Two Ears and One Mouth
Have you ever seen someone get really heated during a conversation or a disagreement? I mean, really worked up?! Often when I see someone hold to a position so strongly that it leads to an argument or holding their feet in the sand and not budging, they just sort of loose reason. They become more concerned about the argument itself than they do what they are even discussing. It is as if they are defending themselves more than the position they are standing for.
In this passage, James 1:19, we see a simple instruction about listening before speaking. Seems simple enough, right? My parents taught me from an early age that God gave me two ears and one mouth for a reason. From first glance, this verse offers some great wisdom – “stop talking and listen… and don’t get angry.” However, I also believe that this verse is saying something a little deeper.
If you were to read this verse in the context of the other verses around it (which is smart practice when reading anything in the Bible), there might be a deeper way of looking at this. In the previous verse, we read that we are new fruit because of the word of truth. In another book in the Bible, we are told that we are a new creation. We are no longer who we used to be. Now, in reading this verse 19 in James, we might see this as telling us to stop using our old human form of understanding or reasoning, but that we are to be quick to listen (hear/read God’s word), and slow to speak from a position of “human opinion.” Perhaps this is why when people argue, it is as if they are defending their OWN position and opinion, because it’s their own… they are not practicing the attitude of quickly running to the Scripture and seeking out what God says about a subject.
Next time you are in a conversation that leads to a discussion, I encourage you to practice simple wisdom of being slow to speak and quick to listen. But I also submit to you that it is even a deeper Biblical approach to first be quick to listen to God’s revealed Word, to pray earnestly, and then to speak slowly upon what He has revealed to you… not from your own opinion. And I’m pretty certain that you will not get angry with this approach too.
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