James 2:1-17 discusses the treatment the community of faith offers the rich and poor and then expands the discussion to the intimate relationship between faith and works.
James 2:1-13 has the theme of the poor and rich in church. He warns against showing partiality. The focus is an active faith and a consistent love. The readers have a weakness for the rich and powerful.
In James 2:1-7, the first instance of discrimination against poor Christians involves offering social deference toward the rich. My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person, like a senator or nobleman with gold rings and in fine clothes, seeking political office, comes into your assembly (synagogue). The person represents the aristocracy and the connection with the church is supposed to be beneficial. Jewish sources deal with such discrimination based on dress in court proceedings.[1] The Romans sought support among a variety of groups. The person comes during worship. The partiality showed here would be typical of every human community. Paul recommends Phoebe to the church in Rome because she is a benefactor of many, including himself (Romans 16:1-2). Paul refers to Erastus, who is the city treasurer, as being with him in the writing of his letter (Romans 16:23). Paul urges his readers to give recognition to the household of Stephanas and to put themselves at their service (I Corinthians 16:15-18). However, if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet.” The description that James provides of the overly obedient and submissive greeting of a rich person and the dismissive welcome of the poor person reflects the social customs of the age. Clearly, the situation in the community to which James writes is like the context of Paul's Corinthian correspondence: Believers are dividing themselves according to the criteria of wealth, status and power. To this egregious situation, both Paul and James have direct and pointed advice: In God's view, there is no distinction among people - in fact, the poor are a priority to God. James asks, 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? He picks up the image of the law courts with Leviticus 19:15, where the Law prohibits unjust judgment and promotes justice toward the neighbor. Seen in this light, they are truly unjust “judges” whose insincere hearts oppress the poor, the most vulnerable. The Jewish legal system is not to distort justice or show partiality (Deuteronomy 16:19). The people of Israel oppress the poor and crush the needy (Amos 4:1-3). Those in power seize the fields of others and oppress homeowners (Micah 2:1-5). Prophets urged rulers to render true judgments as well as show kindness and mercy to each other, rejecting the path of oppression of the widow, orphan, alien, or poor (Zechariah 7:9-10). His readers are to show partiality to neither poor nor rich. James asserts that they dissolve the unity of the church by such distinctions of rank, and they act as judges by using possessions as a standard of judgment. 5Listen (Ἀκούσατε, aorist active imperative), my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom (Luke 6:20 is an interesting parallel) that God has promised to those who love God? The concern of God for the poor is familiar in the Bible. The Lord provides food, clothing and justice for the orphan, widow, and stranger (Deuteronomy 10:18). God is father of orphans and protector of widows (Psalm 68:5). The Lord will judge Israel because it sells the needy for a pair of sandals (Amos 2:6-7). The Lord lifted the lowly and filled the hungry with good things (Luke 1:51-53). Jesus applies to himself the notion of the Spirit of the Lord falling upon the servant of the Lord to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). God blesses the poor by the rule of God to them (Luke 6:20), a thought close to that of James saying the poor are “heirs of the rule of God.” Jesus urged that when his followers give a banquet, they are to invite the poor (Luke 14:13). Paul notes that his readers were not powerful or part of the nobility, but that God has chosen the weak, low, and despised in the eyes of the world (I Corinthians 1:25-29). The experience of the author is that wealth encouraged a factional spirit. This is a counter cultural message, for the insistence in the New Testament that God shows no partiality according to rank or status is rare in non-Christian writings. Indeed, the priority of the poor is a unique and powerful witness of the radical preaching of James and the rest of the early Christian gospel. 6Nevertheless, you have dishonored the poor. James presses his point with even more particularity. Is it not the rich in non-Christian society who oppress you? Is it not they who use their social status to win their case against you as they drag you into court? 7Is it not they, rich secularists that they are, who blaspheme the excellent name that leaders in the church invoked over you? There is no evidence of the rich in general doing this in the early church. It is unlikely that the senator or nobleman mentioned in verses 2-3 would do that. Thus, he may be pointing to the trouble experienced in local Christian communities with those of high social status in society. However, James finds it far worse that Christians are, in action if not word, blaspheming Christ in how they treat one another.
In James 2:8-13, we find a contrast between the love that fulfills the Law with the partiality that breaks the Law. The brief mention of legal proceedings in the secular courts may give witness to the specific context for the letter: How Christians should behave in legal matters. However, the cause of James is much bigger, and the reference to the legal system serves as a bridge for James to return to the law of faith. The concern James has with the law in his epistle is not the law that describes cultic regulations such as Sabbath observation and circumcision, but it is the law that demands merciful and loving acts toward the poor. James and Paul would agree on this point as well. He contrasts those who fulfill the Law receive judgment by love and mercy, while those who dishonor fellow Christians are lawbreakers. We find an introduction for James' main practical purpose in verses 14-17. To James, there cannot be a separation of faith from works - to divide them is to render both null and void. Rather, giving food to the hungry and supplying the bodily needs of the one who is without should be a natural and reflexive response of faith. That James makes faith and works part of a complementary package gives the modern reader no excuse to attempt to judge James harshly for trying to make a distinction between the two. 8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law (νόμον βασιλικὸν), because it relates to the rule of God, according to the scripture in Leviticus 19:18, but also in Mark 12:31, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Paul urges his readers to love each other out of mutual affection (Romans 12:10). He also urges them to love each other and thereby fulfill the law by loving your neighbor as yourself (Romans 13:8-10). He is willing to sum up the law in the single commandment that they shall love the neighbor as the self (Galatians 5:13-14). Such advice is like the new commandment for the followers of Jesus to love each other, the doing of which will show others they are disciples of Jesus, even as Jesus has loved them (John 13:34-35). The followers of Jesus are his friends when they love each other by laying down their lives for each other (John 15:9-17). Paul writes that the believer was set free for freedom (Galatians 5:1), and James exhorts his readers to look to the "perfect law of liberty" (1:25). The meaning is similar; as the believer recognizes the love he or she has received in Christ and lives out this faithful relationship in love and service to others. The quality of community reflects the quality of faith. Division and conflict show a profound lack of understanding of such faithfulness that Paul and James describe. 9However, if you show partiality, you commit sin and the law convicts you as transgressors. Partiality toward the rich is a transgression of the law of love since it is against God's will to discriminate against the poor. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. There was an effort to observe the revealed law on the Jewish pattern. However, not even such zealots can obey the whole law. It is a misreading of James to stress the importance of his insistence on keeping the law. A careful reading of this passage suggests that the author is warning his readers precisely not to even try to fulfill every commandment, for no one can do that. If one stumbles in one law, it means one has not kept the entire Law. We find similar thoughts in Jewish literature. If you disobey the law in a small matter, such as eating forbidden foods, you have shown contempt for the whole Law (IV Maccabees 5:19-21). One may try to escape one class of offences while running into other offences. However, the temperate person ought to avoid giving offence to greater or lesser Law and have no detected sin (Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3:241).[2] Jesus offered that that not one stroke of a letter of the law will pass until God accomplishes all things, so that whoever breaks the least of the commandments becomes least in the rule of God (Matthew 5:18-19). Paul argues that if Christianity enforces the law of circumcision on all Christians, even Gentile, then they are under obligation to the whole Law (Galatians 5:3).
11For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. They are rigid on adultery, but not on murder. True, Jesus took the commandment against murder and intensified it by saying that if you angry you will receive judgment (Matthew 5:21-22). Yet, more likely, James is using an absurd and overstated example to underline the point against even trying to obey the law. 12So speak and so act as those whom God will judge by the law of liberty. He refers to the law of love, or even the gospel. The purpose of the "law of liberty" is to set people free to live in community and welcome everyone, having particular concern for the poor, the widow, and the orphan (1:27). 13For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. Harsh judgment is not the final word.
James 2:14-26 have the theme of faith and good deeds. He adopts the diatribe style, which means he envisions an imaginary opponent. Note that the premise that faith without deeds is useless concludes each exchange in verse 17, 20, and 26.
James 2:14-17 deal with true charity toward the destitute. Christians are to practice transforming and creative justice.[3] His second instance of discrimination against the poor is to ignore the needs of poor believers. In the cultural context, philosophers observed the distinctions in social class and some urged overcoming them. One could urge the education of slaves and urged showing mastery of the will versus paltry phrases (Epictetus, Discourses, II. 1. 31). The follower is not to focus upon acquiring property, but rather on mastery of the will (Epictetus III.22.9). In a satirical way, Lucian of Samosata tells the story of a man who was wealthy, helped others, became poor, and those whom he helped ignored him (Timon the Misanthrope). Overcoming class distinctions is an important way to show proper regard and respect for the other. The point in James is that doctrinal correctness or even ritual conformity is a way to hide when one has already lost genuine faith. 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith, mere profession, or assent to propositions, save you? He returns to his interrogative style. 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; which the deacon at the close of the communion service may have said, keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? Note the resemblance with I John 3:17-18. The Lord seeks justice for the oppressed (Psalm 103:6). God executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry, sets prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts those bowed down, cares for the stranger, orphan, and widow (Psalm 146:5-9). The prophet urges that people cleanse themselves by seeking justice, rescuing the oppressed, defending the orphan, and pleading for the widow (Isaiah 1:16-17). The fast the Lord chooses is to loose the bonds of injustice and let the oppressed go free (Isaiah 58:6). The Lord has anointed the prophet to bring good news to the oppressed, heal the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty to the captives (Isaiah 61:1). To press his point and establish how meaningless words are when they lack any substantive act of compassion (i.e., love for neighbor), he presents a real-world situation. Obviously, it is no good whatsoever to have the right words without action. A vital faith will have appropriate deeds within it. We must see no direct contradiction of Paul, for which see Galatians 5:6, where Paul stresses that all that counts is faith working through love. 17 Therefore, faith, mere profession, or assent to propositions, by itself, if it has no works (practice), is dead. The deeds approved are not technical observances, but love.
A dead faith may keep on talking, but it has stopped moving. Life happens in events rather than words. What we do tells more about the state of our faith than what we say. Yes, talk the talk, but also walk the walk. James is arguing that we show our faith in Christ by living a life in which we do what he says. We do not genuinely trust Christ if we do not take his advice. We do not live that way to receive salvation or get to heaven as our reward. We live this way because God has already saved us, and a bit of heaven is already shining through us.[4]
[1] In b. Shebuot 31a, but I could not find it there.
[2] And who, some one perhaps, may say, ever escapes in-doors? Do not many do so? Or have not some people, avoiding the guilt of sacrilege, committed robberies in private houses, or though not beating their own fathers, have not they insulted the fathers of others? Now these men do escape from one class of offences, but they run into others. But a man who is perfectly temperate, ought to avoid every description of offence, whether greater or less, and never to be detected in any sin whatever.
[3] (Paul Tillich, Love, Power, and Justice [New York: Oxford University Press, 1960], 64)
[4] [To have faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that he says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to him, it must follow that you are trying to obey him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because he has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of heaven is already inside you. —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
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