word in us. It is established and rooted in us, but we must accept it and do it, as James will talk about next. Like other commentators, I believe the best way to understand the implanted Word is for it to be the Word of God. We are actively taking in God’s Word, and it is taking effect in us. We are receiving it.

As James describes the Word, he calls it the “implanted Word.” “Implanted” is a word only used here in the New Testament. It is a word more common to the classical Greek period. Some authors use the word that are contemporary with James. God’s Word is like a seed that God plans in you and grows into a beautiful tree of life.

We receive the Word with humility. The word for humility here is the same word for meekness and gentleness. James makes a contrast between how we react when we do not take time to listen and how we need to receive God’s Word.

We wrongly react when we are angry, but when we are humble, we can receive what God gives us. This is the first contrast James makes. But he makes another conference in the next paragraph. The Word of God saves our souls. It draws us closer to God.

The Word that is implanted has more power than our wrath. It has the power to reverse the results of human rage by saving our souls, returning us to the One who can be angry and not take it too far, the One who restores with His anger and does not tear down.