SLOW TO WRATH

James 1:19-20 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.

It seems that when we are better listeners and do a lot less sharing of our opinions. we then become slow to wrath. If we listened to people, really hear them, we would miss a lot more opportunities to take offense and get angry. You don’t have to agree with everything everyone says, but you shouldn’t let what people say constantly make you angry. There are so many people, and even preachers, that feel it is their job to stir people up to action. They are trying to do it with righteous indignation; but is it righteous or is it just stirring people up to a work of the flesh called anger? If you are watching and listening to anyone who constantly keeps you stirred up against people, then you have fallen into a well devised scheme of the devil to get you in the flesh. Your warfare is not against flesh and blood, but the evil spirits that are behind what people say and do. And yes, many times, people do yield to the devil, and they may even be evil, which is something we are against, but anyone who is not born again yields to demons and lives out of their flesh on a regular basis because it is the nature of a sinner, a nature that opposes God. What can they do? Get born again and make Jesus their Lord and Savior and then, renew their mind with the Word of God, like our scripture for today, so they can put their flesh under. And, unfortunately, you and I who are born again sometimes yield to our flesh and even influences from the dark side (you know it’s true). If we would just take this advice from James, given by the Holy Ghost, our lives would be so much more enjoyable. If we are good listeners and slower speakers, then we will be slower to take offense or get angry.

Verse 20 says that the wrath of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. What does that mean? Anger is a work of the flesh. If you are angry, you are responding with and from your flesh, and God doesn’t want that. He is very opposed to it. The Word is telling us to keep our flesh out of it because it will only produce more flesh and nothing godly will come from that. In Galatians 3:3, Paul was saying, “How is it foolish Galatians (put your name here), you started out in the spirit and now you want to finish this up in the flesh?” Proverbs 29:22 (NASB 2020) says, “An angry person stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered person abounds in wrongdoing.” Proverbs 14:29 (NASB2020) says, “One who is slow to anger has great understanding; but one who is quick-tempered exalts foolishness.” We can clearly see that God is telling us that none of our anger is profitable in any situation, and He clearly says, from His point of view, it is foolishness and leads to wrongdoing. He wants us to get out of our flesh. Make no mistake, there is a righteous anger that comes from God, but this anger gets results because it started with Him, and it will end with Him.

What is righteous anger? God’s righteous anger is slow. Man’s anger is quick and comes from our temperament or our flesh. God’s anger produces restoration, but man’s anger produces destruction. God’s anger will produce a change, a repentance for the person or people it was aimed at. Man’s anger will just hurt and destroy people and things and nothing righteous will be produced. So, how do you judge which one you are exhibiting? You can clearly tell by the fruit it produces. Who are you helping? Who are you hurting? You can also know by asking the Holy Ghost and ask Him, too, if He is pleased with your anger. I think if every believer did this today, there would be a lot of repenting and a whole lot of change in attitude.