To love God is to love His Word
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. James 1:19-20
From the text, James urges his readers to be “quick to listen.” Being quick to listen will result to being “slow to speak and slow to get angry” (v. 19). We are able to do this because of the Word of God that has been planted in our hearts. This is why it is important to listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ said to Satan when he was trying to tempt Jesus. ““But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).”” Jesus rebuked Satan by telling him that the Word of God is more necessary than food. It is more precious than gold. It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We cannot live properly without the Word of God! How very eager we should be to read it and hear it taught! Nothing, absolutely nothing, should be more important to us than taking it in! But our age will not go down in history as “the age of hearing God’s Word.” With the advancement of technology and media, people nowadays have short attention span; not to mention the tendency to be lazy and undisciplined. But the greatest part of it is that we do not prize the Word of God as we should. To be slow to speak is to guard against the tendency to be inwardly raising objections to the Word of God. When the Word of God is accurately preached, we will often find that it hurts. It is a sword that pierces and cuts! “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12). How do we respond when God is convicting us through the proclamation of the Word? Do we allow God’s Spirit to have God’s Word simmer through our hearts that instead of becoming resentful and combative, we welcome it in our hearts? These are days in which the tendency is to be slow to listen, quick to speak and hasty to anger! But the one who loves God loves His Word! “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2).
Blessings
