快快地聽，慢慢地說，慢慢地動怒 Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak, and Slow to Become Angry

James 1:19-27
• Philip will give a 10.minute introduction to the book of James before the bible study commences.

Overview (19)
• V. 19: In your experience, what are the relationships between listening, speaking, and anger? E.g., it is hard to listen deeply when you are talking non stop.
• Summary: In the form of a proverb, James teaches us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (快快地聽，慢慢地說，慢慢地動怒). In the rest of the passage, he elaborates on each of the three instructions.

Part 1: Anger (20-21)
• V. 20: According to James, why is anger undesirable? (NIV: “because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”)1
• V. 21a: James then goes on to advise us to “get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent….” Which aspects of your character (e.g., prone to anger) make you feel that you are filthy (污穢) and evil (邪惡) in your heart? Give time to the participants to reflect on this question. Silence is okay.
• V. 21b: Envision the kind of a person you would become when the saving word of God that has been planted in you actually grows and matures inside you. What would you be like when you humbly allow that to happen? (溫柔的心 should have been translated “humility”.)

Part 2: Listening (22-25)
• Vv. 22.25: How would you use one sentence to summarize the teaching of this section? (Essentially v. 22.) Explanation: James elaborates on the theme of listening – listening entails obedience.
• Vv. 23.24: A person who does not practice the Word of God that he hears is likened to a self.deceiving person who ignores what he sees in the mirror. Do you have an experience of such self.deception, in which you knowingly ignored what is true and good? How did you feel when you eventually realized you were deceiving yourself?
• V. 25: According to v. 25, what does persistent obedience to the “perfect law” (全備的律法) of God bring about?
• Can you share an experience in which you attempted to be obedient to the Word of God, and as a result experienced freedom and/or a sense of blessedness? Remark: Group leaders should avoid interpreting this verse as teaching an award ethics (i.e., good deeds are always awarded). No, the verse means something deeper. Living out the perfect law of God is by itself a blessing and liberation.

Part 3: Speaking (26-27)
• V. 26: What sins can one commit with one’s tongue? Remark: Group leader should allow the participants to be creative.
• V. 26: For those who cannot tame their tongues, if they consider themselves religious, their religion is self.deceiving and worthless (NIV: worthless, 新譯本: 沒有用的). James is describing people who lack integrity. Do you know anyone whom you consider to lack integrity? What do you feel about such people?
• If one day someone approaches you, and points out that your faith is worthless, what would you feel?
• V. 27: How is the “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless” (在神我們的父面前，那清潔沒有玷汙的虔誠) different from the false religion of v. 26?

Conclusion and Prayer
• To James, the Christian “good news” is not merely the cancellation of debts. If we were to reconstruct this “good news” behind the teachings of James, what would it be?
• Pray for the spiritual longings that have been expressed by the participants.

1 At this point participants may ask why James considers anger, an integral and natural human
emotion, to be morally undesirable. Modern commentators tend to sidestep the problem by
pointing out that the prophets, Jesus, and Paul all express some form of righteous indignation.
Yet, early Christian witnesses, such as the Apostolic Fathers (1 Clement, Didache), consider
anger to be harmful to Christian living. The same attitude is found in the Desert tradition,
especially in the work of Evagrius Ponticus and his Latin interpreter John Cassian. Perhaps a
balanced view is that, while anger is not itself a sinful behavior, this emotion disposes person
towards impulsive and destructive behavior. Consequently, one needs to cultivate spiritual
disciplines that help one to gradually tame one’s anger, if not to completely eliminate it. This is
essentially the enterprise of character formation.

References
Blomberg, Craig L. and Mariam J. Kamell. James. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008.
Moo, Douglas J. The7Letter7of7James. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2000.