Slowness
Everyone knows someone with a temper. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, but if something goes wrong, he immediately starts yelling or shouting. He doesn’t listen to what the other people around him are saying since he’s convinced that he’s right, and they’re all wrong. This kind of person is a horrible example of a Christian, but, sadly, there are a lot of Christians who act like that.
James writes a lot on this subject. In James 1:19, he tells us that we need to be fast to listen, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Rather than just making assumptions and exploding when people around us say or do things that we don’t like, we need to hear them out first before we start saying anything. How many of us have been yelled at or criticized for something we didn’t even do because the other person wouldn’t hear us out? If you have, you probably weren’t happy about it, so why would you turn around and do that to someone else?
James goes on to say in James 1:26, that any man who seems to be religious, but doesn’t control his tongue, he’s deceiving himself, and his religion is in vain. If we are truly religious or saved, our lives will reflect that, and we won’t have outbursts like that. If there is no change, do we truly believe in God and have faith? James says, in James 2:6, faith without works is dead. If we truly have faith in God, then our actions are going to demonstrate that faith.
Later on, in James 3, he criticizes people who worship God, and then turn around and curse their fellow men. He uses an analogy of a fountain, asking if pure water and bitter water come out of the same fountain. The answer, obviously, is no. His point is why then should our mouths put out good and bad? If we’re saved, it should be good; it shouldn’t vary from situation to situation.
It’s hard to control our tongues, but we need to learn how. How many friendships or relationships have we damaged because we haven’t controlled our tongues? How much worse have we made situations because we’ve exploded at someone because we didn’t like what they were saying?
