{Did not God choose?} (ouch ho theos exelexato;).
Affirmative answer expected. First aorist middle (indirect, God
chose for himself) indicative of ekleg(935c), the very form used by
Paul three times of God's choice in  1Co 1:27f . {As to the
world} (	(9369) kosm(9369)). The ethical dative of interest, as the
world looks at it as in  Ac 7:20  1Co 1:18  2Co 10:4  Jas 4:4 .
By the use of the article (the poor) James does not affirm that
God chose all the poor, but only that he did choose poor people
( Mt 10:23-26  1Co 1:26-28 ). {Rich in faith} (plousious en
pistei). Rich because of their faith. As he has shown in  1:9f .
{Which he promised} (h(8873) epeggeilato). Genitive of the
accusative relative h(886e) attracted to the case of the antecedent
asileias (the Messianic kingdom), the same verb and idea
already in  1:12  (ep(8867)geilato). Cf. the beatitude of Jesus in
 Mt 5:3  for the poor in spirit.