Hearken, my beloved brethren
As to a matter of importance, and worthy of attention and regard;
being an instance of the divine conduct towards the poor, and
carries in it a strong argument against respect of persons:
hath not God chosen the poor of this world?
this interrogative is equal to a strong affirmative; and the
sense is, that God has chosen the poor of this world; and which
is to be understood, not of the choice of them to an office,
either in church or state; though sometimes this has been the
case, as the instances of David, and the apostles of Christ,
show; nor merely to the Gospel, and the outward means of grace,
though the poor have the Gospel preached unto them; nor of the
effectual calling, though this is true; but of eternal election,
which is the act of God the Father, and passed before the
foundation of the world; and is an act of sovereign grace, and is
irrespective of faith, holiness, and good works; and is the
source of all grace, and remains immutable and irrevocable: now
the objects of this are, "the poor of this world"; that is, who
are poor with respect to the things of this world, but not with
respect to the things of another world; for they are chosen to be
heirs of a kingdom, and shall enjoy it; though these are not all
chosen by God, nor are they the only persons that are chosen;
there are some poor men that are not chosen, and are miserable
here and hereafter; and there are some rich men that are chosen;
but for the most part, or generally speaking, they are not many
mighty, nor noble, but the poorer sort, which God has made choice
of to partake both of grace and glory. It may be the apostle has
some peculiar respect to the poor among the Gentiles, whom God
had chosen; it was usual with the Jews to call the Gentiles the
world, and they were Jews the apostle now writes to, and who were
scattered abroad among the Gentiles; and therefore he might very
aptly call them "this world", among whom they lived; and suggest
to them, that God had chosen some of the Gentiles, as well as of
the Jews, and even some of the poorer sort of them; and it was
usual with the Jews to distinguish between (larvy yyne) , "the poor of Israel",
and (Mlwe yyne) , "the
poor of the world", or (Mlweh
twmwa yyne) "the poor of the nations of the world"
F21: the Alexandrian copy, and some
others, leave out the word "this", and so the Syriac and Arabic
versions, which makes the phrase more agreeable to the Jewish way
of speaking. The Gentiles, in common, were despicable with the
Jews, and especially the poor of them; and yet God chose these:
rich in faith;
not that they were so, or were considered as such, when chosen,
and so were chosen because of their faith; for then also they
were, or were considered as heirs of the kingdom, which would be
monstrously absurd; and yet there is as much reason, from the
text, for the one, as for the other; but the sense is, that they
were chosen "to be rich in faith"; and so the Syriac version
supplies in the next clause, "that they might be heirs"; which if
it had been placed before this clause also, would have been
right; election to grace is signified in the one, and election to
glory in the other: men are chosen, not because they do believe,
or shall believe, but that they might believe; and which faith
they have in consequence of election; and which when they have,
they are rich: faith is a rich precious grace itself; it is a
part of the riches of grace, and is more worth than thousands of
gold and silver; and it is the means of receiving and enjoying
much riches, as Christ the pearl of great price himself, and all
spiritual blessings along with him; such as the rich robe of his
righteousness, full pardon of sin, which is according to the
riches of his grace, and adoption, which makes men heirs of God,
and joint heirs with Christ, and even the eternal inheritance
itself, both the promise of it, and a right unto it; all which
are said to be received by faith; and therefore believers, how
poor soever they may be, to this world's goods, are truly rich
men:
and heirs of the kingdom;
of glory, which is prepared for all the chosen ones, from the
foundation of the world; and is freely given to them by their
Father, and to which they are called in the effectual calling;
and hence they are made kings and priests unto God, and have
crowns and thrones provided for them: the Alexandrian copy reads,
"heirs of the promise which he hath promised to them that love
him"; that is, which God has promised them, as the Vulgate Latin
and Syriac versions read; not that their love to God is the cause
of this kingdom, or of their choice to it, or of the promise of
it to them; all which flow from the love of God to them; but this
is descriptive of the persons who shall enjoy it, and may expect
to enjoy it, as in ( James 1:12 ) .