Have your Bible handy to reference the scripture for this part. The lesson is available on YouTube and FB under the same title. Today’s scripture: James 1:19-27

The first part of Lesson 5 is taken from James 1:19-21.

This part deals initially with anger.  We are told to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry.  Why?  Because human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires from our lives.

We sometimes describe those who become angry quickly as having a short fuse or being hot-tempered.  Fuses are typically used to light off explosives.  Explosives are destructive in nature.  They create holes, blow things apart and cause damage to whatever is near them.  They are even capable of creating death for living things, from plants to people.

Anger works just like an explosive device.  Anger destroys.  It creates empty places in relationships.  Anger causes division, sometimes even among friends or family members.  It has a rippling effect that reaches out beyond the person who is angry and touches the lives of other people.  These negative effects of anger are why it does not, cannot produce the holy lifestyle God wants us to  live.

Before we are told to be slow to be angry, we are told to be quick to listen and slow to speak.  We are to do more than hear voices and use our own voices in response.  We are to listen, pay attention to what others say, take the time and effort to understand what they say.  Many people don’t listen during conversations.  They are merely waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can say what’s on their mind.

The man who made the greatest impact on my life when I was young was my Uncle Daniel Roberts.  Uncle Daniel didn’t talk much.  He did a great deal more listening than he did talking.  I discovered over time that it was to my advantage to pay attention to what he said when he did talk.  

I had the privilege of living in his home for about eight years.  During that time, I never heard my Uncle Daniel raise his voice in anger to anyone, even to me when I did some things that caused him unneeded work or expense.  The hardest word I heard him say was “shaw.”  (You folks from the south may have heard that from an elder in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s.). A board on a hog pen fence split out and fell to the ground as he was nailing one end to a post, and that was his reaction. 

My Uncle Daniel had gotten rid of the filth and evil in his life long before I went to live with him and my Aunt Bertha.  He had humbly accepted the word God had planted in his heart.  His soul had been saved through faith in Jesus.  He was able to live a life that demonstrated the kind of righteousness God desired for him to have.  He was quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry.

Oh, to be like my Uncle Daniel.