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WHEN TO BE QUICK AND WHEN TO BE SLOW

James 1:19–20

All this, my dear brothers, you already know. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness which God desires.

THERE are few among the wise who have not been impressed by the dangers of being too quick to speak and too unwilling to listen. A most interesting list could be compiled of the things in which it is best to be quick and the things in which it is best to be slow. In the Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, we read: ‘There are four characters in scholars. Quick to hear and quick to forget; his gain is cancelled by his loss. Slow to hear and slow to forget; his loss is cancelled by his gain. Quick to hear and slow to forget; he is wise. Slow to hear and quick to forget; this is an evil lot.’ The Roman poet Ovid encourages people to be slow to punish, but swift to reward. The Jewish writer Philo tells them to be swift to benefit others and slow to harm them.

In particular, the wise teachers were impressed by the necessity of being slow to speak. Rabbi Simeon said: ‘All my days I have grown up among the wise, and have not found aught good for a man but silence . . . Whoso multiplies words occasions sin’ Jesus, the son of Sirach, writes: ‘Be quick to hear, but deliberate in answering. If you know what to say, answer your neighbour; but if not, put your hand over your mouth’ (Sirach 5:11–12). Proverbs is full of the perils of speech which is too hasty. ‘When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but the prudent are restrained in speech’ (Proverbs 10:19). ‘Those who guard their mouths preserve their lives; those who open wide their lips come to ruin’ (Proverbs 13:3). ‘Even fools who keep silent are considered wise’ (Proverbs 17:28). ‘Do you see someone who is hasty in speech? There is more hope for a fool than for anyone like that’ (Proverbs 29:20).

The scholar F. J. A. Hort says that those who are really good will be much more anxious to listen to God than arrogantly, loudly and stridently to shout their own opinions. The classical writers had the same idea. Zeno of Elea said: ‘We have two ears but only one mouth, that we may hear more and speak less.’ When the Cynic philosopher Demonax was asked how anyone might rule best, he answered: ‘Without anger, speaking little, and listening much.’ One of the earliest philosophers of ancient Greece, Bias, said: ‘If you hate quick speaking, you will not fall into error.’ The tribute was once paid to a great linguist that he could be silent in seven different languages. Many of us would do well to listen more and to speak less.

It is James’ advice that we should also be slow to anger. He is probably meeting the arguments of some that there is a place for the blazing anger of rebuke. That is undoubtedly true; the world would be a poorer place without those who blazed against the abuses and the tyrannies of sin. But too often this is made an excuse for petulant and self-centred irritation.

Teachers will be tempted to be angry with slow and backward scholars and pupils, and still more with those who are lazy. But, except on the rarest occasions, they will achieve more by encouragement than by the lash of the tongue. Preachers will be tempted to anger. But ‘don’t scold’ is always good advice to them; they lose their power whenever they do not make it clear by every word and gesture that they love their people. When anger gives the impression of dislike or contempt in the pulpit, it will not convert the souls of men and women. Parents will be tempted to anger. But a parent’s anger is much more likely to produce a still more stubborn resistance than it is to control and direct. The accent of love always has more power than the accent of anger; and when anger becomes constant irritability, petulant annoyance, carping nagging, it always does more harm than good.

To be slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to listen is a good policy for life.