James 2:7 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

NIV: Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?

NASB: Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you have been called?

CSB: Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

NLT: Aren’t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear?

KJV: Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

NKJV: Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

James has been discussing the sin of Christians who were showing favoritism to wealthy people over the poor. Prior verses showed how such discrimination reveals a lack of trust in God. If the Creator gives eternal honor to all who are in Christ, including those who are poor in this life, then there is no reason to treat people differently based on wealth. James also made a very practical point to his first-century readers: It's the rich people who are oppressing you, why would you expect them to treat you well? Apparently, most of James's readers and most Christians of the time were poor people. Their favoritism for the rich may have been about trying to gain favor from wealthy and powerful men instead of trusting Christ to provide for them.

Here, in verse 7, James makes an additional point about the abusive rich people the early Christian church was dealing with. This group of wealthy oppressors also blaspheme the name of Christ. But their actions are more personal than that. These persecutors blaspheme the noble (or honorable or fair) name by which believers are called: "Christian," those who belong to Christ.

Phrased another way, James is asking, "Why seek the favor of the rich who reject your Savior when your Savior is capable to provide all you need both now and forever?"

James 2:1–13 continues the prior passage's focus on Christians living out what the Word of God says. Those who hold the faith of Christ should obey the command to love our neighbors as ourselves. This includes not showing favoritism to the rich over the poor. Christians should trust God to provide for and protect them, instead of seeking the favor of the very group of people who were oppressing them in the first place. According to the gospel, all of us are lawbreakers. Christians, as people who believe they will be judged by the law that gives freedom, should treat all others as equals.

Genuine saving faith in God leads to good and loving actions: ''works.'' In chapter 1, James discussed the importance of acting on the words of God, not merely hearing them. Favoritism to the rich over the poor demonstrates a lack of faith. In fact, this is a sin. Following up on these ideas, James insists that ''faith'' which doesn't result in good works is dead. Such belief is merely intellectual agreement. It is not trust, or true, biblical saving faith. James doesn't deny that belief in God is essential to salvation, nor does he claim that works are necessary to obtain salvation. Rather, he makes the case that works are to faith what the breath is to the body: a sign of life. A ''faith'' without works is like a body without breath: dead.

In chapter 1, James taught that a saving belief in God changes how a Christian looks at trials in their lives. It affects where they turn for help, and who they credit for good. Believers hear the Word and do it. In this chapter, James insists that our faith in God should keep us from showing favoritism to the rich and powerful on earth and should provoke us to love our poor neighbors as ourselves. He also makes the case that so-called-''faith'' which does not result in works, is not saving faith, at all. Despite controversy, this does not clash with Paul's view of salvation by grace alone. James refers to good works as an expected outcome of salvation, not the source of it. In the following chapters, he will continue to show what a life of genuine faith looks like.

The book of James is about specifically understanding what saving faith looks like. How does faith in Christ reveal itself in a believer's life? What choices does real trust in God lead us to make? Those are the questions James answers. Most scholars believe the writer was Jesus' half-brother, a son born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus' birth. James may not have come to believe Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection. Eventually, though, he became one of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. This is possibly the earliest-written of all the New Testament books, around AD 40–50. James addresses his letter to Jewish Christians scattered around the known world.