Romans chapter 2
The one who judges
1 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge.1 For in what you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge do the same things.
2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
3 And do you think this, O man, who judge those who do such things and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6 who will render to each one according to his deeds:
7 to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, eternal life;
8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;
10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11 For there is no partiality with God.
Hearers and doers
12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.
13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,
15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another,
16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
The Jew and the law
17 Indeed, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast in God,
18 and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,
19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
21 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?
22 You who say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who make your boast in the law, through breaking the law do you dishonor God?
24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you,” as it is written.
Circumcision of the heart
25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
26 Therefore, if the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, with the letter and circumcision, transgress the law?
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.
29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
1 Note — v. 1, the turn starts before the name “Jew.” The word Jew does not appear until v. 17, but the turn toward that reader starts at v. 1. The mark is the singular: “O man, whoever you are who judge.” That is diatribe: Paul speaks to an imagined hearer who has been agreeing with everything said about the world in chapter 1. The charge here — judging others while doing the same things — only lands on someone who has the law and expects a higher standard than the people just described.
The address does not wait for a label. Paul lets the reader nod through 1:18–32, then in 2:1 shuts the door before he says who is standing on it. By v. 17 — “you are called a Jew” — that reader has already spent sixteen verses in the accusation without being named.
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