Swift to Listen, Slow to Speak

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak”, so said the Greek philosopher Epictetus. In a similar vein, James exhorts his readers with a challenge to be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19–21). How much more important is this for us as we communicate in the digital age! Let’s see how James develops this challenge for his readers with Lenski’s Commentary on the New Testament.

Know it, my brethren beloved! Moreover, let every person be swift for the hearing, slow for the speaking, slow for wrath; for a man’s wrath does not work God’s righteousness.

Swift for the Hearing

The A. V. follows the inferior reading ὥστε in place of ἴστε. The latter may be either the indicative (R. V.) or the imperative of οἶδα, either an acknowledgment that the brethren do know or an admonition telling them to know. The address “my brethren beloved” (v. 16) again marks the earnestness and the loving concern of James and-we think-a new paragraph. Yet, whether it is appended to v. 18 or regarded as starting a new paragraph, the unexpressed object of what the brethren know or are to know (and thus to act on) is what James has been saying in the preceding verses; it cannot be what follows because this consists of more imperatives. James says only ἴστε, “know,” and not γινώσκετε, “realize.”

He asks for the less, for what is easy, and is concerned that his readers get to know a few vital things about God and about what he has made of them. James will tell them what to do with this knowledge.

First of all and as a preliminary effect (specifying δέ introducing it), “let every person be swift for the hearing, slow for the speaking, slow for wrath.” Ἄνθρωπος and ἀνήρ are used as they were in v. 7, 8. Infinitives with adjectives would be enough to express the idea, but εἰς (with the dative idea) is even more expressive. The aorists mean: the whole business of talking. James is clearing the way for the proper reception of the saving Word of God. A person who keeps up his own talking makes a bad hearer.

Slow to Wrath

Like a flash there comes the second βραδύς, “slow to wrath.” That is the trouble with lack of hearing and keenness for talking: not everybody will care to hear so much talk, other talkers will also talk, will contradict, hence there will arise a clash, the “wrath,” the violent passion. One must have seen Orientals in action to get the full effect of what James forbids. While I was touring in the Orient I saw a slight difference of opinion argued with a violence that seemed to promise immediate blows if not murder. Intemperate talking leads to this sort of thing, and the bitter wrath thus engendered often rankles in the breast of someone for a long time.

James points out what such wrath is never able to produce, namely to work “God’s righteousness.” The verb “to work” shows that “righteousness” refers to conduct which is adjudged by God as righteous. The genitive is not subjective, for God prescribes this righteousness and right conduct, it comes from him. “The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace” (3:18).

It seems best to take this injunction in its full breadth, to regard it as a general principle of Christian conduct which includes also our meekness in hearing the Word but which goes farther as a general principle always does. So we should not restrict “wrath” and regard it as anger with God for sending us trials, angrily charging him with tempting us. Such implications do not lie in the injunction. C.-K. thinks of wrathful, passionate defense of God’s honor as though God’s righteous cause were dependent on our Eifer (bringing in also justifiable wrath by a reference to Eph. 4:26); but this seems rather far afield.

Wherefore, by putting away all shabbiness and what there is of a lot of baseness accept with meekness the implanted Word that is able to save your souls!

Κακία is not “wickedness” (R. V.), the word for this term would be πονηρία; nor “malice” (R. V.), a mistranslation that is found in a number of passages; it is Schlechtigkeit, “baseness,” “meanness,” “good-for-nothingness,” and there is a lot of it of various kinds. We cannot translate περισσεία “superfluity” (A. V. although “superfluity of naughtiness” has caught the English ear), nor “overflowing” (R. V.). Everybody feels that James does not intend to say that we are to put away only the excess of baseness; all of it, whether it is excess or not, must go. Περισσεία indicates only that there is a great quantity of baseness just as πᾶς points to all of the ῥυπαρία. Luther is right when he translates simply: alle Bosheit.

If ῥυπαρία means “filthiness” as many translate this New Testament hapax legomenon, one wonders why “all filthiness” is brought into this connection unless all sinful conditions are to be referred to by filthiness and then by baseness. The best hint is found in Plutarch who uses this word in the sense of “shabbiness” in money matters (Mayor). Applied to the mind of a Christian, it would match “meanness” when describing the condition which prevents the accepting of the saving Word with meekness. Never ready to hear and to learn, always quick to talk a lot, even quick to flare up when others will not let him talk, or when they venture to contradict, this person shows himself cheap and shabby and also mean and inferior in his mind. He is not fit to accept the Word in that state.

Accept with Meekness

The opposite of these hindering conditions and their outgrowths is “meekness,” πραΰτης or πραότης (allied to ταπεινός, “lowly” and “lowliness,” which are used in v. 9, 10). The pagan world despised the lowly man and admired the bold, masterful man who made others bow to his arrogant will; but Christianity elevated “lowliness” or “lowly-mindedness” as being one of the great spiritual qualities to be sought and to be cultivated in the spirit of Christ.

The pagan world, however, regarded “meekness” as a virtue, but only when it was understood in the sense of equanimity and composure; but Christianity placed meekness into its true relation to God and thus also to our fellow men. It is that inwrought grace of spirit which accepts God’s Word without back talk, dispute, or questioning; it also accepts his providential dealings in the same spirit. Its root is the full realization of one’s sinfulness and unworthiness and of the grace which God extends. Thus James writes: “in meekness accept the implanted Word as the one able to save your souls.”

The Implanted Word

Ἕμφυτον does not mean “engrafted” (A. V.), the word for this thought would be ἐμφύτευτον; nor is the Word a bud that is grafted into us. The adjective might mean “innate,” something that is natural to us, but this would not be true. “Implanted” (R. V.) is correct, but it is not proleptic: implanted by being received. The readers are Christians, the Word has been implanted in them; James is not telling them to accept it for the first time.

The acceptance referred to by this aorist imperative of actuality is made clear by v. 22: a full, actual, complete acceptance which does not only hear the Word and formally accept it but actually does the Word. To be sure, the readers are also to hear it again and again. In this epistle James himself continues this implanting. What he means is that they shall completely accept the Word which they have already heard and will continue to hear. James may, indeed, have in mind the parable of the Sower and the Seed and the good soil that produces a hundred-fold.

“As able (or: as the one able) to save your souls” not only describes the Word but at the same time offers the supreme motive which ought to urge its eager acceptance. Paul calls it “the δύναμις or power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16), “by which also you are saved” (1 Cor. 15:2), “the gospel of your salvation” (Eph. 1:13). To save “your souls” by no means excludes the salvation of the body. No contrast between soul and body is implied. The soul is mentioned as that which animates the body and may thus be used as a designation for the entire person; Acts 2:41, “about 3,000 ψυχαί or souls.”

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