My Corner Online

 

James 1:19-21

Oh my!  Does this verse not convict us all?  Everyone at one point in their life has eventually lost their temper quickly.  To combat this, God teaches us to listen more than we speak.  In this way, we put the focus on caring about others rather than caring about our own feelings.  When we anger selfishly because we have been hurt, it is not the right "life," but rather the wrong.  Is it better to be angry when someone else is hurt, rather than ourselves hurt? Verse 20 compares man to God and anger to righteousness. My anger is often motivated by a want to make something or a situation right and my inability to make it change. God gets angry too.  There are many Bible verses on the "wrath of God." However, God has a right to judge the unrighteous. I am not to judge anyone and leave that up to God.

 

1:21 I sometimes say that I feel like scum. I am filthy. I am that ugliness that rides to the surface and covers the good water with a layer of dirty worthlessness. That is what the anger referenced in the previous verse produces. Anger and all other kinds of sin.  This scum must be put away.  The net that catches all called Jesus Christ skims it off in one big swoop. Leave behind the meekness and the implanted Word. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1).  The Word is able to save us.