🕊️ James 1:19-20 | Patience People Notice

Happy Friday, {{first_name | everyone}}!

Here’s a great quote from author Gary Chapman to start your weekend:

God’s forgiveness is always in response to man’s repentance.

Let’s wrap up the week!

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James 1:19-20

All week, we’ve been meditating on James 1:19-20. Let’s review what we’ve learned!

On Monday, we met the author, James who most most scholars believe grew up as Jesus' brother (yet didn't believe in him until he met the risen Christ).

After that, he went on to lead the church in Jerusalem.

We looked at the overall passage and saw that our memory verses come right after James writes about new birth. So being "quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" is a picture of how people who have been born again are meant to live.

On Tuesday, we looked at where James calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22).

We then looked at the difference between two kinds of anger: sinful anger guards my pride, and righteous anger guards God's glory.

If we're honest, most of our anger is the first kind. (Case in point: the wedding where my real frustration was about my reputation, not my antsy two-year-old.)

On Wednesday, we slowed down on the Greek of verse 20.

The word for "produce" (ergazomai) means to labor and yield a result, and James says our anger simply does not yield the righteous life that God desires (dikaiosynē).

We also compared how the internet runs on outrage and rage-bait (anger-inducing headlines get clicks, and clicks make money), and how living out James 1:19-20 is how we can live in the way of righteousness instead.

And on Thursday, we followed "slow to anger" back to its source.

It's exactly how God described himself to Moses (Exodus 34:6), and it’s what Jesus embodied during his life and ministry.

At the cross, God’s anger was poured out. But even though we deserved to be on the receiving end of it, he poured it out on his Son.

And in doing so, He broke the power of sin and reconciled us to God once and for all.

The world is often loud and angry, so people notice when you are not.

In my first job out of college, I was managing a team and one of my team members said:

I really appreciate that you don’t lose your cool when things go wrong like our previous managers did. It makes me less anxious coming to work knowing you’re not going to lose your temper on us.

I wasn't preaching at anyone. But what I did (or didn’t do) with my anger made an impact on others.

When the news, the group chat, the traffic, or the people in your own house give you reasons to be angry, be slow to anger.

And when someone notices, you have something to say: that you are slow to anger because God has been slow to anger with you.

So carry the verse into the weekend. The next time your internal temperature rises:

🙏 Pray

Father, thank you for a week in your Word, and for being endlessly patient with me. You have never once lost your temper with me the way I deserve. This weekend, when I am provoked, give me the presence of mind to pause and call your slowness to anger to mind. And if others notice, give me an opportunity to share about you. Amen.

Here are a few resources to help you dig deeper into our memory verse and its themes:

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Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

James 1:19-20