James 1:19, ‘This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God’.
Let us be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger, as the Scriptures say to us. Our anger does not achieve the righteousness of God. We know, James was the brother of Jesus Christ, he was not believing in Jesus in his younger days but he had seen how Jesus lived and after he witnessed Jesus’ resurrection, he became a born-again disciple of Jesus Christ, as we see in Corinthians. After James saw Jesus after resurrection, there was a change in his heart and also was an elder in a Church in Jerusalem. He gave here, in his book of ‘James’ – such a blessed message – ‘what to do, when we are going through these trials’. He also mentions about – ‘not showing favoritism, controlling the tongue and denying the worldliness and pride, having patience and endurance that we need, during trials. Praise God for the Word.
When we visit a doctor, he gives us a prescription. In the same way, one of the prescriptions for anger is ‘quick to hear’. We need to have the patience to listen to what others are saying and not break or stop in between the conversations, as we all have a tendency to talk in between, as we have many ideas to say or we have hidden motives, to say something, and we have our own ‘self’.
Let us practice this in our daily life – ‘be quick to hear’ and allow God to speak into our everyday situations. Let us be ‘slow to speak’ too.
Let us be ‘slow to anger’. There is a righteousness of God. we won’t be found righteous if we are ‘angry person’. As we are in this world, in John we see, ‘there is no profit in this flesh’.
Proverbs 8:34,35 ‘Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts. 35For he who finds me finds life And obtains favor from the Lord’.
Let us be ‘poor in Spirit’ and watch daily at His gates. We need His help to live this overcoming life. He gave us His Holy Spirit and he who finds Him, finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. Let us always seek His favor every time in our lives.
Matthew 5:22, ‘22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell’.
Everyone who is angry with his ‘brother’, shall be guilty before the court, whoever says, ‘you good-for-nothing’, shall be guilty before the supreme court and whoever says, ‘you fool’, is guilty enough to go to the fiery hell!
God is on the throne. It is only through His Holy Spirit; we can overcome this sin.
Romans 2:1, 2, ‘1Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things’.
Let us be careful before we pass judgement on another. We have no right to judge others. God is the Judge.
We see the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5:19, ‘Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions’,
‘Outbursts of anger’ is one of the deeds of flesh. Our flesh is weak.
James 3:2, ‘For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well’. 5So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!
Romans 7:14, ‘14For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate’. 16But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
We all struggle in this area. We want to follow God’s commands. Paul is also agreeing that ‘I am a wretched man’. We all need to come to this point of feeling wretched of ourselves, as this flesh is always turned towards ‘doing its own will to sin’. But it is only through ‘Lord Jesus Christ’, we are able to have the victory over this ‘flesh’. 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Romans 8:1,2, ‘1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death’. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ and through the help of the Holy Spirit, we can have overcoming victorious life. 3For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. 8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.10If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Paul is saying this, James also saw the ‘resurrected life’, we need to see the ‘resurrection of Jesus’ always, not entangled in sin of this world anymore but always looking at Jesus. He is our only helper. Our only way is through the Holy Spirit. Let us enter into His doorposts and see and cry for His Holy Spirit. As our flesh is weak, when we fail, let us not be condemned but get up quickly and be reconciled with God and to others, whether it is our family or colleagues or children.
James 1:2-4, ‘2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing’.
James himself is saying, that whenever we go through these different trials or situations in our lives, let us consider it joy, to be able to be tested and let us practice endurance. Jesus also showed us ‘endurance’ in his life on earth. Let us follow Him. Let endurance have its perfect result, so we may be perfect and lacking in nothing.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 21Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
His Word can save our lives. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
Let us not just be hearers but actively love the Word, and workout our Salvation, let us wait on the Lord, let there be a radical change in us, let us respond to the Word and not neglect the Word by not responding to the Holy Spirit.
1 John 2:5,6, ‘5but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked’.
Let us depend on the Holy Spirit and obey the Word, so that His love will be perfected in us. Let us walk in the same manner as Jesus walked. Thank God for His Word.
