James 2:2

if there come unto your assembly Literally, into your synagogue, the old familiar name as yet, in that early stage of the Church's life, being used for the Christian as for the Jewish place of worship. What is noted presented the most glaring and offensive form which the acceptance of persons had taken. Signs of the eagerness of men who aimed at a high religious reputation to obtain such honours are seen in Matthew 23:6; and in a society so pervaded by worldliness as that of Judæa, wealth, if accompanied by any kind of religiousness, was sure to be accepted as covering a multitude of sins. What grieved St James was that the same evil should have crept in even among the disciples of the Lord of Glory.

a man with a gold ring Literally, a gold-ringed man, implying, probably, more than one. The custom was one of the fashions of the Empire, and had spread from Rome to Judæa. So Juvenal, in a portrait which unites the two forms of ostentatious luxury noted by St James, describes one who, though born as an Egyptian slave, appears with Tyrian robes upon his shoulders, and golden rings, light or heavy, according to the season (Sat.i. 28. 30). So in Martial (xi. 60) we read of one who wears six rings on every finger, day and night, and even when he bathes.

in goodly apparel Better, in gorgeous, or bright apparel. The word is the same as that used of the robe placed upon our Lord in mockery (Luke 23:11), and of that in which the Angel appeared to Cornelius (Acts 10:30). The primary idea is that of "bright" or shining, and this effect was often produced by a combination of gold embroidery with Tyrian purple and crimson.

in vile raiment squalid is perhaps the nearest equivalent to the Greek word. It is used in the LXX. of Zechariah 3:4, of the "filthy garments" of Joshua the High-Priest. In Revelation 22:11 it is used of spiritual "filthiness," as is the cognate noun in chap. James 1:21 of this Epistle.