James 2:2

"For if. man comes into your assembly with. gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in. poor man in dirty clothes."For if" -A concrete example is now given, an application is made. The truths that God has given were never meant to remain on the theoretical level. "into your assembly" -Which means that first century Christians also had visitors to their services (1 Corinthians 14:23). It seems clear that the rich man and the poor man in this context are visitors and not regular members. In fact, both of them could be unbelievers."assembly" -The Greek word sunagogen is translated here "assembly". It is the same word that is often translated "synagogue". This doesn't mean that Christians were still worshipping in Jewish synagogues. Rather, Christians from. Jewish background often used the terms synagogue and church as synonyms for the gathering or congregation of God's people. 'Numerous instances of this term to refer to Christian congregations can be cited from early Christian literature' (Kent p. 78). It is. mistake to say that this word was only used for the worship service of the Jewish synagogue. Vincent notes, "literally. gathering or congregation, in which sense the word is common in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures), not only of assemblies for worship, but of gatherings for other public purposes" (p. 737). We must reject the idea that there was. stage in the early church in which it was virtually the same as Judaism. Peter on the day of Pentecost made it clear to devout Jews that they were lost! (Acts 2:1)

The respect of persons in this context is based on wealth. But many other temptations to elevate or discriminate against people also exist, race, color, gender, age and so on. The people of God must never find themselves defending any kind of prejudice. "with. gold ring and dressed in fine clothes" -Whereby people would immediately see that he was. wealthy man. The statement "gold ring", is literally,. gold-fingered man (Robertson p. 28). Thayer says, 'gold ringed, adorned with gold rings' (p. 674). This seems to indicate that this individual would be wearing many gold rings. An ancient writer mentions one man who wore six rings on each finger. Barclay notes, "The more ostentatious of the ancients wore rings on every finger except the middle finger, and wore far more than one on each finger. They even hired rings to wear when they wished to give an impression of special wealth" (p. 75). "Fine clothes"-"bright, shining, radiant" (Arndt p. 465). The idea seems to be, bright or shining apparel. Possibly either bright in reference to color or due to ornaments. "poor man in dirty clothes" -the clothing often wore by the poor or. beggar.. person who may have had only one change of clothing. 'squalid (seedy), cheap and or dirty' (Woods p. 108).