James chapter 2

vs 1

James is such a rich book, so full of meaning, and yet so rarely mentioning Christ. So when he is mentioned, like here, take special notice. This verse is specifically talking about favourtism with regards to meeting as Christians. So it doesn't mean you can't show favourtism when hiring people for positions of employment (and of course nepotism and systems of patronage were fairly common back then) or some other thing - just as long as you're not ranking one Christian above another.

You can't neglect the link between your faith and the not showing favourtism. It's strong in this sentence.

vs 2-4

James expands on his idea with an example. If we discriminate between ourselves according to our riches, then we have become "judges with evil thoughts", or evil-thinking judges. Now it is worth noting here that later on James is going to tell us that the poor are the ones who inherit God's kingdom, and the rich are exploitative. But he doesn't try and turn the tables on them and say "Give the poor man the good seat and treat the rich man like crap". Why? Because that wouldn't work. It's not our job to turn the world upside down - that's God's job. He will exalt the humble. So instead, we show no favourtism.

vs 5

When you read the whole paragraph, especially the line about rich people, you will see that James is not making a complex theological statement here. Yes, he very probably has the words of Jesus' sermon on the mount in his mind. But what he is actually doing is making an observation about reality around him. We could make the same observation today, with the majority of Christians living in the 2/3rds world. Those are the ones that God's spirit has worked in to bring them to love him! With our culture of individualism and freedom of choice, we tend to look at this statement of James and say "Well, it's because the poor need something to believe in because their lives are so crappy". That might be true. But then we completely ignore the theological fact that God chooses people in whom to work, and he elects people to draw to himself. So you could make a pretty good argument that God reaches out to the humble and poor, and blesses them ahead of those who are rich.

vs 6

And yet these Christians seem to be blind to the work of God, ignoring the poor (or even insulting them) and pandering to the rich, who are their landlords! Now it's obvious why you would want to befriend your landlord, but James points out that they don't generally care about befriending you - they are happy to exploit you and, if you can't pay, sue your ass.

vs 7

And yes, they are the ones who militate against Christ. Let me ask you this - is it the educated people (education makes you rich) you know who mock your beliefs, or is it poor people who haven't had a chance to get a leg up in the world? Academia is overwhelmingly anti-Christian. The private sector is overwhelmingly anti-Christian. Politics is overwhelmingly anti-Christian. Why is that?

vs 8

That would be the law as defined by Christ as "love everybody you know, those you don't, and those you don't even think about. In fact, love anybody who could ever be so much that even if they hate you, love them". I don't know how many people keep to that one easily.

vs 9

But James wants to make the point that this idea of favourtism is a big deal. You can't as a church ignore this one bit as if it doesn't matter. If you break the law, you are a lawbreaker.