Don't Drive Angry: Using Our Word(s) Wisely in a Hostile World ~ James 1:18-27 (series on James)

¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. ²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. ²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~ James 1:18-27

 

I was 16-years-old in Austin, TX. My father, bless his heart, had saved for me a cool

car – a 1967 Ford Mustang, butter yellow, black hard top. I looked good in that car. I looked so good and loved that car so much that I had to share it with the world, particularly what it could do – go fast, of course. 3 speeding tickets later – I was thankfully allowed by the State to take a course rather than lose my license. For repeat offenders they don’t call the course “Defensive Driving” because our problems go way beyond such nomenclature – I can’t remember the exact title – but I know that it had some euphemism for “death” in it. Now, we know the car wasn’t the problem, right? Yeah, it was fast but truth be told my foot and brain controlled the speed. We all know that cars are wonderful tools that can become dangerous weapons, particularly in the hands of irresponsible or angry people. We have a word for this – vehicular manslaughter. And we understand that being a good driver isn’t simply about skills – trust me I drove fast very skillfully – the problem wasn’t my skills but my attitude, the dispositions that shaped how the skills were used. Today we are going to be talking about one of the most important vehicles for your faith – words and the Word, the Bible and how to read it. This is a wonderful thing but like the car our attitudes can have grave consequences for others and ourselves. We’ve seen the carnage, right? Those friends and family members who want nothing to do with the church or Christianity because they were wrecked by hurtful words and reckless Bible reading. Now, I’m not saying that we should take the blame for everything but I suspect you know what I’m talking about. Maybe like me you are a recovering victim of a Bible hit-and-run yourself. Or, maybe also like me, you’ve done the hitting.

So, what advice does James offer us?   

          1.    Dude, that’s not your car (vs. 18)

The Bible and its gospel message, even salvation itself, are gifts from God, James tell us. Gifts that that we are to accept with “humility” (vss. 21 and vs. 25). We are humbled because we have received them by grace, by God’s own desire not our own effort. The Greek is emphatic, “Of his own wish,” vs. 18 begins, “God gave us birth.”

The image of birth and our origins as Christians very much applies to wise Bible reading – that reading is not first and foremost something that we do but something done to us – we are birthed. It’s the reminder that the car we drive is not our own (so drive carefully) and is not powered by us. It’s not a Fred Flintstone car that God gives

us wanting us to run our feet as fast as we can to move us around.  This isn’t first and foremost our Word or My Bible, though I understand such sentiment. It’s God’s Word – His vehicle that he lets us borrow and use  – that’s why we say EVERY Sunday, “the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God.” Thankfully, we don’t say, “the Word of Jon, thanks be to Jon.” Now, I’ve never met a baby that upon coming out of the womb – stood up, thanked everyone for coming and then bowed because of the act that he/she had just performed. This would be as silly as being given a car and claiming that you made the car and gave it to yourself. Such an image reminds us that wise Bible reading is ultimately dependent on God who gives good gifts, the God who is truth and who brings us as a community into existence.

          2.    Avoid Driving Angry, vss. 19-21

Vs. 19-21 signal real problems behind faulty Bible reading.  How do we avoid bad driving while navigating the Bible? Surely, part of the answer is to develop critical skills associated with studying the Bible. Learning about historical context, theology, grammar, etc. There is simply no substitute for learning those skills and having them be a part of Bible reading. You need to learn the rules. It’s the same with driving a car. You must learn all kinds of skills to drive well. But driving a car responsibly in the real world is a different story. Here the skills of driving are not enough, you must also have the right awareness and attitude: being patient, considering others, controlling your anger; otherwise you might seriously hurt someone. AAA found that aggressive driving behaviors are behind 56% of fatal crashes. I suspect that this is true of Bible reading as well. Just like driving a real car on the road, Bible reading can be a dangerous thing. You need to practice virtues, James tells us like listening, learning to speak carefully, controlling your tongue. I know many Christians who read the Bible with the skill of a seasoned race car driver and yet the disposition of a vengeful, neurotic teenager. Their skills might be good but their attitude makes them dangerous. I worry about a Christian culture that defines itself at war with others; that’s more worried about being right than being loving, more concerned about winning than caring.

How can we avoid Aggressive Bible reading? What attitudes must we develop?

Quick to listen – We need to read often and carefully and think of our reading, James suggests, as an act of hospitality and person-to-person discourse. That’s also why we begin our Bible reading with the phrase: “Lord, we welcome your Word and pray that it finds a home in our hearts.” I think it’s helpful to consider our reading of Scripture to be like welcoming a foreign guest (with all the cultural delights and potential misunderstandings). We are “to “welcome with meekness the implanted word,” vs. 21 tells us, and we do that by asking questions: “Are you saying . . .?”; “Am I hearing you correctly?” In our practice of reading we need to be good hosts, asks whether we have listened to the Bible well. Have we heard its questions? Have we entertained its perspective? But not just with the Bible, we also need to cultivate habits of listening to others, even outsiders, less we fall into an interpretive arrogance in which we come to believe that our words are God’s words. It’s significant that all of the pronouns in this passage are 2^nd person plural not singular. This isn’t about you and the Bible but “all y’all” and the Bible. That means that we need to be listening to one another as we read it together. At a lunch this week with some of our more senior members, I asked the group, “What has been the most important thing for helping you read the Bible well?” The answer almost made by everyone was, “Reading and studying it with others.” That demands listening to alternate perspectives and views. By the way, sorry, I can’t help myself, but do you know one of the most accurate ways of determining who will commit road rage? A research study on road rage revealed that vehicles with lots of bumper stickers remain one of the greatest indicators. Bumper stickers, they found, mark people’s vehicles as private space and serve as a sign that they don’t pay attention so much to public space (i.e. other cars). It makes sense, right? So, how many bumper stickers do you have on your Bible? BTW The researchers showed that it was

the number and not the content of the stickers. It didn’t matter if the stickers were conservative or liberal either. The Bible is not first and foremost a private book but must be read together and discussed publicly, which demands the ability to listen.

Go (speak) slow – The best way to navigate the Bible is to move slowly and carefully. We need to be unhurried, to recognize that before we speak we should tap on the brakes. We need to give ourselves time to discern its meaning and not always rush to a decision or a position so worried about being right that we needlessly drive recklessly. Driving too fast is one of the easier ways to cause a wreck. As your mom used to tell you, “Slow down! It’s not a race.” When I was a kid in the Baptist church we had events called Bible drills (or sword drills – now that’s an image). There was even a National competition. Bible drill consisted of an adult giving a Bible reference to a

group of kids to see which kid, beginning with a closed Bible, could find the verse first and read it. But, while knowing your Bible is a good skill, finding a verse quickly is not the same as understanding it or applying it well.  Be sure to speak slowly, particularly if you encounter something challenging or difficult that the Bible might not seem to specifically address.

Slow to anger BECAUSE . . . anger does not produce righteousness. Anger does not produce anything productive. And yet anger in our current context is almost considered a badge of honor. Yet, it doesn’t make you a better driver. It might give you a boost of speed but using a text angrily, does not give witness to the God who longs to offer new birth through his word of truth – it turn a life-giving, useful thing, into a weapon. It creates a context for textual manslaughter.  Anger, James understands, makes us say things that are at best half-truths, it hinders our interpretive skills. If there is anything that makes the Bible dark and dull, if there is anything that makes the gospel hollow and unappealing, it is insidious anger in the followers of Jesus against others, particularly because our anger, we will see, is cast upon others when it might be better served to help us look at ourselves.

An example of Bible road rage was heard this morning in the story of David and Nathan (2 Samuel 12) – David’s anger was quick and fierce and even justified BUT Nathan had to tell him, “You are the man!” Too bad that he missed the point and once that vengeance had been spewed did he want to carry it through? If you want to avoid Biblical rage, when we read we must ask, “Lord, are we the man?” You see, David didn’t look in his mirror.

          3.    Use your mirrors (vss. 22-25)

Mirrors are probably one of the most underrated elements of good driving. Placed rightly and used well they can keep us from serious accidents by reflecting what we otherwise can’t see. James agrees, yet what we can’t see so well is ourselves, he says. The problem is self-deception. Later, when we

“look” into the mirror, I find it curious that most translators don’t translate the change in verb between vss. 23 (katanoeo) and 25 (parakypto). The latter is not simply look but “bend over to look.” To be both a doer and hearer of the word, according to James, then is to look into the Bible intently and humbly as addressing one’s self. So if there is a more individual orientation toward the Scriptures, here it is. The one who looks into the mirror (the Word) but does nothing about it is like one who sees his or her moral condition and walks away without any interest in changing.  But to “bend over to look” once again signals humility, receptivity, attentiveness and reflects the prayerful attitude of one committed to seeing themselves honestly and surrendering to God’s transformation. That person is willing to continue [parameinas] to allow the work of God’s Word which aims to set them free, to help them do. It implies two critical things: 1) faithfulness / stick-with-it-ness / to remain in place and 2) continual service / obedience. That is what is meant by doing -  we are to read the Word and be obedient – but our obedience reveals itself in love and service to others,

          4.    What do you think you’re driving? (vss. 26-27)

Finally, in vss. 26-27, James informs us that to be a doer of the Word is not simply “to do” but “to do unto others,” to be oriented toward caring for others who have no one to care for them – the marginal, like children in detention centers. It’s about recognizing what the vehicle is for and hence what kind of vehicle it is – it’s purpose. I sometimes ask people, “So, how’s it going? How’s your faith? How’s it drive?” And they respond, “It drives great. We mowed down the enemy, destroyed the defenses, and blew up the competition!” And I respond, “Wow, but you’re driving a school bus.” 

Religion, the vehicle for our transformation and the transformation of the world, aims to move us toward service and love not war or even being a law abiding citizen: by the way we talk to them and the way we treat them. That’s the goal of Bible reading. The early Christian Saint, Augustine, nicely summarizes James point:

“So anyone who thinks he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbor, has not yet succeeded in understanding them.” ~ Augustine, On Christian Doctrine (De Doctrina Christiana)

This vehicle has people in it – one’s who we are in charge of. It’s not a tank. It’s a school bus. I know it’s big, it’s solid, even dangerous. So drive slow, open the door often, especially those in need, greet others as they join, don’t drive angry, use your mirrors and let’s ride.