Romans 2

Chapter 2 (Translation by Francois du Toit)

2:1 Your presumed knowledge of that which is right or wrong does not qualify you to judge anyone. Especially if you do exactly the same stuff you notice other people do wrong. You effectively condemn yourself. No man is another man’s judge.

2:2 God must judge all transgression, but your judging others does not make them any guiltier!

2:3 God is totally impartial in His judgement; you are not scoring any points or disguising your own sins by telling on others!

2:4 We cannot afford to get the wrong idea about God’s goodness; the wealth of His benevolence and His stubborn refusal to let go of us, and His patient passion is to gently shepherd everyone into a radical change of heart.

2:5 A calloused heart that resists change accumulates cause to self-destruction while God’s righteous judgement (that fell on Christ) is revealed in broad daylight.

2:6 You are on your own; your own deeds will judge you.

2:7 Mankind’s quest is to be constant in that which is good, glorious and honourable and of imperishable value. He is committed to pursue the original blueprint-life of the Ages.

2:8 Yet there are those who ignore the truth (about their identity as sons) through unbelief. They continue to exist as mere hirelings, motivated by a monthly wage (rather than sonship). They believe in their failure and unrighteousness and are consumed by outbursts of anger and displeasure.

2:9 Pressures from every side, like an overcrowded room, (or a cramped foot in an undersized shoe,) is the experience of the soul of everyone who does what is worthless. The fact that the Jews are Jewish does not make their experience of evil any different from that of the Greeks.

2:10 In sharp contrast to this, bliss, self-worth and total tranquillity is witnessed by everyone, both Jew and Greek, who finds expression in that which is good. We are tailor-made for good.

2:11 God does not judge people on face value.

2:12 Ruin and self-destruction are the inevitable results of sin, whether someone knows the law or not.

2:13 Righteousness is not a hear-say thing, it is law defined in practical living!

2:14 For even a pagan’s natural instinct will confirm the law to be present in his conscience even though he has never even heard about Jewish laws. Thus he proves to be a law unto himself.

2:15 The law is so much more than a mere written code, its presence in human conscience even in the absence of the written instruction is obvious, condemning or commending personal conduct.

2:16 Every hidden, conflicting thought will be disclosed in the daylight of God’s scrutiny, based on the good news of Jesus Christ that I proclaim. (The ineffectiveness of good intentions and self discipline to produce lasting change will be exposed as worthless in contrast to the impact of Christ’s sacrifice on man’s behalf)

2:17 Your Jewish identity does not make God your exclusive property,

2:18 even though you boast in the fact that you have the documented desire of God published like an instruction manual in the law.

2:19 You promote yourself confidently as a guide for the blind, and a light bearer for those groping about in darkness.

2:20 You feel yourself so superior to the rest of the world, you are the ‘kindergarten’ teacher to the mindless, an instructor of infants, because you believe that in the law you’ve got knowledge and truth all wrapped up in a nutshell.

2:21 However, the real question is not whether you are a good teacher; how good a student are you? What’s the good of teaching against stealing when you yourself have a reputation of a kleptomaniac?

2:22 You speak against adultery while you cannot get your own mind off sexual sins. It just doesn’t make sense does it? You say idolatry stinks yet you steal stuff from pagan shrines.

2:23 Your proud association with the law is ruined every time you dishonour God by dodging the doing bit.

2:24 This has been going on for hundreds of years as recorded in scripture. No wonder the Gentiles think that your God is no better than any of their philosophies when it comes to living the life the law promotes.

2:25 The real value of circumcision is tested by your ability to keep the law. If you break the law you might as well not be circumcised.

2:26 The fact that you are circumcised does not distinguish you from the rest of the world; it does not give you super-human power to keep the commandments.

2:27 If it is not about who is circumcised or not, but rather who keeps the law or not, then in that case even uncircumcised people can judge the ones who claim to know it all and have it all! On the one hand you have those who feel naturally inclined to do what is right, yet none of them are circumcised, then you have the circumcised who know the letter of the law but fail to keep it.

2:28 So it is not about who you appear to be on the outside that makes you a real Jew, but who you really are on the inside.

2:29 For you to know who you are in your heart is the secret of your spirit identity; this is your true circumcision, it is not the literal outward appearance that distinguishes you. After all it is God’s approval and not man’s impression that matters most. Man sees skin-deep, God knows the heart.

Notes:

v 4 Paul often has to remind his readers that his emphasis on the goodness of God is not a cheap excuse for them to continue in sin. See 6:1

chrestotetos from chraomai, to receive a loan, life is on loan to us as it were. Life is God’s property.

anoches from ana, showing intensity and echo, to hold

makrothumias to be patient in bearing the offences and injuries of others. Literary, passion that goes a long way; from the root word thuo, to slay a sacrifice

ago, to lead as a shepherd leads his sheep

metanoia, traditionally translated, repentance, suggests a total change of mind, to come to your right mind.

v 7 the life of the ages is the most attractive life man could wish to live, yet it remains elusive outside the redemption that Christ worked on man’s behalf. Not even the most quality decision to live a blameless life under the law could measure up.

v 8 erithea from erithos, working as a hireling for wages (traditionally translated, self-willed or contentious)

apeitheo, to be unpersuaded (traditionally translated to be disobedient)

v 9 Symptoms of disease are the same in anyone, they are no respecter of person, doctrine or nationality.

v18 dokimatso, document, decree, approve;

diaphero to carry through, to publish (Acts 13:49), to discern the difference.