Quick to Listen

Quick to Listen

by Doug Bratt

Everyone should be quick to listen [and] slow to speak. James 1:19

Each fall my friend Brian and I compare the merits of the University of Michigan and Ohio State University’s football teams. I’m always quick to speak about Michigan’s superior coaching, talent and moral quality. When I listen to Brian, I mostly listen for flaws in his arguments for the Buckeyes’ superiority.

I must admit to a similar approach to political, theological and ethical discussions. I can usually at least act like I’m listening to others’ opinions that differ from my own. But I naturally listen to those opinions in order to contradict them as well as build a stronger case for my own. When I take the time to listen to someone’s view that differs from mine, I generally do so not to understand what that person is telling me, but to refute it.

In James 1:19 the apostle invites God’s people who are scattered among the nations to “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (NIV). Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrases this summons in an imaginative way: “Lead with your ears [and] follow up with your tongue.”

One of the English meanings of the Greek word that we translate as “listen” is to “comprehend by hearing.” That at least suggests that a search for understanding is an essential component of the listening to which James summons Jesus’ followers.

Such listening is, however, difficult when it involves controversial issues about which people have strong opinions. When we assume that we know the truth about a contentious issue, we easily assume that we already understand everything we need to know about it. We assume that we don’t need to understand others’ perspectives. We simply need to refute them.

So when we listen to others share their opinions, we naturally listen not for the reasons behind an opinion, but for inconsistencies in those viewpoints. We listen not for ways to better understand each other, but for ways that we can attack and dismantle those opinions. This kind of listening plagues even formal and informal gatherings of Christians. It also plagues all sides of our most vigorous debates.

I’d suggest that James summons Christians to a better way that promotes unity rather than division. He invites us to a listening that seeks to understand rather than contradict. James summons Jesus’ followers listen to each other in order to understand not just others’ opinions, but also those who hold them.

So when we ask questions about others’ opinions, we do so with deep humility. When we listen to each other, we listen as those who are listening to people whom God both creates us in God’s image and loves passionately.

Our listening for understanding may not lead to a change in our own opinions. But those listen in that way may find that we have more in common with those with whom we disagree than we realized. What’s more, the Spirit can use that can kind of humble listening to deepen the unity among God’s people for which Jesus expended among his last breaths praying.

In his book, Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955, Harald Jahner writes about the rules the philosopher Karl Jasperse established for his classrooms following World War II. In the light of the war’s trauma, Jasperse said, “Germany can only return to itself when we communicate.”

So, says Jahner, “Jasperse urgently demanded: 'Let us learn to talk to one another. That is, let us not merely repeat our opinion, but hear what the other person thinks. Let us not only assert, but reflect in context, listen for reasons, prepared to reach a new insight. Let us inwardly attempt to assume the position of the other. 

‘Yes, let us actually seek out that which contradicts us. Grasping what we hold in common within contradiction is more important than hastily fixing exclusive standpoints with which the conversations draws hopelessly to an end’.”