James 2:6 - Printer Friendly

ESV: But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?

NIV: But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

NASB: But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

CSB: Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into court?

NLT: But you dishonor the poor! Isn’t it the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

KJV: But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

NKJV: But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

James continues his thought from the previous verse. There, he reminded readers that God had made Christians who are poor in this life rich in faith right now, and rich in His kingdom forever. That is the promise God has made to those who love Him. He phrases this in the form of a question. James's Christian readers would, of course, answer "yes" to that question.

James's goal is to convey a crucial point: treating Christian brothers and sisters, rich or poor, as men and women worthy of equal honor only makes sense. When we fail to do so, he writes, we dishonor those who are poor.

Then James expands his argument. To give the rich special treatment makes no sense for another reason: As a group, the rich of the first century treated Christians very badly. We don't know all of the specific circumstances James is referring to here, but it seems clear that most of James's readers, and most Christians of this time, were poor people. They lived in a society where the wealthy became wealthier and more powerful. They often did so, in part, by using their money to influence the courts, in order to gain land that wasn't theirs. They used their riches to force the poor to work that land, often under terrible conditions.

Of course, not every rich person of James's era was guilty of all of these things. Nor are rich people today all guilty of such abuse. In this particular time and place, however, James writes that the rich had been guilty of oppressing and exploiting his Christian readers. The rich have been guilty of taking them to court, abusing them, and taking advantage of them.

This makes the force of James's point about favoritism clear, both spiritually and practically. It's foolish for Christians to give preferential treatment to the rich, in the hopes of getting better treatment, when the rich are the very ones mistreating them!

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.