Charles Ellicott Commentary James 2:6

"But ye have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you before the judgment-seats?" — James 2:6 (ASV)

But you have despised the poor.—Better, you dishonored the poor man—that is, when, as already mentioned (James 2:2–3), you exalted the rich to the “good place” of your synagogue. Thus whom God had called and chosen, you refused. “It is unworthy,” observes Calvin on this passage, “to cast down those whom God lifts up, and to treat them shamefully whom He grants the honor. But God honors the poor; therefore whoever rejects them perverts the ordinance of God.”

Do not rich men oppress you?—Or, lord it over you as a class; not certainly that this can be said of each wealthy individual. It is the rich man, of the earth earthy, trusting in his riches , who makes them a power for evil and not for good. Here is presented the other side of the argument, used on behalf of the poor, namely, observe first how God regards them (James 2:5), and next, judge their adversaries by their own behavior.

Draw you before the judgment seats?—Better, Do they not drag you into courts of justice? “Hale” you, as the old English word has it. Summum jus summa injuria—extreme of right is extreme of wrong—a legal maxim often exemplified. The purse-proud litigious man is the hardest to deal with, and the one who especially will grind the faces of the poor. No body of laws could on the whole be more equitable than the Roman, but their administration in the provinces was frequently in venal hands; and besides, the large fees demanded by the juris-consulti—“the learned in the law”—quite barred the way of the poorer suitors, such as, for the most part, were the Christians to whom this Letter was written.