Posted by Romans on Saturday, 16 May 2015
Romans 2:21-24
(21) Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
(22) Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
(23) Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
(24) For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
Without doubt as Paul enumerated this list of moral and religious distinctives, he got repeated affirmative responses from his Jewish readers. The Jews gloried in their special spiritual position, which contrasted with the Gentiles. The apostle then summed up all these distinctives in the clause, (8) You, then, who teach others. Then Paul asked the question, Do you not teach yourself? This question is followed by a series of questions on specific prohibitions in the Law—against stealing, committing adultery, hating idols—each of which a Jew (“you” throughout Rom. 2:17-27 is sing., not pl.) was guilty of doing after telling others not to do those things. Paul indicted such a Jew for hypocrisy: You who brag about (“are boasting in”; cf. v. 17) the Law, do you dishonor God by breaking the Law? An honest Jew would have to respond to Paul’s questions by admitting his guilt and his hypocrisy. Paul did not condemn this hypocrisy of the Jews on his own authority; he quoted their own Scriptures (the close of Isa. 52:5, in the LXX). Their hypocrisy dishonored God; also it caused Gentiles to blaspheme God. “Why should we honor God,” Gentiles may have reasoned, “when His Chosen People do not follow Him?”
