James 1:19

A RULE OF CHRISTIAN CAUTION

‘Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.’

James 1:19

In trying to lead a Christian life we have two main things to do. We have to keep trying to grow better, to be good, and to do right, to grow more holy, more pure, more charitable, more prayerful, and the like. This is one thing. Then, on the other hand, we have to grow less bad, that is to keep striving against sin.

I. The text goes straight to the root of many common sins, and what makes it still more important is, that it applies to all of us equally. Every one is liable to sins of the tongue. Every one is liable to faults of temper. Unfortunately, it is not every one who is aware how much these little common sins—little as people think them, for they are by no means little in reality—it is not every one who is aware how much these everyday faults do towards keeping us back from real holiness of character.

II. You have what may be called a rule of Christian caution, to protect you against the commonest sin which undermines our growth in goodness. I suppose that every one of us feels there is nothing which it is so hard to avoid as getting angry, while on the other hand there is nothing which does our religion more harm than angry feelings. How can a man pray when he is angry?

III. The avoidance of wrath.—St. James says, ‘let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak’: and then in this way we shall be ‘slow to wrath.’ What does this tell us? It tells that when we are moved to be angry, the first thing we must think about is, that we should be ready to listen to whatever the person we are going to be angry with has to say for himself. This sounds very simple, but nothing is really little which helps to keep a man in a holy and God-fearing state of mind. And so it is with this rule. If you will only try it, you will soon see how great a help this little rule will be to you. The next time you feel yourself growing angry, just say this text to yourself: ‘swift to hear, slow to speak.’ Don’t say a word, but listen to what the person you are with has to say. And if he does not say anything, encourage him to speak, but do not say one word that can sound like anger. And while you are checking yourself, just say a short quick prayer to God to be with you and to keep your heart calm and still. God is really very near to you. The Holy Ghost is within you. Pray that the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of Peace may move over the surface of your soul and still the tempest that is rising. And your prayer will be answered. Even while you listen to what your neighbour has to say, God will drive away the rising anger from your heart, and even though (as men say) you might have had a good right to be angry, the very fact of your not being angry will help to set things straight again, and you will go on with your day’s work quietly and steadily with the sense of God being with you.

IV. We ought all of us to behave in this way quite as a matter of course; for it is upon doing these commonplace things that the reality of our Christian life depends. It is for want of these matters of Christian carefulness and Christian watchfulness that our improvement in Christianity is so spoiled; and, therefore, no doubt it is that God inspired St. James to write in another place, that ‘if any man seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, this man’s religion is vain.’ Think what a terrible thing it is for our religion to be all empty, and vain, and fruitless.

Illustration

‘Often it happens that while the angry fit is on, Satan leads you into some further and deeper sin, and then at night he is at your ear to tell you it is no use for such a sinner as you to try and pray to God. He tells you, you ought to be ashamed of such hypocrisy as kneeling down and praying to God at night when you have done so wrong during the day after all your good resolutions in the morning. And then, perhaps, you give way to these thoughts, and go to rest without repenting or confessing your sin, and then the next morning the same thing may happen again, and you go on for days living like a heathen, and all through that one sin of anger letting in a whole flood of sins, and giving the Devil the mastery of you, and shutting you out from God. Many a man’s religion is ruined in this way.’