James 2:5

4. For the rich are generally persecutors and blasphemers, James 2:5-7.

5. Hearken… brethren In this earnest expostulation (James 2:5-7) St. James makes two points:

1. The poor are the chosen, and so wrong is done to them.

2. The rich are the oppressors and blasphemers, and so a wicked preference is given to them.

Chosen The (aorist) tense, Did not God choose? that is, (Gr. middle,) prefer for himself. The objects of his choice present three objective characteristics; they are poor in worldly goods, but (antithetically) rich in faith, and even heirs (heightening the antithesis) of a future royalty. The very nature of the antithesis shows the inadmissibility of Huther’s interpolating (followed by Alford) the words to be, and reading, chosen to be rich in faith. This to be, might just as authoritatively be interposed before poor, and so render, has not God chosen them to be poor? The worldly poverty, the spiritual richness, and the celestial heirship, all precede this choice, which is simply the divine preference in contrast with this, their human, rejection in the synagogue. God chose, but men (next verse) despised them.

The kingdom The future kingdom of heaven, as being yet subject of promise.