Quick, Slow, Slow

by Bob Busenitz, Elder

James 1:19,
Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry… (NIV)
Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger… (NASB2020)
You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. (NLT)

Quick, slow, slow.

It reminds me of another expression I’ve heard and experienced sometimes: “Hurry up and wait.” That may help us remember this concept expressed here in James, although the idea here is probably a little different.

“Quick to listen.” It’s been said that we have two ears and one mouth. So, listening to others is just an important concept to remember in our interactions with others. How well do you listen to others? How well do I listen to others? We should be “quick” to listen.

And “quick to listen” contrasts with the next instruction: “slow to speak.” Sometimes I can hardly wait for the other person to finish speaking so that I can have my say. But instead I/we should be “slow to speak,” and when we do that we can probably also do the first instruction better too: listening, really listening.

“Slow to become angry.” Probably if we do the first two well (quick to listen, slow to speak), it can help us with the third instruction: “slow to become angry/slow to anger.” Do we “learn” anger/to be angry? Probably not; it’s part of us from birth, it seems, but we “can” learn to control our anger; it’s a very important part of maturity and growing up, and we note those who have weakness in this area. And the other two areas as well, for that matter.

Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. It’s a goal I want to have in my interactions with others.