This is James's first assault on a major theme in his epistle: the immorality and destructiveness of an uncontrolled tongue. His first command regarding one's tongue is to silence it. Instead of talking, listen. His emphasis is not just on the quantity of listening (listen a lot) but on the promptness of listening (listen first): be quick to do it. The complementary command is to be slow to speak.

There is an important reason in the context of trials for making this the first instruction: trials make us do the opposite of what James says to do. The pressures of trials make us slow to listen and quick to speak—especially quick to speak in anger. The proverbial man who kicks the dog when he comes home from work does so not because the pet has wronged him but because he has suffered trials at work. It becomes even more serious when we "kick" other people. A married couple struggling financially is more likely to experience marital conflict. They may fight over the money or over other issues, but the financial trial has become the occasion for sinning against each other. With sensitive pastoral awareness of people's needs, James recognizes that their circumstances must present daily possibilities for relational conflicts.

James's instruction to them could apply to their conflicts with unbelieving persecutors; he would want Christians to maintain purity toward enemies as well as friends. However, there are indications later in the letter that he wanted especially to warn against impurity in relationships with fellow Christians (4:1, 11; 5:9).

The particular danger that James sees in these frequent relational conflicts should be defined from the preceding material in 1:2-18. James's argument does not appeal to a Pauline image of the body of Christ, in which he might have said everyone should be quick to listen because we are all members of one body (as in Ephesians 4), or later that we should look after orphans and widows because, if one part of the body suffers, every part suffers with it (as in 1 Corinthians 12). Nor does James write exactly with Paul's missionary argument of being light to a world in darkness (as in Ephesians 5). It is not that James would disagree with what Paul would later write, but that his context is the theology he has already written in 1:2-18. There he has explained that conflicts can be occasions for testing, which develops perseverance and leads to maturity; or they can be occasions for temptation, which promotes sin and leads to death. James is calling for purity in relationships because he sees the life-threatening danger of sin and the life-giving value of faith. The danger in being slow to listen and quick to speak is in the sin aroused. As in 1:13-15, the trial becomes an occasion for death-dealing sin.

Almost daily as a pastor I see the value that good listening has for the church's purity within and the church's mission without. When disagreements occur in the church, over and over I have seen what great damage is done to people, to relationships and to the effectiveness of our ministries when we are quick to argue our positions, defend our views and push our opinions. I have also seen what great good is done when we discipline ourselves to postpone defending our own views and judging others' views while we concentrate on listening and giving a full hearing in order to understand the other side of the conflict. We usually find the conflict more easily resolved. Good listening is a protection against dissension.

It is not only the avoidance of conflict that James has in mind. This verse, when extended into verse 20, implies a ministry God wants us to have toward each other to promote the righteous life he desires. Good listening helps to administer God's love for others' healing and strengthening. The result is their greater ability to live the life of righteousness.

James expects people who have been given birth in Christ to begin changing habits and behavior. He tells us to become slow to speak. We have a problem, though. Listening is most difficult when we are angry. In fact, the underlying anger is a primary and root cause for our slowness to listen and quickness to speak. It is clear that James perceives a close connection between the speaking and the anger, for his instruction to be slow to speak (bradys eis to lalesai) is followed by a further application in identical terms and structure: slow to become angry (bradys eis orgen). A major part of James's letter will be spent elaborating on this connection between sinful speech and selfish anger (in chapters 3 and 4), so that 1:19 is really a theme verse for the letter. James recognizes what trials do to us, that they stir our fear, self-pity, envy, confusion and especially anger. These result in behaviors of fighting, judging and attacking. He warns against these sins, and he writes about the ministry God wants us to have toward each other to bring about the righteous life that God desires.