02.02. Chapter 2 - Verse 06
James 2:6. But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment-seats?
Here the apostle endeavoureth to work them to a sense of their own miscarriage. For, having proved respect of persons a sin, he falleth. directly upon their consciences; and you have been guilty of it, you have despised the poor. And then, to show that their practice was not only vain and evil, but mad and senseless, he urgeth a new argument: ‘Do not rich men oppress you?’ He doth, in effect, ask them, whether they would show so much honour to their executioners and oppressors? But you will say, Doth not the apostle herein stir them up to revenge? and are we not ‘to love our enemies, and to do good to them that hate us’? I answer—(1.) It is one thing to love enemies, another to esteem them out of some perverse respect; and there is a difference between fawning and offices of humanity and civility. (2.) Some have deserved so ill of the church, that they cannot challenge the least civil respect from the people of God: 2 John 1:10, ‘Bid him not God speed.’ So 2 Kings 3:14, ‘Were it not for Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look towards thee, nor see thee.’ (3.) The apostle doth not speak to the persons, but to the case. Will you honour wealth, which is the visible cause of all mischief? You see that men of that rank and order are usually persecutors and blasphemers. He speaketh of rich men in general, not such as used to frequent the church and synagogue; for otherwise you mistake the apostle’s argument if you think the words directed to the persons rather than the order. His argument runneth thus: Will you prefer men for wealth in the church, when you see that none are so mischievous, and such public enemies to the church, as those that are wealthy? To prove that wealth is no sufficient ground of Christian respect, he urgeth the usual abuse of it. But ye have despised the poor.—He showeth how contrary their practice was to God’s dispensation: God hath put honour upon them, but ye dishonour them, as the original word signifieth. The prophet expresseth such a like sin thus: Amos 5:11, ‘Ye have trodden the poor under foot.’ Do not rich men.—Either he meaneth rich Pagans and Jews that had not embraced Christianity, persecutions usually arising from men of that sort and order, as the scribes, pharisees, and high priests: ‘The chief men of the city were stirred up against Paul and Barnabas,’ Acts 13:50; or else pseudo-Christians, who, being great and powerful, oppressed their brethren, and used all manner of violence towards them. Or, rather, in general, any sort of rich men.
Oppress you.—The word is καταδυναστεύουσι, abuse their power against you, or usurp a power over you which was never given them. In which sense Solomon saith, Proverbs 22:7, ‘The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.’ Ruleth, that is, arrogateth a power, though not invested with the honour of magistracy. And draw you before the judgment-seats?—If it be understood of the unconverted Jews, the meaning is, they helped forward the persecution, and implieth the same with that, Matthew 10:17, ‘They shall deliver you up to councils.’ Or, if of rich men in the general, to which I rather incline, it noteth the violent practices which they used to the poor, dragging them, as they used to do with their debtors: ‘He plucked him by the throat,’ Matthew 18:28. And the prophet Isaiah expresseth the same cruelty by ‘smiting with the fist of wickedness,’ Isaiah 58:4. A great liberty the creditor had over the debtor among the Jews, and that our apostle intimateth in the word ἕλκουσι, ‘they draw you;’ and when he addeth ‘before judgment-seats,’ he aggravateth this wickedness that was now grown customary among them; which was not only violent usage of the poor, but oppressing them under a form of law: either wearing them out by vexatious suits, or defrauding them presently of their right, through the favour which they obtained by their power and greatness,—a practice common among all nations, but especially among the Jews, and therefore is it everywhere noted in the scriptures. See Psalms 10:9-10. The notes are these:—
Obs. 1. From that despised the poor. That known and apparent guilt must be roundly charged. Nathan said to David, 2 Samuel 12:7, ‘Thou art the man.’ When the practice is notorious, a faint accusation doth no good. The prophet striketh David on the breast; this is thy sin. When a city is on fire, will a man come coldly and say, Yonder is a great fire, I pray God it doth no harm? No; he will cry, Fire, fire; you are undone if you do not quench it. So when the practice is open and clearly sinful, it is not good to come with a contemplative lecture and lame homily, but to fall to the case directly. Ye have despised the poor. Sirs, this is your sin, and if you do not reform it, this will be you ruin. It is good to be a little warm when the sin is common and the danger imminent.
Obs. 2. From that but you. He opposeth their practice to God’s dispensation; that despising the poor is a sin, not only against the word and written will of God, but his mind and intent in his works and dispensations. It is a kind of gigantomachy, a resisting of God. (1.) It is against the mind of God in their creation: Proverbs 22:2, ‘The rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them both;’ that is, they meet in this, that they have but one maker. There is another meeting, Job 3:20-22; they meet in the grave, they meet in their death, and in their maker. Now God never made a creature for contempt. These considerations should restrain it. They were made as we were, and they die as we do. The poor man is called our ‘own flesh,’ Isaiah 58:7; Adam’s child, as we are. (2.) It is against God’s providence,—his common providence, who hath constituted this order in the world: Proverbs 17:5, ‘Whoso reproacheth the poor despiseth his maker;’ that is, contemneth the wise dispensation of God, who would have the world to consist of hills and valleys, and the poor intermingled with the rich; therefore Christ saith, Matthew 26:11, ‘The poor you have always present with you.’ It is one of the settled constitutions and laws of providence, and it is necessary for the uses and services of the world; this preserveth order. There are many offices and functions which human societies cannot want, and therefore some men’s spirits are fitted for handicrafts, and hard manual labours, to which men of a higher spirit and delicate breeding will not condescend. (3.) It is also against God’s special providence, by which many times the greatest gifts are bestowed upon them that are poor and despicable in the world; their wit being sharpened by necessity, they may have the clearer use of reason. Naaman’s servant saw more than his master, 2 Kings 5:13; and Solomon telleth of ‘a poor man that delivered the city,’ Ecclesiastes 9:15. Nay, God many times putteth that singular honour of being heirs of salvation upon them. The poor are rich in faith in the context; and then injury must needs redound to him, for they are his friends and children; and friends have all things common, both courtesies and injuries.
Obs. 3. Rich men are usually persecutors or oppressors. Their wickedness hath the advantage of an occasion. And usually when a disposition and an occasion meet together, then sin is drawn forth and discovered. Many have will, but have no power. The world would be a common stage to act all manner of villanies upon, were it not for such restraints of providence. Therefore Solomon maketh an oppressing poor men to be a kind of wonder and prodigy. Besides, riches exalt the mind, and efferate it. They have had little experience of misery, and so have little pity. God’s motives to Israel were these: Do good to strangers, for thou wert a stranger; and do good to the poor, for thy father was a poor Syrian. Such reasonings are frequent in scripture. But now, when men live altogether at ease, their hearts are not meekened with a sense of the accidents and inconveniences of the common life. And therefore, having power in their hands, they use it, as beasts do their strength, in acts of violence. The prophet often complaineth, Amos 6:1-14, of ‘the excellency of Jacob,’ and ‘the oppression that was in her palaces.’ Again, wealth often endeth in pride, and pride breaketh all common and moral restraints; and so men make their will a law, and think as if the rest of the world were made to serve their pleasures. And besides, the world filleth their hearts with a ravenous desire to have more of the world, how unjustly soever it be purchased and gotten. You see the reason why they are oppressors and they are persecutors, because commonly the meanest are most forward in religion. The spirit of the world and the spirit of Christ are at enmity. The gospel putteth men upon the same level, which persons elevated and exalted cannot endure. Besides, they are afraid that the things of Christ will bring some disturbance to their worldly concernments and possessions. The Jewish rulers were afraid of division among the people, and the coming in of the Romans. The Gadarenes were afraid of their hogs. Many such reasons might be given. Well, then, rich men should be more careful to avoid the sins that seem to cleave to their rank and order. It is very hard, but ‘with God all things are possible.’ Wealth is called ‘the mammon of unrighteousness,’ Luke 16:9, because it is usually the instrument and incentive of it. That of Jerome is harsh, but too often true—Omnis dives aut iniquus est, aut iniqui hœres—that every rich man is either an oppressor himself, or the heir of one. Certainly it is but almost impossible to be rich and righteous. There are many evils incident to your state. Moral evils, such as heathens discerned, as pride: ‘Charge them that they be not high-minded,’ 1 Timothy 6:17. Boasting, with some contempt of others: Jeremiah 9:23, ‘Let not the rich man glory in his riches;’ so injustice: Proverbs 22:7, ‘The rich ruleth over the poor;’ that is, by force and violence: the word may be read, ‘domineereth.’ Then luxury and profuseness. Men abuse the fatness of their portion, and lay it out upon their lusts. Dives