Blessed Are the Poor

July 22nd, 2026
by Lance Waldie

James 2:5-7 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? 7 Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?

James surmises in v. 5 that since the early Church was comprised mainly of the poor—by God’s own choosing, what sense did it make for the Church itself to despise the poor? If God elected the poor to salvation, then the Church has no business condemning the poor. The fact that so many poor people were, and are, Christians points to the fact that God highly regards them.

“Poor” (Gr. ptōchos) can refer to both destitution or humility. When it refers to material destitution, the antonym is “wealthy”; if humility, then the antonym is “arrogant,” a common trait among the materially rich. The materially poor who had received Christ for salvation had a stark reversal of fortune, for God’s choosing of them made them rich in faith and heirs of His promised kingdom. Addressing both the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3) and the poor in general (Luke 6:20) in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus promised all of them the “kingdom of heaven,” a common subject throughout His teachings, and certainly the subject of James’ teaching in v. 5. This kingdom of God is surely present with the Church on earth, yet it is ultimately future.

As to His future return, Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne… Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ ” (Matt. 25:31, 34). Likewise, Paul spoke often of “inheriting the kingdom” which is the heavenly and eternal realm (1 Cor. 6:9, 10; 15:50; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5). It is this kingdom that God “promised to those who love Him,” inclusive of so many of the poor.

God has indeed “chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise… the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong… so that no man may boast before God” (1 Cor. 1:26-29). Mary spoke of this upon hearing that she would bear the Messiah, speaking of the reversal of fortunes for the people of the world: “He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:51b-53). The context of Paul’s and Mary’s words dates back to the OT when the wealthy Israelites oppressed their own people, even widows and orphans (Ez. 22:7). Most of the prophets, especially Amos, spoke out against this atrocity. They dragged their own people into courts and used their wealth to influence judges in their favor, causing poor widows to turn over their land to pay debts.

By oppressing the poor the rich were not only dishonoring them, they were blaspheming—slandering the “fair name” by which they themselves were called by God. Though not stated, this “fair name” is likely the name of God, perhaps Christian, that is in view. Thus, by dishonoring the poor, the rich were slandering the very name of God who had redeemed them. This criticism may have come from both within and outside the Church. Either way, it was blasphemy of God.

Food For Thought
Some have surmised that God loves the poor but hates the rich. But we must not exchange one form of discrimination for another. For the early Church had many rich people—from the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8) to Cornelius (Acts 10) to Lydia (Acts 16). It also ignores the fact that many rich people have devoted their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. What James is teaching us is that those God has honored, we too must honor. No one should be favored over another, for giving undue honor to one at the expense of another is clearly unacceptable in Christ’s Church.