James 2:1-26

James 2:1-4:

^2:1My brothers, you must not have the belief of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory in a reception-of-face; ^.2for if-ever a gold-ringed adult-male may go into your synagogue in shining clothing and also a poor-person may go into (your synagogue) in filthy clothing, ^.3but you may observe upon the (adult-male) carrying the clothing, the shining (clothing), and you may say, “You must beautifully sit-down here”, and to the poor-person you may say, “You must stand there” or “You must sit-down under my footstool” – ^.4you were throughly-judged (to have a reception of face) among yourselves and you became judges of evil through-calculations, didn’t you? – (yes.)

Again as in James 1: 2, 16 and 19, James addresses the holy-people who are descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel/Jacob as his “brothers.” Not only were those to whom he was writing all of the Judean/Israeli background, but they were brothers in the holy spirit category. All holy-people are brothers in the spirit category because all of us have received the same gift of holy spirit and we are therefore all children of God our Father.

My brothers, you must not have (not hold)…

• the belief (the faith, the information that God has made known to us to have confidence-in with assured certainty and surety)
  • of (regarding, pertaining to) our Lord Jesus Christ (our Master is Jesus the Anointed-one, the Messiah)
    • of glory (he has been made glorious, given the importance, splendor, and renown by God his Father and our Father)

…within the sphere of action of a reception-of-face. The ‘reception of face’ is taking a person's outward-appearance at face value, receiving the face or countenance which is presented or turned to your eyes to be seen by you, like an actor on stage would wear a mask and present it forth to take-on the outward-appearance of another person to make the audience think of him in a different way. It is having partiality or favoritism based on a person's outward-appearance. Don’t be a receptor or respecter of persons, of faces, of "masks," even when there is no intention of pretence on the part of the one presenting himself before you.

For example: if it should ever happen that…

• a grown-man wearing one or more gold rings (a demonstration of his wealth) would come into (enter) your synagogue (the location where you gather together, your assembly, not referring specifically to the Judean synagogues even though the holy-people/Christians also met in those types of buildings from time to time) in splendid, ornate clothing which is shining (bright, brilliant, radiant, beaming-light)
• and also a poor-person (someone who is beggarly, crouching in the begging position in need of certain things, poor materially) would enter your assembly in filthy (dirty) clothing,
• but you would observe (attentively look at, mentally envision, be mentally aware of and contemplate, even though you do not see the ‘big picture’ with your physical eyes) upon the man bearing (wearing) the clothing, specifically the shining clothing,
  • and you would say, “Emphatically you must beautifully sit-down here (seat yourself in a manner that has a manifested decorous, harmonious and acceptable goodness in this location close to me)”,
• and to the poor-person
  • you would say, “Emphatically you must stand there (not near me)” or “You must sit-down under my footstool (into the position of being on a par with the footstool underneath my feet, an inferior seat as the lowest level in complete submission, subjection to me)”

…you were throughly-judged to have a reception of face among yourselves (you were wholly distinguished, discerned, judged to be different because of having a reception of face; in this scenario you would be judged through-and-through whereby a decision would be made by God regarding you separating or differentiating you as having partiality among yourselves)

• and you became judges of evil through-calculations (you caused yourselves to become the ones who make the decisions, the presiding judges having the character and quality of reckonings through-and-through, thorough reasonings, disputes, logical computations that are active with malignancy, exercising badness),
  • didn’t you? The Greek construction of this question must receive an affirmative answer: "yes, that would be correct."

[Reference: I Samuel 16:7; Matthew 15:19, 23:6; Acts 10:30; Romans 2:11, 14:1; I Corinthians 2:8; II Corinthians 3:17 and 18, 4:3-6; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 1:27, 3:25; II Thessalonians 2:13 and 14; Hebrews 1:2-4; 10:25.]

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