James 2:1

James 2:1-13. Respect of Persons

1. have not the faith Better, do not hold. The Greek for "respect of persons" (better, perhaps, acceptance of persons) is in the plural, as including all the varied forms in which the evil tendency might shew itself, and stands emphatically immediately after the negative. The name of "our Lord Jesus Christ" is used obviously with a special force. He had shewn Himself, through His whole life on earth, to be no "respecter of persons" (Matthew 22:16), to have preferred the poor to the rich. There was a shameful inconsistency when those who professed to hold the faith which had Him as its object acted otherwise. To the name of the Lord Jesus is added the description "the Lordof Glory." The first two words are not repeated in the Greek, but the structure of the English sentence requires their insertion. The motive of the addition is clear. In believing in Him who was emphatically a sharer in the Eternal Glory (John 17:5), who had now returned to that Glory, men ought to feel the infinite littleness of all the accidents of wealth or rank that separate man from man. This seems the most natural construction, but the position of the words "of glory" is anomalous, and some have joined it with "faith" either as a genitive of the object "faith in the future glory," or as a characterising attribute = "the glorious faith."