Thought for week ending 9 January 2026

 

James 1:19-22

¹⁹ Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. ²⁰ Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. ²¹ So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.  ²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 

I was in the company of a man recently who was voicing off about another man along the lines of ‘he should never be in that position’, ‘he’s useless’, ‘he’s not doing what he’s supposed to’ and this went on at length.  After he got all that off his chest, he went on to phase 2, how he was going to bring him down, how he was going to embarrass him, how he was going to ensure he got what was coming.  I’ve been in this man’s company a few times and the conversation has always come back to this same subject about the same man.  It made me think about a few things, firstly, what good could come from all of this, secondly,  was the criticism warranted and thirdly, if some form of revenge or payback could be achieved would that conclude the matter or would it still be simmering?  It also made me think about all the energy and time required to continue this personal vendetta and what could be achieved if this time and energy was used for something more positive or constructive and it also made myself and others reluctant to be in his company. 

On considering today’s extract from scripture, James asks us to be better listeners, to take a little time to think  before speaking and just maybe if we did these two things, it would lessen the chances of anger developing.  Anger, or the whole process of getting angry ‘does not produce the righteousness that God desires’.  We are asked to get rid of all the things in our lives that are separating us from the righteousness that God promises because seriously, it can make the difference between being saved and being condemned.  Finally, we are told that it is futile to continually read or hear the Word of God if we do not apply these teachings to our personal lives. 

There’s a whole lot to take in from today’s reading and maybe at this time, in the early part of a New Year, it is as good a time as any to take on board the teaching that it offers.  Maybe this could be the time to let the things go in our lives that have been dragging us down and use the energy and time freed up by these actions to replace them with the behaviours that can be learned from the scriptures and avoid becoming like the gentleman previously mentioned in today’s first paragraph. 

Prayer

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word and the wise instructions it contains. We now know that having a quick temper and easily becoming angry does not benefit us or those around us and that this type of behaviour does not meet with your approval.  We realise how important it is to not only have a genuine faith by trusting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus at Calvary, but to be a fruitful Christian in word and in deed.  May we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as we abide in Him. May we bring forth much fruit to your praise and glory.  This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.