Mature Obedience
Slow to Anger – Part 1

Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:12-15

Key Verse: James 1:19

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry

Mature obedience will be a result, according to the Apostle James, of being slow to anger.  Achieving this “slow to anger” status demands patience.  Being quick to get angry is really another form of being impatient in most cases.  When we learn to be patient with the people around us, we’ve become mature in our walk with God.

The Apostle Paul wrote that we should clothe ourselves with patience (Colossians 3:12).  However, he also wrote that it was a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).  Putting these two thoughts together, we can conclude that God’s Spirit in us provides us with patience and all we have to do is avail ourselves to it.  It may be like having someone give us a brand new coat to wear; all we have to do is go to the closet and put it on.  Are you clothing yourself with patience?  When someone is testing your patience, do you whisper prayers and call upon God’s Spirit within to help you respond in love to that person, the way the apostle put it, “bear with each other” (Colossians 3:13a)?  The New Living Translation says: “Make allowances for each other’s faults.”  However it is said, a lack of patience will equal an abundance of frustration and anger.

Mature obedience will result in being slow to anger, which can only come from a godly patience with the people around us.  (Continued)

Father, I will put on your clothes today and make allowances for the faults of those around me.  In Jesus’ name, amen.