Anytime you engage in a conversation with someone there are always assumptions that are carried into it within yourself and the individual you are communicating with. These assumptions are largely based on the culture and context in which you live. They influence what words you use to communicate and also influence how those words are defined. Often when we engage in conversation many of our assumptions match that of those with whom we are communicating. The closer someone is to your current context and culture the closer the words you use to communicate and their definitions will be to each other.
However, where many people go wrong is in trusting these assumptions apply to all conversations. For instance, in some parts of the United States if you walk into a restaurant and ask for a coke you might get asked by the waitress in return, “what kind would you like?” And you thought there was only one type of coke, you know the one in the red can and the polar bears at Christmas. The reality is in some parts of the country coke is synonymous with all types of sodas or pop. And there we have two more words that all speak of the same things in different parts of the country.
The point is, while we have a common vernacular and share many of the same words, often we assume more meaning in words than are really being communicated. This happens all the time in confrontations or debates. Many times individuals will be arguing for something very similar but be defining their terms in different ways. Therefore, causing disagreement and confusion between parties. Where many people go off track is not taking the time to listen and understand what the words that are being communicated actually mean.
When it comes to our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, we often struggle with this challenge of communication. Often we approach God’s word with our own assumptions and understandings. Some of us carry within us assumptions built on a life lived in church and others may be a life lived away from the things of God. The reality is that each of us has our own assumptional baggage that we carry from the culture and context in which we have lived our lives. We approach familiar passages of Scripture and we assume the meaning of the content withheld in them. Sometimes these assumptions are correct and sometimes they are not.
James tells his readers to “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” This advice comes as James is encouraging his readers to live righteous lives that are actively seeking to be obedient to the Word of God. I believe first and foremost that this challenge given by James is wrapped up in an individual’s relationship with God. What I mean by this is that when we seek to know God more through Christ and to live lives of obedience to the Word we are challenged to be quick to hear the Word, slow to speak, and slow to anger. But what does this look like?
First, being slow to speak is wrapped up in the art of listening. This is where our assumptions must be brought to bear and dealt with accordingly. In a very practical sense when we approach the Word of God we need to make sure that we truly are listening, in that we are truly seeking to understand what is being communicated through the words that God chose to speak. These words, as recorded from the beginning of Genesis through the end of Revelation, are God’s very words. When you read them they are exactly what God wanted you to read. But they carry within them the meanings that God also intended. God knew the individuals he chose to communicate through in the writing of the Scriptures. He knew everything about them, their culture, their context, their language, and every little detail of their lives. He chose them to write His very words in their specific context. Therefore, when we approach a text we must seek to understand its context and place in time and space. We must seek to understand what was originally meant. We must be quick to listen; in that, we do not automatically assume we know what is being said without first taking the time to understand what is being said.
Second, we must be slow to speak. This is hard for all of us and James understood this. After all, he said, “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”. When it comes to our relationship with God this can play out in several different ways. Being slow to speak can also be a part of checking our assumptions and removing those which do not align with the text. After we have listened to the word (ie. Sought to understand what was originally meant) we must be slow to speak, in that we must carefully apply what we have learned and let that truth silence our faulty assumptions. This takes time and patience which leads to the final point of being slow to anger.
We tend to get angry when things don’t go as we assume they should. This is never more true than when we come face to face with a truth in Scripture that completely defies and contradicts what we have always assumed. This can be frustrating and even cause anger. When we have held onto certain assumptions and beliefs our entire life we develop not only a strong conviction for them but an emotional attachment to them. It can be downright maddening for some who have had long heads beliefs and assumptions about God or the Bible only to find out that those assumptions and beliefs were incorrect all along. At this point, if the individual has not been quick to hear the word and slow to speak then anger is ultimately an inevitable result. This anger James says “does not produce the righteousness of God.”
It takes humility to listen and hold our tongues but when we operate in this manner we are in a better position to glorify God. It is from this position that we must come to God and acknowledge that we don’t know it all and that we need to seek to understand what He has communicated to us. Many times we would much rather have God speak directly to us through a still small voice or through some sort of sign but this is not how God desires to speak to us. When we seek these other avenues to hear from God we are actually not being quick to hear and slow to speak. We are being impatient and ignoring what God has already said. As the old Hymn goes, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in God’s excellent Word! What more can be said than to you God hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”
God has spoken to us through the Scriptures and we must humbly come to Him and listen to what He has said in them. This is hard because we have to actively listen and seek to understand and in this understanding allow it to quiet our assumptions. When we do this and we humbly accept what God has given us and except the time it takes to understand it our anger and frustration will be slowed. When we start with God and practice these things in our relationship with Him I believe we will find that these actions will overflow into the relationships we have with those around us. As God changes you through the study of His Word you will find that every other relationship in your life will change as well. So as James states let us, every one of us, “be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
-Pastor Tim