Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary James 2

James begins his discussion of partiality by a prohibition: “Don’t show favoritism” (lit., “stop showing favoritism”). That the recipients of this letter were guilty of practicing discrimination is apparent from v.6. Partiality is inconsistent with faith “in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” To say that practicing favoritism contradicts one’s profession of faith is another way of saying that one’s action does not measure up to the truth one professes to believe. The stress on Christ as “glorious” heightens the gross inconsistency of allowing favoritism and discrimination to be associated with faith in such an exalted person as Christ.

A hypothetical illustration follows: “Suppose a man comes into your meeting.” The word translated “meeting” is synagoge (GK 5252), which had primary reference to the Jewish synagogue. The term need not be taken literally, however, as an indication that the Jewish Christians were still meeting in synagogue buildings. Even after leaving the synagogue, Jewish Christians no doubt continued to refer to their church meeting as a synagoge.

James pictures two men entering this early assembly. The first one is “wearing a gold ring and fine clothes”—the clothing of a rich person or a dignitary. In sharp contrast are the “shabby [lit., filthy; GK 4865] clothes” of the “poor man” (GK 4777). Inasmuch as this poor man is in reality a beggar, it seems most natural that his clothes should be described as filthy.

The rich man is shown “special attention” (GK 2098), a word that means “to look with favor on” someone and so to give assistance (cf. its use in Lk 9:38). This rich man is the object of solicitous attention as he is shown to “a good seat.” In contrast, “the poor man” is abruptly told to “stand there,” perhaps in the back of the assembly or in some other out-of-the-way place; his other alternative is to “sit on the floor by my feet” (lit., “sit by my footstool”). The contrast between the speaker who has a stool for his feet and the beggar who must sit on the floor heightens the discrimination.

The expressed condemnation of this practice is put in question form, but in a question that expects the readers to agree with the conclusion: “Have you not discriminated?” The practice illustrated in vv.2–3 rests on an unjustified distinction. The basis for showing favor is wrong. Those acting in this way “become judges with evil thoughts.” Here the play on words in the Greek is not apparent in the English translation. The word translated “discriminated” (GK 1359) is built on the same root as the word for “judges” (GK 3216). In so judging between people, the readers had become unjust judges.

Verses 5–11 advance two arguments against the practice of favoritism. The first may be called the social argument (vv.5–7). The importance the author attaches to these arguments is seen in the imperative “Listen, my dear brothers.” The early church was not drawn from the wealthy or ruling classes. It was largely made up of poorer people, those who were “poor in the eyes of the world” (cf. Matthew 11:5; 1 Corinthians 1:26–29). By saying that the believers’ poverty is poverty “in the eyes of the world,” James suggests that they are not really poor. They are “rich in faith” and heirs of the kingdom. The aspect of the kingdom James has in mind is future. It is the eternal kingdom that Christ equated with eternal life (Matthew 25:34, 46). The social snobbery of the world is short-sighted and superficial. And the favoritism James’s readers practiced was based on this same shallow kind of evaluation.

James’s concept of the blessed poor may be misunderstood. He does not say that all poor people are “rich in faith,” nor does he exclude the rich from the ranks of the saved. Furthermore, God’s choice of the poor must not be taken as based on any merit inherent in poverty. One reason God “has chosen those who are poor” may be seen in the account of the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17–27). There Jesus indicated that those who have riches find it exceedingly difficult to enter God’s kingdom (vv.23–25), apparently because their wealth stands in the way. God blesses those who willingly recognize their spiritual bankruptcy (Matthew 5:3). A second reason why God chooses the poor is explicitly stated in 1 Corinthians 1:26–29. God selects those who have nothing or are nothing in themselves “so that no one may boast before him” (v.29).