The third life rule of James is “slow to wrath.” There is a clear
connection between speech and anger. Anger inflames one to hasty and
unguarded talk. In turn, the words act as fuel to the flames. The talk
inflames the anger, and the anger inflames the talk. The more one talks,
the angrier he becomes—like a spitfire. If one stops talking, his anger
will cool down for lack of fuel. Men who are dull enough in listening,
who will sleep through any sermon, are quick to resent a personal
reflection or an imagined wrong. Often one’s manhood is gauged by his
quickness to avenge a personal affront, with murder as the outcome. This
is a fine place to be dull, when one is tempted to be angry.
Anger is sometimes justifiable, even necessary. There is such a thing as
righteous indignation against wrong. Jesus “looked round about on them
with anger” (Mark 3:5), but it was compassionate anger. It is possible
to be angry and sin not (Eph. 4:26), but we must not let the sun go down
upon our wrath. Unlike God, we do not know all the circumstances in the
case. Getting mad is not promoting the kingdom of God. “The wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God.” (Compare Matthew 5:21 f.) The
euphemistic phrase of James is emphatic by its very mildness. Man’s
wrath is set over against God’s righteousness. The growth of religion
and of civilization is marked by the self-restraint of the individual
and of the state. Vengeance is a boomerang in most instances. The taking
of vengeance into one’s own hands brings down the house on one’s head.
Not only is unhappiness brought to others; immeasurable harm is done in
one’s own life.
At any rate, it pays every man and every nation to be slow to anger.
Boys, flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds;
You can’t do that way, when you’re flying words.
Thoughts, unexpressed, may sometimes fall back dead,
But God himself can’t kill them once they’re said.
Sometimes unpalatable truth has to be spoken, hard words have to be
said. “Am I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Gal. 4:16).
But the preacher needs to temper rebuke with love and anguish of soul.