The aim of this article is my personal attempt to help address the human tendency we have of being quick to speak and slow to listen.  Maybe, like me, you can relate with having this tendency yourself.  Perhaps you have noticed it in wider culture.  You can usually spot it wherever people are speaking many words at one another, but there is little to no hearing of one another.  Sound familiar?

In the Bible, James 1 summarizes this speech problem as a moral error that leads us away from the love of God and our neighbor.  In that passage of Scripture, James teaches us that listening first to God, then to one another, is absolutely crucial if we would love God and our neighbor in truth.  (Consider: it does not say to stop speaking, but to speak second to hearing, and to be slow to speak).  The Proverbs warn us, “Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 29:20)