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Jam_2:3 describes the conduct of the church toward the two incomers. Many ancient expositors understand this as a figurative representation of the preference which was generally given in the congregation to the rich; this is arbitrary. The whole description points rather to something which James has actually in view; but in reprimanding this, he condemns partiality generally, which certainly showed itself in many other ways. By the descriptive words ἐπιβλέψητε … τὴν λαμπράν , which precede εἴπητε (in reference to the poor there is only εἴπητε ), is indicated in a lively manner the admiring look at the external glitter; ἐπιβλέπειν , emphatice sumendum est (Pott); the rich man is characteristically described as ὁ φορῶν τὴν ἐσθ . τ . λαμπράν ; the splendid garment is that which attracts the eye, the character of the man is entirely overlooked; φορεῖν , a secondary form of φέρειν , is also in Mat_11:8 used of garments; by the article before λαμπράν this idea is strengthened as the chief idea.
The contrast is sharply expressed in the different address to the one and to the other; already they are distinguished from one another by σὺ … σύ , and then κάθου and στῆθει , ὧδε and ἐκεῖ , καλῶς and ὑπὸ τὸ ὑποπόδιόν μου , are opposed. The form κάθου (instead of κάθησο ) is foreign to classical Greek; see Winer, p. 75 [E. T. 98].
καλῶς refers to comfort (Wiesinger); it is not = honorifice (Wahl); and still less is it to be resolved into “Be so good as” (Storr). A place is pointed out to the rich man, where he can be comfortably seated, whilst to the poor man it is said stand there. The second clause, separated from the first by ἤ , is not a special address, but the two clauses form one saying, whilst after ἤ a thought is to be supplied, as “If thou wilt rather sit;” by the addition of these words the depreciation of the poor is yet more strongly marked.
ὑπὸ τὸ ὑποπόδιον ] means not under, but below my footstool (Wiesinger), by which the floor is pointed out as the fitting place for the poor to sit (Bouman). “The expression involves contempt: as it were under one’s feet. Not on the footstool” (Lange). The word ὑποπόδιον (not unicum, as Wiesinger asserts) belongs only to the later classics. Often in N. T., and also in LXX.