James 2:5

The true reading, found in the oldest and best manuscripts and adopted by the most recent scholars, is tō kosmō. It appears to be the dative of reference — that is, poor in respect of, or as to, the world. This is a common enough use.

The rich Jews were mostly the proud opponents of Christ and His people, and they blasphemed His worthy name. God's choice had mainly fallen on the poor. The words of the apostle to the Gentiles in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 agree with this. These chosen poor ones — true Christians — were rich in faith and heirs of the coming kingdom. They fawned on the proud blasphemers and persecutors because they were rich. They poured contempt on the followers of Christ because they were poor. That only proved the blindness and folly of those who acted that way. They looked at both rich and poor with the world's shallow gaze, not with the penetrating eye of faith.

Of course God does not discriminate against the rich. He declares His gospel to all alike. But it is the poor who receive it, while the rich mostly see no need of it. So it is the poor who are blessed by it. And God honours the riches of their faith: they become heirs of the kingdom, for they love Him.

When God calls the poor, grace makes their humble position a decided advantage to them. No bondage is more overbearing than the one "society" imposes on those who serve it. Nothing is more at odds with the Lord of all. He passed judgment on the whole of it by standing outside it all. He ignored all its claims and walked His path of holy goodness to everyone in unswerving obedience. The poor believer sees this, rich in faith, and escapes his class's determination to rise in the world by religious means as by every other way.

The world thinks it an honour to keep company with those who stand high in the kingdoms of this world and its glory. Far greater is the privilege of keeping company with those whom God has called to His kingdom and glory. Even if down here they were only uneducated fishermen, they are going to sit on thrones judging in the kingdom of Christ. It is a far greater honour to be found with them than with the greatest ruler of this passing world.

1 John 5:1 shows that loving God and loving one's brother cannot be separated from being born of God. It is essential to the new nature. How dreadful to imagine a believer who does not love God or obey Him! It is precious to know that God has chosen the poor as to the world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. But the verse adds the words "which He has promised to those who love Him". Who except the legal mind would confine that clause to the poor and refuse it to a Nicodemus or a Joseph of Arimathea?

These weak Jewish believers were mostly poor. They had so far forgotten their early warmth of faith that they cringed before the wealthy — even in their meetings, if a rich man came in. Yet were they not rich in faith, the poorest of them? Were they not heirs of the kingdom which the One who chose them promised to those who love Him? What inconsistency, to put on the air of valuing a little money and to close the eye of faith to their own hopes of glory.

This truth needs insisting on in a day like the present, when the money of this world has become the snare of the professing church, and when those who claim to have more light, and to be walking a separate path, are in danger of being attracted by the world's respectability, wealth, and position.