SERMON TITLE: Fast and Slow
SCRIPTURE: James 1:19-20 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Joe Sherrieb
DATE: 03-01-2026
Sermon Discussion Guide
Take notes here
Good morning everyone! For those of you who don’t know me — my name is Joe Sherrieb and I’m the Life Group Director here at Gateway Church. And I’m pleased to be able to share God’s Word with you this morning.
Today we’re going to be continuing our series through the book of James. And we’re gonna be in James chapter 1 — and verses 19 and 20. And if you’ve been following along in this series, you’ve learned that James’s letter is very similar to that of the Old Testament book of Proverbs. In that — just as Solomon had a lot to say about wisdom and living rightly in several broken out chunks, James is doing the same thing here. And the topic covered in our verses today, I think — well, I know — will resonate with all of us to some degree or another. A topic — a series of commands, really — that if we’re not careful to follow — can cause a whole lot of problems in our relationships. Let’s see what James has to say to us today. We’re in James chapter 1 — verses 19 and 20.
James 1:19–20 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Unfortunately — due to sin — our world, and admittedly this oftentimes includes the church, has a really hard time following James’ instruction here. Instead of being quick to hear, we awfully slow. Instead of being slow to speak, we’re Usain Bolt fast — well, Usain Bolt in his prime. And instead of being slow to anger, we have dangerously short fuses.
When I was asked by a handful of friends what passage I would be preaching on today, I told them I’d be covering this topic and almost all of them had the same response. And that response went a little something like, “Yep. This is something we all need to hear, because we are terrible listeners — and way too quick to shout out our opinions.” And I agree.
So today, we’ll see how being slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to get angry are not wise things according to God’s standard — they’re foolish things — because they don’t reflect the nature and character of God himself.
And I think the reason why so many of us struggle with our ears and our mouths and our anger is because they expose what’s going on in our hearts — our prideful hearts. Jesus has freed us from the bondage of sin, but we’re still sinful — and these are a few ways sin shows its ugly face. Because of our pride, we can often find ourselves — though we might not think of this as boldly as I’m going to say it, but we find ourselves thinking, “Why should I be quick to hear? I really don’t think this person has anything valuable to say to me. And even if they do, it’s likely I already know it myself.”
Or we might think, “I don’t need to be slow to speak. It doesn’t matter what this person says to me, I know better than they do and they would benefit from letting me say what I need to say.”
Or.. and this one might sting a bit, “I’m supposed to be slow to anger? After all the things I’ve been through in my life? I have a right to be angry and there’s no way anyone can convince me otherwise — not even God himself.”
Now — there is such a thing as righteous anger, but I’ll talk about that a little later.
But when we think this way — when we justify our sin in this way — we're walking the path of foolishness and not the path of wisdom. Which makes me think of Proverbs 1:7 which says,
Proverbs 1:7 ESV
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
And I don’t think we — who fear the Lord — want to despise wisdom and instruction from God. As God’s children, who he’s transforming and sanctifying from the inside out, we grow a deeper and deeper desire to conform not to this world and what it says to do or think in its foolishness, but to conform more and more into the image of Christ — and this includes how we listen, how we speak, and how we respond. Because how we listen — and how we speak — and how we respond — will either reflect God’s character— or it won’t.
And for those of you who’ve not yet put your faith in Jesus, my hope is that you’d see this clearly — that the infinitely good God we believe in truly does demand this kind of character from his people.
So if your view of Christianity has been clouded — or even wounded — by the reality that we Christians don’t always live in line with what God commands, know that our failure to obey him does not mean that God has failed to speak, nor that his standard of righteous living is unclear. It’s very clear.
Every believer is commanded to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
So let’s look at each of these three commands — and see how we can please our perfect and holy God by reflecting his character — and to bless others in the process. We’re back in verse 19.
James 1:19 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear...
Unfortunately, we live in a society full of bad listening skills. If you think about our society and the division that plagues it, I believe it’s — in part — because we’ve lost the ability to truly listen to one another. And I think there are many reasons for this, though I’m going to give what I believe are the three most evident reasons.
Number 1: Our pride. Due to pride, we think we know it all. Because we’ve either read a lot of books, listened to a lot of podcasts, watched a lot of news, or scrolled through a lot of social media posts. But we have to put this kind of thinking aside — that we know everything — and realize that only God is omniscient — only God knows all things. And when we’re quick to listen, a lot of times we’ll be able to prevent ourselves from saying something dumb, or sharing misinformation, or giving bad advice, or becoming defensive — and instead — be able to encourage one another, share truth, give wise counsel, and receive feedback with humility.
So I believe the point James is trying to make here when he says to be quick to hear — is to be teachable. To be teachable. And to be teachable is to be a life-long learner. One Bible teacher has said that we should be open to learning from anyone — at any time — on any topic. Now — that doesn’t mean that we intentionally surround ourselves day-in and day-out with people who will lead us astray.
Proverbs 13:20 makes this clear when it says:
Proverbs 13:20 ESV
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
And also Proverbs 12:26
Proverbs 12:26 ESV
One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
And Paul makes this point when he tells the Corinthian church:
2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Each of these passages speak about the dangers of an ongoing relationship with bad company. So that’s not what I’m advocating for here, but we can and should humble ourselves and be willing to hear others’ viewpoints — it could be an unbelievers worldview, a rebuke from a fellow believer, a different interpretation of scripture than the one you’re committed to, a different view of parenting from other parents, or a different political view on immigration or gun reform.
Now — that doesn't mean we have to agree with them. It just means we should be quick to listen, and listen to understand — because again — when we swallow our pride — we can learn a lot from others, even if we have different convictions.
Alright — Another reason I think we’re slow to hear is because we have awful attention spans. Right? I think many of us can agree that it’s hard to keep our undivided attention on anything these days. And if I can say this — I think it’s because of our phones.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us — if we pulled out our phones right now and checked our screen time data, we’d see that we spend hours a day looking at our phones — and most of the time it's doom scrolling social media. Reels are our Achilles heel. Let’s call it our Achilles reel — because — fun fact — reels are killing our attention spans and our focus. Over the years, we’ve been presented with shorter and shorter content by the media and influencers because our attention span is so bad. And they know our attention span is bad, and so they give us these smaller videos to keep us watching.
And here’s my point, we spend hours doom scrolling, and as a result, we’ve weakened our attention spans and our focus, so that when it’s time to read or listen to someone or something on any given topic — the news, a parenting book — and even our Bibles, we’ve already preconditioned ourselves to spend very little amounts time listening — because we can’t focus. Because now — even just three to four chapters of Scripture per day — the rate that’ll get us through the Bible in a year — seems like too much? Right? And when we want to form an opinion on something — it’s so much easier just to scroll through short click-bait videos on what’s happening in the world than to spend time truly understanding the whole of it.
And when we digest these very short bits of information coming at us over and over again, we begin to think superficially about a lot of things. And oftentimes — we end up spewing out the last thing we heard from a 15 second clip that went viral or because someone we follow said it — instead of forming our perspective through the filter of God’s Word.
So my advice? Let’s cut down on our screen time, improve our attention spans, and spend more time listening, and learning — from God’s Word — and from others. So that we can have wisdom, and an educated opinion on matters when they arise.
Okay — the last reason I’ll give today for why we can be slow to hear is because during those times, we have lack of compassion for others — especially for those we disagree with or those we don’t associate ourselves with. This is so common guys — especially in my life — that when I find myself wanting to win an argument, for instance, compassion falls to the wayside. I can be listening to someone and not REALLY be listening to them.
For those of you who don’t know much about me — my spiritual gift is evangelism. I love sharing my faith with unbelievers. Atheists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims — it doesn’t matter.
If you’re like me in this way, let me give you a scenario:
You’re speaking with a co-worker — and let’s say it’s someone you don’t know well — who seems to be pretty adamant that there is no God. In fact — he even seems hostile toward the idea of God’s existence. You’ve sparked up a conversation with him that led you both to the topic of religion. And your co-worker says to you, “So — I gotta question. If the Christian God who you believe in exists, and is supposed to be all powerful and all good, then why is there so much evil in the world?” And as a good apologist, you might respond by flipping the script and asking how your atheist co-worker can even account for morality. In other words, you might ask, “well.. from your atheistic worldview, how can you claim that anything is either good or evil? How is objective morality justified in your worldview that says that we are just matter in motion — descendents of bacteria.” Well good job — you’ve just shown how his question already presupposes the Christian worldview.
But what if I told you — you may have just been slow to listen — truly listen — because you were quick to speak. How so? Let’s add more context. What you didn’t know about your co-worker was the weight of evil pressed upon him in his lifetime. As a child, his father ran out on his family, and later he’d been abused by his alcoholic stepfather. When he turned 18, his mother was diagnosed with cancer and fought her battle till the end of her life. Now — one parent has died literally and the other two are dead to him figuratively. On top of that — he just found out his wife has been unfaithful in their marriage for the last year — and now they have to figure out next steps.
So now we go back to his question from earlier, the one you assumed was simply an intellectual one — a “gotchu” question. The question again was, “If the Christian God who you believe exists, and is supposed to be all powerful and all good, then why is there so much evil in the world?” Would knowing all that about him have changed how you responded to him? Probably, right?
In that moment — the temptation was to win an argument — to be quick to speak. But the opportunity to care for this individual was missed. And the better response would've been, “Out of curiosity, why do you ask that question?” Because in this case, your co-worker wasn’t trying to trap you intellectually or philosophically. He’s hurting. And it would’ve been a little more clear where he was coming from had you been more interested in him than the argument at hand, and if you would’ve allowed yourself to be curious.
It’s really easy to assume others’ motivations behind their speech and their behavior, but if we’re quick to listen and slow to speak — maybe their true motivations would be uncovered — so that our words — when it’s time to speak — would be seasoned with salt — that they would be graceful — and wise — and appropriate. So having a heart of compassion for and interest in people will help us in our listening skills.
Now — I just gave some reasons for why we’re slow to hear and some practical ways to become better listeners. Now — we’ll move on to James’ next command.
James 1:19 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak…
And by slow to speak — James isn’t talking about — talking — slowly — like — this, like Flash — Flash — Hundred Yard Dash! (some of you get the reference!) Being slow to speak in this context is being very careful to think about what we say before we say it. We’ve gotta slow down our response and consider what kind of impact our words might have if we throw them around willy-nilly.
So what does this look like? I believe there are several questions we need to ask ourselves and pray to God about before we let our words just pour out of our mouths.
This is a good habit to get into, especially in escalated conversations. It’s a good idea to take a timeout and say, “God — do I understand what he or she said or did that is causing me to want to lash out? Do I truly grasp his or her motives? Am I going to say something I’ll regret later? Will I say something or respond in a way that doesn’t glorify you, God? Asking God to reveal this to you is a great first step in being slow to speak.
And because there are several contexts in life where we can be quick to speak. I have several more questions that would be good to ask yourself and to ask God before giving a response to someone in the heat of the moment.
Those are just a handful of questions we should be asking ourselves before responding to others.
But we can also be quick to speak even in times when we aren’t even expected to speak, and often times when we’re not even angry.
I can’t help but think of Ephesians 5:4 when Paul says:
Ephesians 5:4 ESV
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
Sometimes speaking too quickly isn’t even out of anger, but out of a desire to conform to this world and to what it says is amusing. In other words, we want to be funny by the world’s standards. Let me give you an example — here’s to the men in the room — and don’t worry men — I have something for the ladies too. Ladies — you're not getting off Scott-free.
Alright men — we can be talking with the guys and someone in the group says something that's completely innocent and pure — and then another guy jumps in with a sexual innuendo (in the past, it was normally a “That’s what she said” joke.) And everyone laughs. Why? Because it’s just the kind of cultural humor we’re used to. Sexual innuendos and quick wittedness.
Or maybe it’s a husband — in order to gain a few points with the guys — says something to the effect of, “If the wife ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” And it’ll get a chuckle from some friends, because that’s what you do to fit in — you make a joke about something that you’re actually serious about. But because you said it in comedic-type fashion, you think you get a pass.
Okay — now the ladies! This is kind of similar — but the wives in the room— you know you do this. I’ve confirmed with my wife. You’re chatting with the ladies and and you start swapping “husband stories.” You know what I’m talking about. The “I love him.. BUT..” conversations. And if someone overheard, they’d think you were sharing a story from daycare — not from married life. Even now — some of you are thinking, “what’s the difference?”
See — we chuckle — and we laugh — because we can all relate. But now I’m gonna reel us in a bit. Because what we don’t realize is that what we’re really doing is hiding behind humor in order to gossip about things that others do that frustrate us — because that’s what the world has taught us to do. Just turn it into a joke so we can get a way with it.
But if we were slow to speak — if we take some time to think about whether this would be honoring to God, or our spouses, or our family members, or our friends — I believe we’d hold our tongue a bit more.
And it’s my hope that as Christians, we can speak to one another using purely wholesome language and feel a sense of connectedness and joy that doesn’t depend on tearing someone down, hinting at impurity, or gossiping, or laughing at what Christ died to redeem. God is still working on MY heart in this area.
Alright — that brings us to James’ third exhortation for every believer.
James 1:19–20 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Every Christian must reflect God’s character by being slow to anger — because our God is slow to anger.
In Psalm 103:8, David confirms this about God when he writes:
Psalm 103:8 ESV
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
And I’m also thinking about Jonah — who’s not a prophet worth imitating by the way —when he was frustrated with the idea that God was slow to anger, because Jonah didn’t want God to be merciful to the Ninevites who were arch-enemies of Israel. God sent Jonah as his messenger to Nineveh to charge the Ninevites to repent from their evil, and if they did, God would relent from punishing them. But Jonah tried everything he could to get as far away from Nineveh as he could. Why? Let’s see.
Jonah 3:10–4:4 ESV
When God saw what they [the Ninevites] did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
You see — God’s slowness to anger was so evident to Jonah, that Jonah was trying to avoid him — and to avoid Nineveh, because he didn’t want the Ninevites to be on the receiving end of God’s mercy. And Jonah’s anger over this prompts a response from God. God asks Jonah, “do you do well to be angry?” Because God knows that holding onto anger and letting it fester is not in our best interest. It’s not good for us. Yet many of us hold on to our anger for too long. And I get it — I don’t want to minimize the abuse and the trauma that many of you have had to face in your life. And how badly someone may have hurt you — that over the years, has just caused you to develop a chronic anger. But anger gives many opportunities to the devil. We’re told in Ephesians 4:26-27,
Ephesians 4:26–27 ESV
Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
Here, Paul’s saying that we can have righteous anger. He says, “be angry.” But our harboring of anger makes it fairly easy for Satan to take advantage of the situation. Notice here, though, that Satan doesn’t produce anger in us. We’re responsible for our own anger, but he can deceive us into thinking that our anger is justified even when it isn’t. Or he can even use our anger to wreak havoc in the church, so we must be mindful that our anger doesn’t move us toward malice or hate.
But like I said, righteous anger isn’t a bad thing. We’re made in the image of God, and even God feels anger. Psalm 7:11 says,
Psalm 7:11 ESV
God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
And we know that God cannot sin, which means that the indignation — the anger — that he feels every day — is always righteous.
And if we’re a new creation in Christ, it should follow that we’d be angry with the things God’s angry with. We just need to be careful that our anger doesn’t cause us to sin. In Jonah’s case, his anger led him to disobey God and even try to intervene with God’s plan to offer mercy to the Ninevites. Jonah was trying to play judge and take control of Nineveh’s fate. A role that only God gets to fill.
Our anger should never cause us to get in the way of God’s redemptive work. Our anger should stir in us a desire to be reconciled with those who wronged us, and if reconciliation isn’t possible with those people due to their hardness of heart, then we should desire that those who’ve wronged us or who’ve wronged others would repent and be reconciled to God. And know that God will carry out his justice. And be the way — God often carries out his justice and anger on evildoers… and many times, he does so in an effort to turn them from evil — which we should always hope to be the case. In fact, let’s go back to Jonah. How was God’s righteous anger poured out on Jonah?
Jonah 1:17 ESV
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
And what is Jonah’s response to such judgement?
Jonah 2:1–3:3 ESV
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me;all your breakers and your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head. To the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.
What do we see in this prayer of Jonah? Repentance and a turning back to God. And when God causes the fish to spit Jonah out on dry land, Jonah decides to obey God and go to Nineveh. Even though he still — at this point — didn’t want God to forgive Nineveh, he still went. God’s judgement on Jonah was meant to turn Jonah back to him and set him back on the path that God had for him.
Alright — now we’re back in our verses. In verse 20, James tells that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God here is referring to conduct that God requires from his people. It’s how he wants his people to live.
The NLT translates it this way:
James 1:20 NLT
Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.
So this is a warning for those of us who are tempted to justify our quickness to anger. Anger prevents us from righteous living that God desires from us.
Because — think about it — our anger can very easily turn to malice and hate. Anger — driven by pride and selfishness — drives someone to slander, curse, and insult, it causes someone to commit violence or even murder, it drives someone to develop hatred, bitterness, and unforgiveness. And these things are certainly not the righteousness of God. So we must be careful when we’re tempted to anger. Because it is impossible to reflect God’s character and to be a light to the world when our anger has taken the wheel, steering us toward darkness and destruction.
Now — there’s a good chance some of you might be wondering right now, “Is it ever okay to be angry with God?” Because some of you may be experiencing anger toward God because maybe you recently lost a loved one. Or maybe your spouse is leaving you, or you’re going through a financial crisis, or maybe you were just diagnosed with a significant medical issue. Situations like those can tempt us to direct our anger toward God. Is that ever okay?
My answer to that is “no.” Because anger toward God implies that you believe he’s been unjust or immoral in some way. And it’s sinful of us — his creation — to disapprove of what God does or what he permits to happen. We can be saddened by our experiences of living in a fallen world. But never angry at God. And if this is you — if you’re angry at God for something he’s done or something he permitted to happen, my encouragement to you would be to tell him. He already knows your heart. Ask him to help you trust in his sovereignty and goodness. Ask him for faith to believe what Paul said to the Christians in Rome.
Romans 8:28 ESV
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Okay — so we’ve looked at each of James’ instructions to us. To be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
And though we’re imperfect in our obedience to represent God in each of these, we look to the one who lived this out perfectly. Jesus obeyed these commands perfectly in our place. Even when he was mocked and beaten and falsely accused — even when he was nailed to the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them.”
And the righteous anger of God was poured out on him, the innocent one, for our sin. On the cross, Jesus bore our punishment for every time we turned our ears away in pride — for every sinful and angry word we’ve ever spoken, for every prideful interruption, for every crude joke that left our lips. And despite our unrighteousness, he imputed his righteousness onto us who confess him as Lord and Savior.
And as a response to this great news, we repent — and we celebrate — echoing the words of the psalmist:
Psalm 9:1–2 NLT
I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done. I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.
Let’s pray!
Father God, you are worthy to be praised! Thank you for sharing with us how we can reflect your character in the way we hear — in the way we speak — and in our anger. We want to produce the righteousness — the fruit — that you desire of us, so that others would glorify you because of them.
And Jesus, thank you for your gift of righteousness bestowed upon us. For on our own — we can never attain the righteousness that the Father requires of us. Thank you for your perfect obedience on our behalf. Even while being beaten and bruised — even while hanging a tree, you fulfilled all righteousness.
And Holy Spirit, would you guide us in our listening — in our speaking — and in how we respond to others. Give us a teachable spirit. Give us words that have been carefully examined before they leave our mouths, and give us an anger that is righteous — and slow and short-lived. So that it would be obvious that Jesus is the one we follow. Amen.
Now would you receive this prayer of sending. May you go — being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger — reflecting who our infinitely good God is — and blessing others in the process. Amen.
You are sent.
Stories, news, and resources for things happening at Gateway Church.
