The Anger of Man
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
-Good to be back
-Typical Intro
-Series in James
-Open your bibles…
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
So getting into it…we see three main chunks to this passage. I want to evaluate each one of them…and let’s start with the first one. That is…The Standard.
The Standard
We see this in verse 19. I know we just read it, but let’s look at it again.
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
This is the standard…meaning, this is how we are suppose to act. This is the target if our life/emotions/interactions are the arrow. Now, I don’t want us to get completely moral in this message, meanign that all we need to do is do these things and we’re good, we don’t need Jesus…not my goal…but it is my goal for us to understand the standard of what it looks like to know Jesus…and this verse lists a few characteristics of that standard. Three to be specific.
Be quick to hear.
Another way to say this…is be quick to listen. That’s actually how I memorized it.
This is not unlike many other wisdom teaching in God’s word. We call James the proverbs of the New Testament, here’s some related teaching from the actual Proverbs of the OT.
Scripture:
15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
but a wise man listens to advice.
31 The ear that listens to life-giving reproof
will dwell among the wise.
Now that doesn’t mean that we are submitting to every little thing we hear…we still have standards. If we are obeying what we hear it needs to be rooted in God’s word and his will. It needs to be advice from God’s people.
So don’t think that just because it says quick to hear, it means we are submitting to everything we hear. But it DOES mean that we are able to hear it, and articulate what we’ve heard, even if we aren’t agreeing or following it.
Political example.
Be slow to speak.
This one’s pretty straight forward.
28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;
when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
Not only is there wisdom in being slow to move our moths, but there’s literally an appearance of wisdom that happens when we are slow to speak.
Now notice, it doesn’t say remain silent.
It doesn’t say be cowardly.
It doesn’t say be passive.
No, we are to be bold…bold to preach the gospel, bold to live a life for Christ, bold to fight for justice and goodness in our world…but as we do it…we are called to be wise in our words, not careless, or needless.
The idea of being slow to speak isn’t waiting tens second before you open the mouth…
Flippen Illustration
It’s not counting to twenty before you respond…
It being deliberate, intentional, and wise in the words that do come out.
To summarize our first two sub-points, look at this passage.
8 The wise of heart will receive commandments,
but a babbling fool will come to ruin.
Onto our last sub-point, and sort of the the idea this passage swings on…
Be slow to anger.
Let me ask you a question.
If you were in your kitchen, and you hit your head on a cabinet that someone left open, and you felt anger at it…did you sin because you were quick to anger?
If you stubbed your toe tonight while playing laser tag because you were running from someone breaking the rules, and you felt anger rise up in you immediately…is that sin?
Target with Illustration
Is it wrong for me to feel it?
No.
Let me show you.
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
4 Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
Command: Be angry. Let it happen.
Conflict: How can we be commanded to be angry, and yet commanded to be slow to anger?
Answer: Slow to anger doesn’t mean feeling it…it’s acting it.
Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger…meaning, slow to act on our anger. Slow to SPEAK out of anger.
Most importantly…slow to let anger BE the driving motivation of achieving something.
The main force behind what we do or why we do it…
I know this one is hard…and many can struggle with it…but the way to help in that struggle, is to know why you should struggle over it.
Just like the way to overcome laziness in our lives, is to remember why we are doing something in the first place…whether it’s schoolwork, regular work, reconciling relationship, etc.
And the reason we need to be slow to anger, is the truth of God that is presented in this passage. And that’s in verse 20.
20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
The Truth
Man’s Anger ≠ God’s Righteousness
So how do we win the struggle of wanting to be quick to anger? By remembering that the anger we would be acting on is not the anger that will produce the righteousness of God.
What do we mean by righteousness of God?
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 1
“Righteousness” here is not Pauline legal or forensic righteousness proclaimed in God’s court of law (e.g., see notes on Rom. 3:20; 5:10) but is closer to the usage of the OT (Isa. 61:3) and Jesus (Matt. 3:15; 5:6, 10, 20; 6:1, 33; 21:32), in the sense of conducting one’s life by the will of God, according to his standards.
Meaning…acting in your anger, cannot, and will not, allow you to live your life according to the standard, will, and character of God.
For example, if in your acting out of anger, you choose to demean, insult, or slander a brother or sister in Christ…how can the righteousness of God be produced through that sinful act?
22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Now, there is such a thing as righteous anger. And I could cover that with ten more minutes of this message…but that’s not the type of anger we find ourselves struggling with. Righteous anger is not often explosive and quick. It may be decisive, it may be passionate, but it’s not reckless, and it’s not demeaning of God’s character or will…and so for now, let’s just focus on the times in our lives in which we know for sure we are giving into unrighteous anger…and remember that by definition, that anger can’t produce the righteousness of God.
Now I think we are still at a point…that for some of you, may not feel as helpful. I believe there’s some or many in this room that just being told not to act in anger is pretty much like saying don’t get hungry when you smell Texas Roadhouse in the parking lot.
It seems uncontrollable. You smell good food, you get hungry.
In the same way, for some of us…something happens that causes anger…we get angry. We get angry, we wanna act on it.
Feels uncontrollable.
This next part of the passage is for you…for all of us…but specifically most helpful to you. And that is…the application.
The application.
So we know the standard of being quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. We know why we shouldn’t act out in anger. But here we see how to get to the root of the cause of anger…how to attack it where it sleeps…how to apply not wanting to be quick to anger to our lives. That’s in verse 21.
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Therefore…in light of what was just said…in light of the truth that mans anger ≠ Gods righteousness.
If that’s God’s truth about how he made the world…then here’s how to live that out.
Take out the garbage
I get this from the words “put away” in the verse.
Put away…this greek word is exactly the same as “taking off”…it’s a reference to clothes. Like Paul says in Col. 3, you can go read it…but it’s the whole concept of actively, and willfully, putting off the things of sin, and wearing the things of Christ.
And in this passage, the things we are taking off…if we don’t want mans anger…are filthiness and rampant wickedness…what does that mean?
Simple.
Sin.
Take out the garbage of sin in your life. Put away with filthiness…put away with wickedness…put away with the things that are not of God’s character.
Put away the lust…put away the envy…put away the pride.
Take those off and throw them away…and then the verse says do something else. Part 1 is put away your sinfulness…and part 2 is put something in it’s place.
And what are we putting in its place? What are wearing instead?
The implanted word. What is the implanted word here?? It’s the gospel. The truth of the gospel. The good news.How do I know this? Because it describes the word in this passage as the thing that is able to save your soul. Well only one word has the power to save your soul…and that’s the word that is Christ and the gospel.
So…put away your sin…and receive the gospel.
This is an ironic statement…because we are talking about taking off sin…something described as external…but then we are talking about receiving…not putting on something that is internal.
It’s almost like he’s saying take off clothes, and in it’s place…grow new skin…so you don’t need those clothes.
Almost like he’s saying…you know how Adam and Eve had to put on garments to cover their shame? Let’s take those off and get back to what was meant to be.
I’m not saying James has that in mind, but I’m saying that’s how it feels.
You want to produce Gods righteousness? You want to be slow to anger? Then put off sin. Take out the garbage in your life…And receive the word.
How do we do that? What’s the key to taking out the garbage and receiving the word…One keyword in the passage.
You see it’s not just about changing our behavior. No. It’s not just physically sinning less.
Instead it’s receiving…not doing…and it’s receiving with…
Meekness.
Get Meek
Receive…with MEEKNESS. The implanted word.
Receive…with MEEKNESS…the gospel that changes the very heart.
Meekness. Meaning…a gentle humility…
If that doesn’t sound like the opposite of human anger, I don’t know what does.
Human anger is not gentle, and it’s not humble. It’s very self fulfilling, self focused, and self-destructive.
But meekness, is self-emptying, others focused, and restoring to the soul.
And WITH MEEKNESS, with that gentle humility…we receive the Gospel.
How do we fight anger? How do we live the standard based upon the truth? We humble ourselves before the cross, by leaving our sin there for Christ to handle.
Because that’s what the cross requires of us…humility…meekness. Because the cross displaying everything God is…and everything we aren’t. The cross exposes our sin…exposes our weaknesses, exposes of fears and failures…and leaves us only with two option.
In our pride, walk away from it and not accept.
Or in meekness…humility…receive what it says about us…and about Christ.
How do we live the standard based on the truth? We become true christians…humbly dependent upon the cross.
So if you say you’re a Christian…but you would be described as one who doesn’t listen…if you’re say you’re a Christian, but you would be described as someone who constantly moves their mouth…if you say you’re a Christian but would be described as someone who is quick to be angry.
You’re not living the standard.
And if that’s you…realize that what you’re doing now can’t produce the righteousness of God. and take out the garbage by getting meek.
How do you do that even tonight?
How do you do that tomorrow morning?
How do you do that the rest of your days?
I’ll give you one know…prayer.
And many more next week.
