Bible Commentaries
James 2

Verses 1-26

II:1-13 No Snobbery— If the true Christian spirit demands an active benevolence towards the poor and afflicted, then a display of partiality towards the rich in Christian assemblies is entirely out of place and in direct contradiction to the principles of the Gospel. Hence the opening admonition: ’My brethren, have not the faith’, i.e. do not try to reconcile the faith, ’of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons’.

2. The church is for the poor as well as for the rich, and to make a show of servility towards a well-dressed and obviously wealthy person by offering him a place of honour, while ushering a poorly clad man into a corner, is to be snobbish and unjust in judgement.

4. Such conduct is based solely on external appearances, which often enough belie the interior character.

5. It also contradicts the judgement of God, who shows more favour to the poor. The majority of the first converts belonged to that class, which is indicative of God’s favour, because he thus makes them heirs of eternal life instead of bestowing upon them’ material riches.

6. The rich, as a class, are enemies of Christ and of his followers. They oppress Christians and drag them before the law courts, and worst of all they blaspheme the holy name of Christ.

8. The ’royal law’ of fraternal charity forbids snobbery. It is called the ’royal law’ because it is a fundamental principle of the kingdom of Christ, which together with ’ the first and greatest commandment’ forms the ground-work on which’ dependeth the whole law and the prophets’, Matthew 22:40.10. On account of the unity and internal cohesion of the law, a man who violates one precept, is guilty of transgressing the law as a whole.

11. Not all sins are equal; but every serious sin (and there is question here of grave matter) indicates contempt of the authority of the Lawgiver.

12. The words and deeds of Christians should always conform to the law of Christ, which is ’the law of liberty’ because, through the spirit of adoption, the baptized are set free from the spirit of bondage attached to the old law, Romans 8:15; and by this law of liberty all Christians will be judged.

13. There is a law of divine retribution; but at times mercy triumphs over severity.

14-26 Faith and Works— Faith is lifeless if nothing issues from it. Faith without works will not obtain mercy for us at the judgement.

14. A believer, who contents himself with kind words and wishes but does not practise works of mercy towards a fellow Christian reduced to extreme necessity, boasts of a faith that lacks an essential quality to make it effective for eternal salvation. Hence, faith without works is worthless and unprofitable to the possessor.

18. If faith really exists, it is interior, and cannot be shown to others; whereas, if it issues in good works, these may be offered as proofs of one’s faith.

19. To demonstrate the worthlessness of a mere theoretical faith, an exampie is furnished by the belief in the unity of God. Even the devils assent to this doctrine; furthermore, it causes them to tremble; but this shows that such assent is valueless for elternal life.

20. The kind of faith that if necessary for saivation. is like Abraham’s, who was justified by works, because his faith issued in unhesitating obedience to God’s order to sacrifice his son Isaac. By this his faith was perfected.

25. Rahab gave shelter to the spies of Josue, and saved their lives, because she firmly believed in the God of Israel, Joshua 2:11; thus furnishing another example of faith productive of works.