Dave Willis and a co-speaker break down James 1:19: be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. They show how this ancient advice transforms marriage conversations, drawing on James's own journey from skeptic to church leader.
Chapters
Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we are releasing a daily devotional episode for your marriage. And over these 66 days, we're going to pull out one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talk about how it applies to your marriage. So if you listen to every single one of these episodes, you're going to have a comprehensive understanding of God's plan for your marriage. We encourage you to listen to everyone. Let's dive into today's scripture.
Hey there. Welcome back to Summer of Scripture on the Naked Marriage Podcast. We are on day 59 in the book of James, chapter one, verse 19. It says this. Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. And, man, is this, like, a great commentary on just how to communicate well.
Right, yeah, we can just read that verse over and over for the whole episode because I need that one to sink in. Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry.
Yes.
That is three things that are all so hard, Right? They sound so easy. But quick to listen. We want to say, well, we want to talk, slow to speak. We want to jump in and get our point across. Slow to get angry. Like all of us, the moment we're offended, there's anger right below the surface in our whole culture. It's like the whole world's offended all the time.
I know.
And if we would just come back to this, the simplicity of this, imagine even how different our posts would be on social media if instead of just trying to chime in and argue and be an expert on everything, we were quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry. Half these social media companies would go out of business because there would be nobody arguing.
I know. And you guys, if you don't already know, the book of James was written by the brother of Jesus, one of Jesus's brothers.
Well, half brother, I guess.
God's raised with the same two parents.
Joseph and Mary are the parents of other kids. Sure, Catholics don't agree with that, but biblically and historically, it's very obvious that there were other kids. So.
Well, he identifies himself.
I'm really not sure how the Catholic Church came to that. I think they just wanted to think that Mary was a virgin forever. Why would God. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. And poor Joseph. Why would you force a guy to marry some lady you could never sleep with? I'm just.
I don't know.
I mean, that's a question.
Maybe you guys would know that I don't know. But we do know, and we've done studies on this as well. This was written by James, the half brother of Jesus. Cause his father is Joseph and Mary, obviously, but he's not from the Holy Spirit like Jesus, not God's son, but he wrote this book. And Dave always kind of jokes about James because it's like, my goodness, how hard would it be to follow Jesus? That Jesus is your older brother. You know what I'm saying? And here he is saying, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry. How many times do you think he probably had to be quick to listen?
Oh, man. Well, how do you impress your parents when your brother's literally perfect? James comes home, he's like, mom, I made the swim team on the Swimming in the Sea of Galilee for Nazareth Middle School. He's like, oh, swim team. That's nice. Your brother Jesus can walk on water. So that's great, James. I mean, how do you impress him really? But what's cool about James is he came to faith from what we can tell historically, a little bit later. Jesus brothers, they've been raised in the same house. And sometimes, you know, the prophet has no honor in his hometown. They were looking at his brother like, how can you be God's son? You know, you're in the same podunk little town we are. You're same family. But after the resurrection, Jesus, James saw the risen Christ, became a fully devoted follower of Jesus. This isn't just my earthly half brother. This is the Messiah, the son of the living God, God in the flesh. And devoted his life wholeheartedly to proclaiming the name of Jesus. And died as a martyr giving his life for the message of Christ. Didn't use his relationship earthly with Jesus to his advantage, but refer to himself as a servant of Christ or even a slave of Christ. Humbled himself and was a highly respected leader in the early church. They even called him James the Just. You can see different places even in the New Testament where they would come to him for his wisdom, right? Even in the Council of, like, you know, what do we do with these new believers? And he's like, well, let's write a letter and say this to them. And so he was seen clearly as a trusted leader within the church, but yet a really humble man. He was so strong, but yet so humble.
I love it. And it's just so. It's so awesome too, to have, you know, being raised in that same household and then realizing later on like, oh my gosh, he really is, you know, not only my brother, but he is the Son of God. And I'm going to spend the rest of my life proclaiming this and helping others know so that they can have the freedom in Christ that I have now experienced. I mean, it's just so awesome. But back to kind of this particular verse from James. I think that one thing that struck me about this verse is part of it is in a verse that we mentioned before, and it was describing an attribute of God, and it was that God is slow to become angry. And I would say, too, that quick to listen and slow to speak are probably other attributes of God as well, because he's very quick to listen to us, but sometimes he's slow to speak to us, wouldn't you say? Because I feel like he's so wise and sees everything. It's a slow process. And honestly, it's that dependency we need on him for, you know, just to know kind of what he's calling us to, even though he always comes through. But I feel like that's very interesting because it's true that, you know, God never really, like in Scripture, we're never told that we need to do something that God himself has not already done and not already been able to fill. I mean, he's way beyond us, but so we're never asked to do something that is beyond what we can do with God's help. And so I think it's just really important to remember that. But in marriage in particular, being quick to listen, like when your spouse needs a listening ear, when they come to you, and then being slow to speak, like not just spitting out some kind of response, but being really mindful of what we say. That is a game changer.
Oh, my gosh, it really is. Your communication in marriage will change for the better instantly if you'll both just make this a life verse. Just write this down. And every time you're having a conversation, especially if it's a little bit of a disagreement, pull this out. Say, we're going to commit right now. We're both going to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. Words to live by, guys. Apply that your life will change. And join us tomorrow. Day 60. We're coming into the home stretch with the book of First. Peter, Sam.
