‘Listen, my beloved brothers, did not God choose those who are poor as to the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingly Rule which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor man.
He then points out in what honour and high esteem that poor man is often held in the sight of God. For God sees the faith in his heart and sees there a richness unknown to the majority of rich men. Indeed God has chosen that man who is poor in the world's eyes precisely in order to make him rich in faith, and he has thus become ‘rich towards God' (Luke 12:21). For God has chosen the weak and the foolish to confound the mighty (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). By the word of truth He has begotten that man so that he might be clothed in spiritual splendour, in accordance with His own will (James 1:18). And He has made him an heir of the Kingly Rule of God. One day he will share the glory of the Father and the Son, the glory of the Lord of glory (Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:3-5). Indeed he has already received something of that glory (2 Corinthians 3:18; John 17:22). How foolish then for us not to recognise it. And all this is promised ‘to those who love Him'. For this phrase compare James 1:12. James probably has in mind here Deuteronomy 6:5-6.
‘An heir of the Kingly Rule of Heaven'. In Matthew 5:3 Jesus said, ‘blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingly Rule of Heaven' (compare Luke 6:20). They were of the ‘little flock' to which His Father would give His Kingly Rule (Luke 12:32) which would become a multitude that no man could number (Revelation 7:9), with large numbers of them poor. They had become heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). This idea looks back to Psalms 22:26; Psalms 22:28 where the poor are connected with YHWH's Kingly Rule that reigns over the nations'. See also Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:27, ‘And the Kingly Rule and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High'.
‘But you have dishonoured the poor man.' The words bring us down to earth with a bump. Here is a man whom God has chosen to honour, and whom God holds in high esteem, and the assembly have dishonoured him. It is a scandal. But it is because their eyes are on the world and not on God (compare James 4:4). They have lost the ability to see things as God sees them. And spiritually they have brought on themselves great shame. They have dishonoured the man whom God has honoured.