Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
James 1:9–11
“Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.”
Scholars of the New Testament note that the book of James focuses on three key themes. These themes are introduced in the opening eleven verses of the epistle and recur several times throughout. Thus far, we have seen two of these themes: trials (James 1:2–4) and wisdom (vv. 5–8). In today’s passage, we find the final main theme: poverty and riches (vv. 9–11).
James exhorts the “lowly brother” to “boast in his exaltation” (v. 9). He refers here to materially impoverished believers in his audience, with the word for “lowly” denoting not only those who have little financial wealth but also those who are spiritually humble. It might seem odd that the Apostle encourages boasting. Scripture, however, does not view all boasting as wrong but calls us to boast when we have the proper grounds to do so. Positive boasting entails glorying in God, and it is proper to boast that one knows the Lord, to boast of the love and generosity of other Christians, and more (Jer. 9:23–24; 2 Cor. 8:24; 9:2). The Apostle James calls poor believers to boast in their exaltation, meaning that they are to rejoice in the exalted status that they presently enjoy in Christ as seated with Him in the heavenly places and that will be consummated when all Christians rule and reign alongside Him in the new heavens and earth (Eph. 2:4–7; 2 Tim. 2:12). John Calvin comments, “Since it is incomparably the greatest dignity to be introduced into the company of angels, nay, to be made the associates of Christ, he who estimates this favor of God aright, will regard all other things as worthless.”
Although many of James’ original readers lived in poverty, some in his audience were better off financially, engaging in travel and profitable trade (James 4:13). James in today’s passage tells these rich to boast in their “humiliation” (1:10). The idea is that the rich are not to take pride in their wealth and must learn to depend not on their money but on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is unwise for the rich to trust in their wealth, for their wealth and life can be lost in an instant, just as the scorching, dry desert winds called siroccos end plant life suddenly when they occur in North Africa and the Middle East (vv. 10–11). Thus, Matthew Henry writes, “Let him that is rich rejoice, not so much in the providence of God, that makes him rich, as in the grace of God, that makes and keeps him humble; and in those trials and exercises that teach him to seek his felicity in and from God, and not from these perishing enjoyments.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul sums up today’s passage well in saying that rich and poor alike “can rejoice that they have learned where true treasure is found.” No matter whether we are rich or poor, we are to boast in Christ and in His grace that has saved us. He has humbled those of us who are undeserving sinners so that we can recognize our sin and rest in Him, and He will exalt us to rule and reign with Him forever.
For further study
- Psalm 49
- Isaiah 40:6–8
- Galatians 6:14
- James 2:5
The bible in a year
- Genesis 20–22
- Matthew 8