What Does James 1:10 Mean?

(10) **But the rich, in that he is made low** (or, better, *in his humiliation*)*.*—And, on the other hand, let a change of state be a cause of joy to the rich man, hard though the effort thereto must confessedly be. There is an antithesis between his *humiliation* and the *humility* of “the brother of low degree:” “God putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Psalm 75:7). Such seems to be the primary meaning of this passage, though, doubtless, there is a more spiritual significance underlying, which would teach the poorest that he may be “rich toward God,” and win from the most wealthy the acknowledgment of his deep poverty beside the Lord of all “good treasure” (Deuteronomy 28:12). “I know thy poverty,” said the Spirit unto the Church in Smyrna, “but thou art rich” (Revelation 2:9); and to the Laodiceans, “Thou sayest, I am rich . . ., but thou art poor” (Revelation 3:17). **Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.**—No more simple and striking simile of human instability and vanity can be found than “the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven” (Matthew 6:30); and the thought suggests a picture to the mind of the writer, which he draws with strong and yet most tender lines. Our English version misses the setting of his graceful idyl, the exquisite beauty of which can hardly be transferred from the Greek; but the following attempt is at least nearer the original:—