Overcoming Anger and Wrath

Part One: Being a Doer of the Word: James 1:18-25

Dr. Craig Brandick

I can still remember sitting in my Junior Sunday school class learning the verse that we adopted as our Junior motto: James 1:21 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” We opened every class with that verse, and our teachers did a wonderful job of teaching us that we needed to be doers of the Word in every area of life. While this is true, God had inspired James to write this with a very specific purpose. We do well to remember that no verse, text, letter, or book of the Bible was written in a vacuum. Every verse, text, letter, and book was written to answer a specific issue among the people who first received its message.

So it is with James. James was written very early in the history of the church. The readers were Jews who had trusted Jesus the Messiah as Savior; but they still lived, for the most part, as their community had lived for centuries. At the center of the community was a rabbi, a master or teacher. He was the “go-to” guy. He held prominence, power, and prestige in the community—and everyone wanted to be like him. That is why James gives the instruction to be “not many masters” (3:1), and warns them that the wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, merciful and full of good fruits, impartial, and without hypocrisy. (3:17). In short, godly wisdom was described by everything that they were not. James 4:1-4 teaches that they were sinning severely against each—because they could not get what they wanted. And this wrath was specifically was James was speaking of in the command to be doers of the word. The context of the verse covers James 1:18-25:

¹⁸Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

¹⁹Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

²⁰For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

²¹Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

²²But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

²³For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

²⁴For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

²⁵But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

As we look at these verses, a pattern or structure can be seen that shows us the thoughts of each verse and delivers the main idea of the text.

A. God gave birth to us through his Word, (18a)

B. For the purpose that we would be a holy sacrifice as his own special possession. (18b)

C. And we know that we must cease from wrathful speech and actions. (19)

C’. Because wrath does not produce the righteousness of God. (20)

B’. So we must lay aside uncleanness, and remaining wickedness, (21a)

A’. While we humbly grasp hold of that very same Word by which we are saved. (21b)

So be doers of the Word, and not just hearers! (22-25)

So what was God telling us through James?

“God gave birth to you through His Word so that you would be like a holy sacrifice for him—like the first fruit sacrifice you are to be completely His. Now, you know full well that you need to knock off your wrathful speech and actions because that does not produce the righteousness that you should have as God’s own possession. So get rid of that uncleanness and remaining wickedness and grab hold of that same Word by which you were saved—by which God gave birth to you. Grasp hold of it, but this time do what it says, don’t just be hearer! If you only hear the Word, you will be like someone who looks in a mirror and then forgets what he looks like.”

At the very core of being a doer of God’s Word is the putting away of wrath. God has given birth to us through His Word so that we can live in a way that honors Him as his own special possession. Interestingly, James ties this to wisdom and knowledge. How often do we get angry when we feel that someone is not recognizing that we are right? When that happens we may feel that we are not getting the attention or respect that we deserve, or that we are being deprived of some position, possession, or ideal.

In my next blog, I will be expanding on the following questions to ask in order to assess our upsets and overcome wrath. I invite you this week to look at the following questions and the verses.

Assessing our Upsets:

1. Does my upset respond against actual sin (as biblically defined)? (Mark 3:1-6)

2. Does my upset focus on God and His kingdom (not me or my kingdom)? (Mark 10:13-16)

3. Does my upset coexist with godly qualities and express itself in godly ways? (Galatians 5:19-26; 1 Peter 2:21-25)

These questions come from the observations of Robert Jones in his work, “Uprooting Anger,” 30-39. The book is available in the counseling section of our bookstore.

While anger is not a sin, we often sin in our anger. We can overcome sinful anger by assessing our upsets and acting as doers of God’s Word.