Studies in the Epistle of James

by A. T. Robertson

Face Value in Religion (2:1)

This is a very hard verse to translate at once, for we must decide three disputed questions. One is whether the verb is imperative or interrogative. It is taken as imperative in most versions, and so most interpreters hold, but Hort urges that it is a tame conception compared with the indignant query expecting the answer no. There is force in this point, as thus James would be expressing vehement surprise that such partiality could exist among the Jewish Christians. Still, the prohibition against such partiality makes good sense.

There is little doubt that “the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ” should be rendered “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is objective, not subjective, genitive. For a similar use of the objective genitive with faith one may note Mark 11:22 and Acts 3:16. It is not the faith of Jesus that is under discussion but the faith of the readers in Jesus Christ our Lord. This interpretation commits James to the worship of Jesus as Lord and Messiah, but that is surely what would be expected in one who claimed to be a “servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1). It is true that the standpoint of James is nearer to that of the Old Testament than is true of Peter, John, and Paul, but after the great Pentecost there seems to be no wavering on the great fundamentals of Christianity, though there is rich development and enlargement.

The essence of the Christology of James is precisely that of Paul, though James does not amplify his implications as Paul does. James, though very Jewish in background, is thoroughly Christian. The heart of Christianity, the worship of Jesus as Lord and Saviour, is here, though chronologically the Epistle of James precedes the teaching of Paul and John in their writings. It is like the child and the man (Plummer), not a retrograde movement. It is the outlook of Jerusalem, not that of Antioch. What James is discussing is not the personal religion of Jesus but the reader’s faith in Jesus.

The third disputed point in the verse is the word “glory.” The English versions generally insert the words “the Lord” and make it “the Lord of glory,” but Bengel makes “the glory” ipse Christus. In this he is followed by Mayor, Hort, and Oesterley; and it is almost certainly true that by “glory” James has in mind the Shekinah. In the Septuagint for Leviticus 26:11 the word for Shekinah is just that used in Revelation 21:3: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.” In John 1:14 we read: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father).” Add to this Hebrews 1:3, “who, being the effulgence of his glory,” and the case seems made out. In Pirke Aboth iii. 3 we note: “Two that sit together and are occupied in words of Thorah have the Shekinah among them.”

Jesus claimed, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Jesus is thus not only the Way, the Truth, the Life, and the Resurrection but also the Glory. James may have in mind the resurrection glory of Jesus as he appeared to him. In Luke 2:32 Simeon says: “The glory of thy people Israel.”

But all this is by way of emphasis for the main point. One who has faith in such a Lord as Jesus should not be guilty of “acts of partiality” (Hort). The meaning of the phrase is clear, though the origin is obscure.[65] The Greek use of the word for mask is illustrated by the word for hypocrite. In Leviticus 19:15 we see the full force of the idiom: “Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty.” See Acts 10:34, where Peter learns that God is no respecter of persons.

God does not accept the outside appearance for the inner reality—nor should we. God is the God of reality. (Compare Heb. 4:12 f.) A just judge must not be influenced by the bias of personal preference, prejudice, rank, power, money (Mayor). He must decide the case on its merits. There is no room for class prejudice or for the caste system in Christianity, as there is none in the heart of God. Christianity is democratic to the core, that is, real Christianity. Organized Christianity has sometimes been the very thing that James here condemns. Even in the single church little rifts and cliques easily develop.