Quick to Listen

 

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. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:19-25 ESV).

 

It doesn’t seem to matter how often we’re reminded that God made us with two ears and one mouth. Some folks are just not good at listening! We talk to them, and before our story is half done, they’re responding with a better story of their own. Our reading today calls us to be good listeners. When we listen too little and talk too much, we show that we think our ideas are more important than the ideas of others. But James grabs us by the elbow, turns us aside, and warns us, “Everyone should be quick to listen, [and] slow to speak …”

 

In today’s world of near instant information sharing through any one of several technological platforms or media, we must be more careful than ever before. We may think we’ve had a wonderful conversation with someone—until we are asked what they’ve said. If we can’t recall, that’s probably a danger sign. Someone else may have been a good listener, but we weren’t.

 

James’s letter is about applying our faith and making sure that we live out our faith in line with God’s will. Words about being saved by grace and not by works are absolutely true; however, we must also recognize the reality of our faith becoming the work of grace in what we do also. How we treat others, especially with our words is so important in accurately reflecting the glory of God’s grace at work in us. Jesus teaches this in his parables. James applies it to our need to treat people well in all our relationships.

 

We ought to be careful in our relationships not to be quick to become angry because we haven’t bothered to listen carefully. If so, we’d listen better by hearing both the words and the heart of the person who is talking. That takes both ears!