Is James Confused or purposely twisting words here?

James 2:1-7(NKJV)

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 

For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 

and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 

have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 

But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 

Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

I would answer James with a resounding NO!. 

Oh where do I start on this one?!  :)

OK, to begin with Jesus Himself spoke of seating at weddings and celebrations.  He warned people to be humble and don't assume the seat of honor.  Better to be asked to move to a better seat than to be asked to vacate the better seat for another more honored guest.

But notice what Jesus didn't do.  He didn't condemn the practice.  And why would He?  It is the same system used in Heaven.  We are told in Scripture repeatedly that our rewards (and honors) in Heaven will be based on what we accomplished for God while we were here.  Saved by faith but rewards determined by service to God.

In addition Jesus in several places tells us to "check the fruit".  So Jesus Himself has told us to draw comparisons.  That requires a judgement.  Scripture tells us that we need to discern who we listen to for example.  One of the ways we do that is look to what successes people have had in life to see if they can offer valuable lessons. 

These are all things that Jesus told us to do so my question to James is "are you saying Jesus is instructing us to be partial and to judge people with evil thoughts?".   Hmm???

 Now let's look at the next part. 

"Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 

This is one of those lines where the original meaning of Scripture gets hidden or purposely corrupted, not sure which.  Jesus actually said "blessed are the poor IN SPIRIT".  It had nothing to do with wealth.  It was a spirit issue. 

What James is claiming here is that we should show partiality to the poor when he just got done saying that we shouldn't show partiality to the rich.  Scripture actually says that we shouldn't show partiality to either side.  

And the last part.

"But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 

Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?"

Notice the ad hominem  attack on the rich.  So according to James all rich people oppress all poor people and all rich people blaspheme the name of Jesus? 

Seems to me many of God's heroes in both the New Testament as well as the Old Testament were quite wealthy.  In fact weren't both King David and King Solomon described as men after God's heart?  Didn't God make Solomon the richest man in history up to that point? 

Were Solomon or David perfect?  Of course not.  But there is no evidence that they oppressed the poor and blasphemed God as James is saying either. 

So who do we listen to?  I pick Jesus how about you?!!