Slow to Wrath
James is such a practical book. He always has a way of getting to the bottom line. Of course, the Holy Spirit was inspiring him to write these things, but He allowed James to have his own vocabulary and style. In the case of anger or wrath his instruction is priceless. We must realize that "the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." (James 1:19,20) Therefore, we need to change our thinking about anger and tame it.
Some people really believe that by getting angry they can produce good results. That is hardly ever the case. It is always the case with the anger or wrath of man. Human anger is anger directed toward people or things. When we lose our temper toward those things, we never produce a righteous result. It is always harmful, instead of healing and edifying. God's anger is against sin. It is right to be angry toward sin. However, only God knows completely how to be angry with sin, so that He does just the right thing, not too much or too little in response.
Once we learn that principle, we must decide to be swift to hear others and to listen to exactly what they are saying. We must purpose in our hearts to be slow to speak, so we can consider carefully what to say and how to say it with God's help. Then, we must be slow to wrath. In fact, we must be so slow to get angry that we never carry out our anger on people and things. This is so much easier when we convince ourselves that the anger will not produce righteousness in those instances.
Tomorrow, I intend to read James 2-4.
Some people really believe that by getting angry they can produce good results. That is hardly ever the case. It is always the case with the anger or wrath of man. Human anger is anger directed toward people or things. When we lose our temper toward those things, we never produce a righteous result. It is always harmful, instead of healing and edifying. God's anger is against sin. It is right to be angry toward sin. However, only God knows completely how to be angry with sin, so that He does just the right thing, not too much or too little in response.
Once we learn that principle, we must decide to be swift to hear others and to listen to exactly what they are saying. We must purpose in our hearts to be slow to speak, so we can consider carefully what to say and how to say it with God's help. Then, we must be slow to wrath. In fact, we must be so slow to get angry that we never carry out our anger on people and things. This is so much easier when we convince ourselves that the anger will not produce righteousness in those instances.
Tomorrow, I intend to read James 2-4.