If I had only kept my mouth shut, how much easier things could have been for me in life. Slow to Speak - Don't be so quick to speak. You cannot hear when your mind is somewhere else or your mouth is in gear It means that He wants you to hear twice as much as what you speak. Swift to Hear - God gave you two ears and one mouth. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath (Jam 1:19): Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, to keep himself unspotted from the world. Jam 1:26-27 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion vain. But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Jam 1:23-25 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Jam 1:21-22 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Jam 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. So in James chapter one, verse 19 we find James driving us toward self examination. without sin)įor when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations verse 2īut James Concludes: Blessed the man that endures temptation: (i.e. James makes it clear that there is always temptation, lurking about, looking for a place to creep into your life. Now his brother Jesus is in Heaven and the only way he can spend time with him is in prayer. He grew up with God sleeping in the same house as he, but never getting to know him. Remember James is an expert on never examining ones own life. We need to avoid the temptation to hurry through life, never examining our life. Therefore: We need to really identify what is important in life. If he can keep us preoccupied with everything else around us, then we will never get to God. He identified our problem as not an issue with time as much as an issue with priorities. If that was true 45 years ago where are we today. In this case those things which we consider urgent to get done are controlling and oppressing our life. Tyranny - Cruel and oppressive government or rule In 1967, 45 years ago, Charles Hummel wrote the classic book: “Tyranny of the Urgent” where he describes the telephone as one of the worst offenders to our peace and complacency.

There are too many things to replace the “me time” today for kinds.

But I do not think children today have the same advantage.

“Introspection” - is the self-examination of one's conscious thoughts and feelingsĪs a kid I spent a whole lot of time sitting outside just contemplating my life and the world around me (me time). There are within the church people who do not the set out to do wrong, but through a failure to carefully examine their own life, in the light of the Word of God, fail themselves, their family, their church, and their witness to the closely watching public. See no evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, and Do no Evil

Hear no evil