James 1:19

Man's wrath, and God's righteousness

19. Wherefore The better MSS. give "Ye know this … but let every man."

my beloved brethren The formula of address was common to all the four great writers of the Apostolic Church. We find it in St Paul (1 Corinthians 15:58), in St Peter (2 Peter 3:14-15), in St John (1 John 2:7; 1 John 3:2). In the last two instances, however, the word "brethren" is wanting.

let every man be swift to hear From the general thought of the high ideal of life implied in the new birth from God, St James passes to the special aspect of that ideal which was most in contrast with the besetting sin of his countrymen. To him speech was of silver, and silence of gold. In this as in many other passages of his Epistle, he echoed the teaching of the sapiential books of the Old Testament (Proverbs 13:3; Proverbs 14:29; Proverbs 17:27; Ecclesiastes 5:2) yet more, perhaps, of those of the Apocrypha. So we find "Be swift to hear" in Sir 5:11, and maxims of a like nature in Sir 20:7. The "slow to wrath" follows on "slow to speak" as pointing to the crucial test of character. If it were hard at all times to be "slow to speak," it was harder than ever when men were roused to anger.