They are so simple, but are you doing them? Further, how do they relate to the Law of love?
Three Pillars for Conducting Myself in Righteousness
James 1:19-20
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
In your Bibles, please turn to James 1:19. As you are turning there, I want to remind us that we are all sinners saved by grace. At least, all of us who are saved, are sinners saved by grace. If anyone here is not saved, then they are unsaved sinners, which means that they are lost and they are separated from God. This is the way it is with everyone who does not know and love the Savior and Lord as their own Savior and Lord. But, all of us who are saved are sinners saved by grace. Nevertheless, even after we are saved, we recognize that sin is there crouching at our door. Sin is no longer master over us. Rather, we are saved, and so Christ is our Master. But, sin is there. It is waiting. It's ready to strike us--or I should say, it's ready to serve us. The reason that I say that sin is ready to serve, is because Christ is our Master, meaning righteousness is our master, and because Christ is our Master, we are masters over our sin. The apostle Paul tells us this in Romans 6-8. So now that we are saved, God's Spirit urges us not to allow, or command sin to serve us as our servant. I'm talking about sin in respect to the flesh that Paul speaks of in Galatians 5, where he says,
"13 For you were called to freedom, brothers; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, ...
[In context, Paul is talking about the sinful flesh of the remnant of Adam. Then Paul goes on to what those who are no longer slaves of sin should be doing.]
... but through love serve one another."
Love is God's great solvent that dissolves away sin. Love is that beautiful power that moves us. Love heals those whom it touches. Love is the great counter-weapon in God's arsenal against sin. And so instead of being slaves of sin where we are lost and in bondage to the flesh, we serve one another in the God-given bond of sinless love. So I'll continue reading in Galatians, where Paul continues,
"... 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." Galatians 5:13-17
We all know that the battle is bloody. It is relentless. And here is the thing we really need to realize; sin has so much more to do with our fleshly attitudes toward God and our neighbor than many of us imagine. We can not control sin, and we can not love properly unless we are empowered by God to do so. The Holy Spirit recognizes the battle. The Holy Spirit reveals the details in His word. The Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome the life cycles of sin that we produce in our lives. In the flow of James, James has been saying essentially the same thing as Paul. The powerful thrust of James cuts deep as he tells us that we must put the blame upon ourselves when we sin. We are tempted when we are lured away by our own lust. Lust is a tempting harlot. But we create her, and that is the irony. We create her, and she is lust; then we reach after her until we fulfill our craving, and then when lust has conceived, (and it's our fault that she does) then her impregnation matures. She gives birth to your sin. It is your sin. When it is brought forth, it completes the insidious cycle and the end result is death. And so this is the life cycle of sin. On the other hand, God, the Father of our eternal life as the Father of all lights, in the exercise of His determination, conceives us in radiant glory. He births us as children of light, where we are created to be lights that shine in the darkness. You are a fruit of His created harvest. And so you must go on each and every day. We go on putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit and we displace those sinful deeds with love deeds. This is what James is focused on in our text under study this morning. Let's continue with the flow of thought now, starting in verse 19 and going to verse 27,
"19 This you know, my beloved brothers: But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 because the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. 26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
Please prepare your minds to learn some life changing truths from this great epistle of James. The sermon is titled,
"Three Pillars for Conducting Myself in Righteousness"
[prayer]
How many of us here recognize that God wants us to be learners? God desires for His children to be learners who grow first by the milk of the word, and then continuing to grow, we mature by the tougher meat of the word. God wants us to make sure that we gather facts and concepts together to make proper assessments. God knows that being a learner is so vital for conducting ourselves in righteousness. James knows this too, and so James, led by the Spirit, starts out this section, saying,
"19 This you know, [or, Know this, as the ESV has it] my dearly loved brothers: But everyone must be quick to hear,"
This is what we also need to know. It is the first pillar we are going to examine this morning for conducting ourselves in righteousness.
/1/
A man who is a learner is a man who is quick to listen. As a first principle, a man must not simply just be quick to listen, but he must be quick to listen to God. God's word is there for all of us in our culture to have, to study at our leisure, to dissect, to analyze, and to practice. But it is God's word, and so we have it, and we can do all of those things with it, but then we need to do the most important thing with it; We need to pay attention to what it actually says to us, and we need to do it fast. We must be quick about it. From God's word, we learn that God's power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence, 2 Peter 1:3. So, there it is. It is the true knowledge of Him, and it has everything God wants you to have. But how quick are we to listen to what we have? What I mean is that we sit here this morning, and we all know that we need to be about the urgent task of redeeming the short time. We rest in Christ's finished work, but being quick to hear is a work that we must be doing while we are redeeming the short time. And so we have God's words; and we really do study at our leisure, (at least some of us do) and we dissect, and we analyze, but God is telling us that there is an urgency that has to do with manifesting the godliness of God's word this week--today--right now. Just so you'll get what I am saying, let me ask you this question:
Is your life manifested as a life of Biblical action?
Are you characterized as manifesting quick acting, long lasting faith?
Think about your overall Christian walk. Right now, at this moment in history;
Is your life characterized as a biblically commendable life where you are known to instantly strive for exemplary Christianity?
We all know that God gives us the gift of faith. We also realize that there is always room for growth and improvement. But, I am not talking about the gifting to be eternally spiritually saved. I am talking about how you think and act right now within your salvation.
Are you considered mature, sound, and stable in the walk of Christ? Are you known to those around you as being godly?
Are you known for bringing the conversation around to spiritual things, which are things that really matter the most?
Are you known as someone who is a doer of God's word?
People who are quick to hear, quick to listen, (who readily pay attention to the word of God) are people who manifest all of these traits. If you are slow to hear it, then you are slow to grow. Folks, it takes more than being quick to hear an interesting passage out of the Bible in a time of discovery. It takes more than being quick to listen to it preached as an interesting tidbit from a preacher. What it takes is being sensitive to the Holy Spirit as God brings those very same words to your mind in various situations of life all day long. God is talking to us Christians all the time, and when God quickly brings those things from His word to your mind, He expects quick action. This reminds me of something that happened a few months ago with a young man I know. He's in college. He loves the Lord. He was invited to go to a Bible study that was being held at an overpriced coffee bar. The Bible study was on Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. Points were brought out by the Bible study facilitator on how wonderful it was that these historical figures were so faithful to God through their trials. Those faithful men of God refused to bow down to serve false gods. Those faithful servants of Yahweh refused to compromise. They were quick to hear their Lord. They were quick to act. You see, the word of God is powerful. Such Bible studies about men of faith who refuse to compromise are meant to be powerful. We must be quick to hear from God's word about men of God who are quick to hear God's word. Later, the conversation turned to confronting other Christians who are living in blatant, unrepentant sin. The word of God was held up as the high standard. We must be quick to hear it. Properly using the word of God is the only correct way to confront someone with their sin in hopes that they will also be quick to hear like from Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Timothy 5:20 and so forth. But then later, the group went over to the Bible study facilitator's home, where they ended up watching an R rated movie. R, means Restricted--but not for this group. Suddenly, the group was quick to see and quick to hear depictions of the sordid life of the dark culture of the lost. In realistic ways, people were murdered in graphic, bloody, shock scenes. Sandwiched in with all the violence and indecent showing of unclothed bodies, the family entertainment review that I read on the movie, warned that the foul language was so bad that the words could not be repeated. There were scenes of sexual immorality. There were scenes of violence that no Christian should watch, and typical of the average Hollywood fare, the whole story was built and driven on the foundation of the futility of the Gentile mind that God speaks to us about separating from in His word. What is amazing about this, and is why I am sharing this story with you, is that it demonstrates, in a stark way, how quick any of us, (and I'm talking to you and me) can hear the word of the light of God, and then instantly, in just a matter of moments, be just as quick to turn it off, and then quickly listen to the word of the darkness of sin. I share this story because I want us all to think about ourselves. I want Kerry to think about Kerry wherever I am, and whatever I am doing. I want you to think about you. Let's all think about our own lives as we retrace the events of the illustration I am sharing, and ask ourselves;
What happened to the word of God?
Remember, we need to be quick to hear at the times that the Bible study is over. We need to be quick to hear when the preaching has ceased. But think about the snare of being slow to hear--when? Well, when we want to be slow to hear--right? You see, it has to do with what you want. What happened to all the great truth that God was speaking concerning Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego? What happened to the great and glorious life of not bowing down to false gods? What happened to the high, worthy, and relevant virtue of not compromising in godliness. What happened to the whole subject of how to confront other Christians when we see that they are living in sin? We might not be in a trendy coffee bar franchise. There might not be something called a facilitator moving the conversation along for us each and every day, but, we are still in the process of studying God's word. You see folks, God is always speaking. He never stops, and so the question is; are we the ones who have stopped listening when it counts, by turning down the volume of our Lord's voice? Let me repeat that again;
Are you deciding not to listen at the moment that it really counts, which is when the Holy Spirit is convicting you while you are out on the daily battle field of life?
My point is that being quick to hear, means being quick to hear when it matters--which means not only in the Bible study, or during a sermon, or right before going to bed, but also in the arena of our own daily life dramas when we are faced with real life situations and we have God's word in our minds, and God speaks to us by His Spirit, and rather than being quick to turn Him off like a light switch, we are quick to say to our commander,
"Yes sir! I hear what you are saying. My Christianity is real in every pocket of life. I know you are speaking to me right now. Yes, my Lord, I will be quick to listen to what you are saying, and I will obey you like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, no matter what the cost!"
God's word is clear on the matter of serving other Gods. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, knew this. They knew that God had spoken and said,
"You shall have no other gods before Me." Exodus 20:3
But king Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue, Daniel 3:1. It was a false god. He wanted everyone to bow down and worship it. We find them all over the place in our own culture. They are false gods that demand our worship and devotion. They just have a different shape. They're made out of different materials. But they are false gods that demand our quick worship and quick devotion. They can be movies. They can be philosophies. They can be sexual sins, they can be trivial pursuits--music, or hobbies, but they are false gods that are begging for your attention to turn you away from the voice of the one true God. Remember--if the people refused to do as king Nebuchadnezzar commanded, they would be thrown into a furnace--(burned alive). Interestingly enough, our temptations toward the false gods of our own culture, are not tempting us at the threat of death, are they? Answer this question;
How many sins have you sinned this week because you were threatened with death?
And yet, look how easy it is to bow down to appease our own desires over God's desires for us. But, the day came to bow down to that false god that the king had made. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were quick to listen to the word of God; so, they refused to bow down. The king expected them to be quick to hear himself. He threatened them with death, but what did they say?
"17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But even if He does not,
[Even if we burn and scream in agonizing pain with the flesh searing off of our bodies]
let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Daniel 3:17-18
They knew what God could do. But that is not what drove their actions. What drove their actions is what God did do. What God did do, is speak. God spoke, and no matter what would happen, God said,
"You shall have no other gods before Me."
This is the fundamental basic of being quick to hear. It is to be quick to hear the word of your Lord who guides you by His Spirit with His word. Brothers and sisters, we must be quick to hear. We have so much more than Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego who lived under the Old Covenant Law of Moses. We have the New Covenant in Christ, where He is our all in all. We have God's special revelation to us from His apostles and prophets of the New Testament. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in the miracle of salvation; powered by God to live the Christian life. Speaking to us, we are told,
"faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Romans 10:17
We Christians must be quick to hear the word of Christ. If we do not, then we will be frozen in respect to what God wants us to believe and do in all aspects of our Christian lives. Faith comes from hearing, so be quick about it, and hearing by the word of Christ, so be quick about it!
This leads us to recognize a second area of importance in being quick to hear. It is the importance of being quick to hear what other gifted and called Christians are speaking to us as servants of the Lord. Unfortunately for a lot of Christians, the attribute of being quick to hear what others are saying is being replaced by the attribute that is becoming way too common in our day of being quick to ignore, or not pay attention. Since the advent of the protestant reformation, we have had 5 solid centuries of getting Bibles into the hands of people who are saved. At the same time, people who are saved have been getting some other things into their heads. Because of such great privileges being discovered from God's word like the great doctrine of the priesthood of the believer, plus the fact that we are all one in Christ, and the fact that we possess the very word of God for ourselves, the trend of the last century has been for the new believer to not only think that he should be an instantaneous expert in all matters of life and godliness, but that he must necessarily be an expert in all matters of life and godliness as a matter of spontaneous, instantaneous immediate, supernatural blessing. In other words, he is saved, and now God instantly makes him into an expert. It's bad theology, and false self assurance, but nevertheless this has been the trend. To bolster this, Bible passage are misused to bring the instant confidence, and the creeping trend that we should not be quick to listen to others in the body of Christ who can challenge our opinions, or give us God-given insights that we were previously ignorant of beforehand. The two passage that I am talking about are beautiful passages when recognized in their proper context, but out of context, they are utilized as ear muffs to create maverick Christians who are slow to hear, and quick to speak. How many of you have heard someone say,
"I don't need other Christians teaching me. All I need is the Bible."
You're not going to hear me say that, because I know from God's word, that Kerry needs other Christians teaching me along with the Bible. But when people say, I don't need other Christians teaching me. All I need is the Bible, they are making a very pious sounding declaration. It is a declaration, by the way, based upon Scripture, but it is based upon two passages that are orphaned from their contexts to mean what they were never meant to mean. The first one is out of 1 John. What you will usually hear someone say is, God says,
"... you have no need for anyone to teach you" 1 John 2:27
A few weeks ago, a member of our church got a call from a young man who just moved to San Antonio. I'll call him Todd. Todd had found Bridgeway on the internet. He said that he was an evangelist. He was looking for a church. The church member gave him my phone number, and so Todd called me. As we talked, I realized that I needed to ask Todd some pertinent questions about himself. I asked Todd if he was teachable. He said "yes." He said that God teaches him from His word, and then he quoted, 1 John 2:27. He said that we all have the anointing, and so we have no need for anyone else to teach us. I thought it was ironic that Todd was teaching me that I had no need of a teacher. We spoke for a few more minutes as I explained to him that God has ordained teachers within the body of Christ. I quoted 1 Timothy, Titus, and Ephesians. Then I explained that the Scriptures are not at odds with each other on these matters so there must be something about the verse that Todd quoted that means something different than what Todd wants it to mean. I told him to go get his Bible. He did. We went to 1 John 2:24-27, and we read it together. Let's look at the section this morning and see why using this passage as an excuse to be slow to hear someone else teach you from God's word is wrong, John says,
"26 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.
[mark that in your mind, or in your Bible, or both]
27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him." 1 John 2:24-27
The first thing we notice is that John is writing concerning certain people who are purposely trying to deceive the Asian churches. So the context is that John was battling those who were trying to deceive God's people. With the context of why John wrote this in mind, we realize that God's anointing actually does teach us about all spiritual things, and is not a lie. But at the same time God uses His anointed ministers to teach the body of Christ the truth, such as the very John who wrote that epistle, and me who is teaching from it right now, and you, and others. This is why the Administrative Pastor speaks insights from God's word into my life, and is why I have a group of theologians that I listen to on a regular basis for the purpose of learning. Listen, Biblical Pastors, and teachers, though not perfect, are not trying to deceive the other members of the body of Christ. If you find some special nugget of truth from God's word, and you want to share it with your brothers and sisters, you are not setting out to deceive them; and this is the point. It is the importance of being quick to hear what God is saying through other members of the body; especially, what other gifted and called Christians are speaking to us as servants of the Lord. I know that with me, the more I study and the more I learn, the more I realize how important this fact is. There are many, many times that I will hear another Christian make a spiritual comment to me for edification, or they are just simply making an observation, and I will hear something that is a gold nugget of truth that I had not thought of beforehand. It was something that I needed to hear. It is something that blesses me as the hearer. But, if I go through life thinking that I have some kind of exclusive anointing, and that I have all my sufficiency in my own study, and my own insights, then I miss out on part of what God has designed the body of Christ to do for me to perfect my own spiritual growth. If I believe the lie that I don't need to hear what other Christians have to say to me for my edification, then I have rejected God's word that tells me that I do. I have not been quick to hear.
Then there is that other passage I mentioned. I remember when I first heard it used by a maverick. She was out of fellowship. She manifested unteachableness. She rejected Biblical teaching, and in the course of our conversation, she sought, ironically enough, to establish her belief by teaching me from the Bible. This is always consistent by the way. People who think that they don't need to be taught, are always sharing their views with others in hopes of convincing them of what they believe. It's called teaching. Anyway, she said to me,
It says in Jeremiah that there will be no need for teachers again when Christ comes.
I knew what passage she was referring to, and to be quick to hear, you should be familiar with it too. It is a prophecy of salvation in the New Covenant in Messiah that was directed to Israel. It is Jeremiah 31:34, and it actually says,
"They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know Yahweh,' because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares Yahweh, 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.'" Jeremiah 31:34
As we can plainly see, the passage does, in fact, contain the words, "they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother," but we notice that some details are left out if we stop there, don't we? What will not need to be taught among Israelite Christians under the New Covenant, is,
"... know Yahweh. ...'
Why? Because the elect remnant out of apostate Israel, will have returned back to Yahweh, and so there will no longer be a reason to tell a saved Jew to know who their Savior is. This is why James assumes that the Christian Israelites to whom He is writing already know Yahweh. But look at the rest of the context. When we read it in connection with the New Testament revelation it makes perfect sense;
"... because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares Yahweh, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Clearly, God's teachers of the New Testament are not teaching other Christians to know Yahweh after evangelism has already taken place. What we are, in fact, teaching are the precepts of the faith in making disciples, as is our charge by Yahweh according to Jesus and the apostles of the New Testament. The point is that it is important to be quick to hear other Christians who are seeking to speak God's word into our lives.
And then there is how to do it. Yes it is quick, but it is also a kind of promptness that is courteous, attentive, and undistracted. Translated, it means you drop what you are doing, and you focus upon the words that are being spoken to you as if you have genuine interest. When we are doing this, we are manifesting the love of Christ for one another that God commands us to practice. It is a manifestation of love for Christ, and love for His body when we listen to the body that God has raised up to be His hands and His feet on earth. So, we must be quick to hear.
/2/
This leads us to consider the next pillar that James wants us to plant onto our Christian foundation,
"19 ... everyone must be ... slow to speak ..."
This one is easy to understand. It means, keep your mouth shut and don't be so quick to share your opinion. There are many reasons for this command, but I think that there is one that is the big primary one that James is getting at. But when we think of all the various reasons that can be given for being slow to speak, I think we do well to consider an old rhyming proverb that President Calvin Coolidge had inscribed over the fireplace of his home;
There was a wise owl who lived in an oak.
The more he knew, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he knew;
Does this wise owl sound like you?
One of the marks that colors the vast foolishness of our age, is not just the slowness to hear, but also the quickness people have in our generation in sharing their opinions. Instead of being quick to hear, they're quick to blurt out their own words. It is a self consuming ambition to advertise all of their thoughts, even if they are idiotic, foolish, and self shaming thoughts. The trend of this generation is that it is so consumed with its own importance that people just assume that what we say must be important. When we are quick to speak, it is way too easy to make mistakes, or it is way too easy to seek to justify our actions with our words. Listen to me; many, many people have had to apologize for saying something wrong, but by the same token, people don't usually need to apologize for not saying something wrong. Think about it. When you have your mouth open, and it's flapping, you can easily spit, drool, and catch flies in your flapping trap. You can easily blurt out foolishness that you think is wisdom. When your mouth is closed, though, there is safety. There is peace. James asks later, who can control the tongue? It is a restless evil. In Proverbs 17, we read,
"28 Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent." Proverbs 17:28
The old trite cliche' where someone says that they put their foot in their mouth is a saying that has to do with not taking the time to think through what you are going to say before you say it. Here's wisdom for us: Feet don't make it into mouths that are clamped shut. Now please pay special attention to what I am about to say. All these things are true concerning being slow to speak, but like I said, I think there is one primary meaning to this that James is getting at. I really think that the primary point that James is getting across here has to do with contemplating and mulling over what others say by holding onto and thinking through every sentence, every point, every word, in sincere, intense attention and thoughtfulness. It is a command to us that we must take the time to listen in the long term after we are quick to hear in the first place. Again,
We must take the time to listen in the long term after we are quick to hear in the first place.
When you and I are slow to speak, we are supposed to spend that time thinking really hard about what God is saying, or what His children are saying before we share our opinion, that is, if we say anything at all. I think that this is what James means by being slow to speak. So the point here, is that in this second pillar for conducting ourselves in righteousness we must pay attention, and give duration to the time of listening. Keep your opinion to yourself and only express it after mulling over what has been said to you, mainly because it will keep you from being quick to judge, and further, it will keep you from being quick to anger.
/3/
This leads us to the final pillar for conducting ourselves in righteousness.
"But everyone must be ... slow to anger; ..."
This last command is closely welded to the first two, but out of the three pillars that James says is necessary, this last command is especially important. The reason why it is especially important is because James goes on to say,
"20 because the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God."
Whereas, being quick to hear, and slow to speak are things that James says we must do in our conduct in righteousness, the anger of man does not, in any way, achieve God's righteousness. This is very important. Let's take a look at this more closely. As a first consideration, we all get angry. We recognize that God created us to experience emotions. Anger, as an emotion, is something that we express as a matter of being human. If a spouse discovers that the other spouse has been cheating, then the one that discovers the immorality, and breaking of covenant, is expected to have the normal reaction of being angry. When zealots, weirdos, and freaks do acts of terrorism, where men woman, and children are maimed, murdered, and molested, it is normal, and it is acceptable to be angry. For Christians, we recognize that when all these kinds of things happen, we may be angry, but we know that ultimately we are angry because of the sin that caused all of these kinds of things to happen. And so this leads us to recognize that not all anger is unrighteous. We read in Ephesians 4:26 to be angry at sin in our midst as a church body, but not to let the sun go down on our anger. To have this kind of anger is to have righteous anger. We know from such passages as Psalm 7, that God has righteous anger. But, still we notice the words of James echoing in our minds,
"But everyone must be ... slow to anger; 20 because the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God."
James is talking about becoming angry in our flesh. Many times this is manifested in emotional rage that is typically unrestrained. Unrestrained emotion driven actions seldom achieve wisdom and righteousness. In the same manner, emotion driven anger seldom achieves the righteousness of God that God wants us to manifest in this world. It blocks out love, and that is why I started out this sermon with what Paul says in Galatians. I'm talking about sin as representative of the flesh that Paul speaks of in Galatians 5. Here's how you counter it;
"... through love serve one another." Galatians 5:13
Love is that great solvent that dissolves sin. Love is that beautiful power that moves us. Love heals those whom it touches. Love is truly the great counter-weapon in God's arsenal against fleshly anger. But by the same token, anger can dissolve away that love. Fleshly anger and godly love are opposed to each other.
Okay at this point, we need to ask, How do we know that James is talking about anger being opposed to love? Well, he mentions the great law of love in the flow of thought, but we must consider that James has been talking about controlling and directing yourself. Being quick to hear is something that you have to do as a matter of control and direction. Being slow to speak is something you have to do as a matter of control and direction. Being slow to anger is the same thing. Think about this for a moment. When we are in a dizzied mindset of anger, we can be self deceived about love. What I mean is that while we are fumbling around in a cloud of anger, we can smugly try to justify actions which lack the love of Christ that God wants us to manifest. How many spouses have destroyed their husbands, or annihilated their wives by saying devastating things in a fit of anger, and then later on, they seek to justify their actions by saying,
Well, I was angry.
Like that is supposed to be an excuse. Or worse, they put the blame on the other person by thinking that a quick dismissal justifies everything by saying,
You made me angry. If you wouldn't have made me angry, then none of this would have happened.
Such statements don't achieve the righteousness of God. How many times have husbands and wives gone to bed in a dark chamber of wordless silence and contempt because of anger? It did not achieve righteousness. It achieved wordless silence and contempt. The problem with anger is not so much anger, but it is anger as sin. Sinful anger gets angry for the wrong reasons. It is the anger of self. It is not the anger of God. Sinful anger of self gets angry for the wrong reasons, and it manifests itself wrongly. Therefor, it never, ever achieves the righteousness of God. Think of how Cain became angry with Abel. It was sinful anger because Cain was jealous. He didn't love Abel. Cain loved himself. And what did it lead to? It led to murder. Moses got angry when he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite slave. He realized that he was also an Israelite, and so he became consumed with ethnic pride and revenge. He was not trying to achieve the righteousness of God. He was trying to achieve the revenge upon the Egyptians that he was feeling inside as a fellow Israelite. Rather than achieving the righteousness of God, which was to come at the proper time--40 years later by the way--Moses achieved bringing even more wrath of unrighteous Pharaoh down upon the Israelites. When we are angry as a matter of our selfish sin natures, then we beget the life cycle of sin;
"22 An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression." Proverbs 29:22
These are the facts, and we know it to be true. So what is the remedy? The remedy is to be nurturing the enduring attributes of the grace and love of Christ. When someone, or some situation that typically causes anger has details behind it that seek to explain what is going on, then in grace and love, we need to quickly listen. First listen to the word of God on the matter, then listen to the facts. Be slow to contradict, or question what you are hearing. Quickness to contradict, question, and judge, can quickly lead to anger. Then push the grace and love command to the forefront of your own life, and purpose in your heart to be slow to anger. It will take humbleness. But it can be done. It would not be a command unless it can be done. Don't make excuses for your anger folks. In other words, don't try to make your anger into something that you claim was meant to achieve the righteousness of God. It doesn't work. It is only through quickly appropriating the word of God into your life that you will be able to overcome this human tendency toward that fleshly kind of unrighteous anger. And you can only do this through the power of Christ in you. We are not saved by our holiness, but we are saved to be holy. So, as we draw upon our salvation to control ourselves, we need to recognize that we can do it, and we need to recognize that we need to do it. God wants us to be slow to anger, so we must admit that this is a big problem and not try to call it something small and insignificant. The only way we can have victory in this area is to see carnal anger as being just as bad as adultery, and deception, and stealing, and gossip, and all the things that do not achieve the righteousness of God. Paul said that we need to be thinking of all of these things equally. If we don't, then we will think we have been doing just fine because we have put anger over in another category somewhere. But Paul says,
"1 Therefore, having these promises, dearly loved ones, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Corinthians 7:1
I urge you to be quick to hear, and slow to speak.
"Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him" Proverbs 29:20
I urge you to be slow to anger. You know you can do it. You have seen how it is when you've lost your temper, and suddenly someone knocks at the door. You are instantly able to quell your anger. We all know what it is like to be angry, and then when someone calls on the phone, instantly we are able to quell that anger. This is what God wants but he wants us to quell it beforehand. I strongly urge you to plant these three pillars for conducting yourself in righteousness in the foundation of your Christian life. Do so, and you will be moved in the direction to cleansing yourself from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
