James: Quick & Slow

Continuing our series on the book of James, in James 1:19-21 we learn from James that if you manage your tongue and temper, you'll be happier and others will be blessed, and that, if you tend the soil of your heart well, you'll bear fruit for that is personally satisfying and will feed others.

James urges us to be quick to listen, especially to God's Word; slow to speak, sharing the truth in love when we need to; and slow to anger, because God is Himself slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He warns us that worldly anger will lead us into sin and that instead of seeking human anger we should seek to serve God's righteousness. He concludes this thought by urging us to purge evil and sow the implanted Word. Born by the Word of Truth, we should be quick to listen to, receive, and share this Word so that it may produce fruit in the good soil of a faithful heart, a heart motivated not by human anger but by divine righteousness.