"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."
People just don't do everything that we want them to. Sometimes they are unable to do it. Sometimes what we want is the wrong thing. Sometimes our expectations are unreasonable. And sometimes they should be doing what we would like them to be doing, but they don't. Sometimes they actively pursue those things which they know are not in our best interest that they might harm us. This very commonly evokes a negative response from us. We want things our way. If not, get out of our way; we're on the war path.
This is wrong. We should listen, then be quiet. "No, surely then we should speak." No, I think that's why we get ourselves into trouble. We are quick to anger because we are quick to speak. In the initial blaze of emotion, we should be silent. This delay would greatly limit our fits of anger. Our anger is not godly. When we respond to people with rage, we are not fulfilling the responsibilities that God has laid out for us. It's not God's way for us.
But our tacit response should not merely be anger muffled. We need to remedy our state of being by directing our attention to God's word. By looking to the Bible, we don't press down our poor responses for them to explode later; we put them away. And in their place we receive that which God requires of us in meekness.
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