B. Condemnation according to divine standards (2:1-16).
1. Truthfulness (2:1-4).
2:1. In any generalization such as the preceding blanket indictment of pagan humanity (1:18-32) exceptions to the rule always exist. Obviously some pagans had high ethical standards and moral lifestyles and condemned the widespread moral corruption of their contemporaries. In addition the Jews morally stood in sharp contrast with the pagan world around them and freely condemned the Gentiles. Both groups of moralists might conclude that God’s condemnation did not apply to them because of their higher planes of living. But Paul insisted that they also stood condemned because they were doing the same things for which they judged others.
Therefore, Paul declared, at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself. Everyone in the entire human race has turned away from God and commits sins even though there are differences of frequency, extent, and degree. In addition the entire human race, especially moral pagans and the Jews, stood condemned before God (and have no excuse [cf. 1:20]) because God’s judgment is based on three divine standards—truth (2:2-4), impartiality (vv. 5-11), and Jesus Christ Himself (vv. 12-16)—which are absolute and infinite, condemning every person.
2:2-3. The first divine standard of judgment is truth. Nowhere in Scripture is God identified as “Truth” as He is as “Spirit” (John 4:24), “Light” (1 John 1:5) and “Love” (1 John 4:8, 16), though Jesus did call Himself “the Truth” (John 14:6). But God is called “the God of truth” (Ps. 31:5; Isa. 65:16). Truth—absolute, infinite truth—is unquestionably one of God’s essential attributes. As a result when God’s judgment of people is declared to be based on (lit. “according to”) “truth,” no escape from that judgment is possible for anyone. All are without “excuse” (Rom. 2:1) and without “escape.” One may be moral and he may even judge his contemporaries as totally enmeshed in a depraved lifestyle, but yet he is judged by God because he does the same things (cf. v. 1).
2:4. By not exacting His divine penalty on sinful humanity immediately, God is displaying the riches of His kindness (chrestotetos, “benevolence in action,” also used of God in 11:22; Eph. 2:7; Titus 3:4), tolerance, and patience (cf. Acts 14:16; 17:30; Rom. 3:25). God’s purpose is to lead people toward repentance—a return to Him—through His kindness. (This word for “kindness” is chrestos, a synonym of chrestotetos, also trans. “kindness,” used earlier in the verse.) Both words mean “what is suitable or fitting to a need.” Chrestos is used of God in Luke 6:35 and 1 Peter 2:3 and of people in Ephesians 4:32. Not realizing (lit., “being ignorant of”) God’s purpose, people showed contempt for (kataphroneis, “you thought down on”) God’s attributes and actions (cf. “suppress the truth,” Rom. 1:18). People knew of God’s Being through natural revelation (1:19-21, 28), but did not know the purpose of His kindness.
2. Impartiality (2:5-11).
2:5-6. Why are people ignorant of God’s intention to be kind? (v. 4) And why do they despise it? It is because of their stubbornness (lit., “hardness”; skleroteta, whence the Eng. “sclerosis”) and their unrepentant heart(s). So God’s wrath against people’s sins is being stored up like a great reservoir until the day when it will all be poured forth in His righteous judgment. On that day God will give to each person according to what He has done (quotation of Ps. 62:12 and Prov. 24:12). God’s judging will be based on the standard of truth (Rom. 2:2) and it will be impartial (v. 11).
2:7-11. God will bestow eternal life on those who by persistence in doing good seek (pres. tense, “keep on seeking”) glory, honor, and immortality. On the other hand wrath and anger will be the portion of the self-seeking . . . who reject (lit., “keep on disobeying”) the truth and follow (pres. tense, “keep on obeying”) evil (adikia, “unrighteousness”; cf. 1:18). Each one who does (“keeps on producing”) evil will receive trouble and distress, whereas each one who does (“keeps on working”) good will have glory, honor (cf. “glory and honor” in 2:7), and peace. This just recompense by God is without regard to ethnic background or any other consideration except what each person has done.
A person’s habitual conduct, whether good or evil, reveals the condition of his heart. Eternal life is not rewarded for good living; that would contradict many other Scriptures which clearly state that salvation is not by works, but is all of God’s grace to those who believe (e.g., Rom. 6:23; 10:9-10; 11:6; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). A person’s doing good shows that his heart is regenerate. Such a person, redeemed by God, has eternal life. Conversely a person who continually does evil and rejects the truth shows that he is unregenerate, and therefore will be an object of God’s wrath.
The statement first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (lit. “Greek”) does not imply special consideration for Jews. Instead, in the light of the divine standard of impartiality (God does not show favoritism), it emphasizes that the entire human race is dealt with by God.
The phrase “the day of God’s . . . judgment” (Rom. 2:5) taken by itself may seem to lend support to the idea of a single general judgment of all humanity. However, the Scriptures do not support such a concept. This phrase must be interpreted in conjunction with passages which clearly indicate that several judgments of different groups occur at different times (cf. judgment of Israel at Christ’s Second Advent, Ezek. 20:32-38; the judgment of Gentiles at Christ’s Second Advent, Matt. 25:31-46; the great white throne judgment, Rev. 20:11-15). The focus of this passage is on the fact that God will judge all peoples, not on the details of who will be judged when.
3. Jesus Christ (2:12-16).
2:12. God’s impartiality in judgment is also seen in the fact that He will deal with people in accordance with the dispensation in which they live. “The Law was given through Moses” (John 1:17), which marks the beginning of the dispensation of Law. The Law was provided for God’s Chosen People Israel, and the Gentiles were considered outside the Law. Therefore Paul declared, All who (lit., “as many as”) sin apart from the Law (lit., “without Law”) will also perish apart from the Law. Gentiles who sin will perish, but the Law of Moses will not be used as a standard of judgment against them. On the other hand the Jews who sin under (lit., “in the sphere of”) the Law will be judged by the Law. The Gentiles are not excused from God’s judgment, but they will not be judged according to the standard (the Mosaic Law) that was not given to them.
2:13. Reading the Mosaic Law was a regular part of each synagogue service, so that Jews were those who hear the Law. However, being recognized as righteous was not the automatic concomitant of being a Jew and hearing the Law. Those who will be declared righteous (a forensic action usually trans. “justified,” e.g., 3:24; see comments on 1:17 on “justify”) are those who obey the Law (lit., “the doers of the Law”). James made the same point (James 1:22-25). Again (cf. comments on Rom. 2:7-10) God does not give eternal life or justification to those who perform good works, but to those who believe (trust) in Him and whose conduct reveals their regenerate hearts.
2:14-15. The Jews looked down on the Gentiles partly because they did not have the revelation of God’s will in the Mosaic Law. But, as Paul pointed out, there are moral Gentiles who do by nature things required by the Law. Such persons show that the Law is not to be found only on tablets of stone and included in the writings of Moses; it is also inscribed in their hearts and is reflected in their actions, consciences, and thoughts. The Law given to Israel is in reality only a specific statement of God’s moral and spiritual requirements for everyone. Moral Gentiles by their actions show that the requirements (lit., “the work”) of the Law are written on their hearts. This is confirmed by their consciences, the faculty within human beings that evaluates their actions, along with their thoughts that either accuse or excuse them of sin. This is why Paul called such Gentiles a law for themselves (v. 14).
Conscience is an important part of human nature, but it is not an absolutely trustworthy indicator of what is right. One’s conscience can be “good” (Acts 23:1; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19) and “clear” (Acts 24:16; 1 Tim. 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; Heb. 13:18), but it can also be “guilty” (Heb. 10:22), “corrupted” (Titus 1:15), “weak” (1 Cor. 8:7, 10, 12), and “seared” (1 Tim. 4:2). All people need to trust the Lord Jesus Christ so that “the blood of Christ” might “cleanse [their] consciences” (Heb. 9:14).
2:16. The Greek text of this verse begins with the phrase “in the day.” The words this will take place are not in the Greek but are supplied to tie this verse back to the main idea of this section (vv. 5-13), namely, God’s righteous judgment (v. 5). Verses 14-15 are actually a parenthetic idea (as indicated in the niv). This was brought to mind by verse 13 and the Jewish prejudice against the Gentiles. The certainty of divine judgment is emphasized by the words God will judge (lit., “God judges”). The Agent of divine judgment is Jesus Christ (cf. John 5:22, 27; Acts 17:31). This judgment will deal with men’s secrets (lit., “the hidden things of men”) and will reveal those things and prove God’s judgment right (cf. 1 Cor. 4:5). Paul’s gospel is not the standard of God’s judgment. The idea is that the righteous judgment of God is an essential ingredient of the gospel Paul preached and a reason for trusting Jesus’ finished redemption.
In this section (2:1-16) God is seen as the Creator-Sovereign of the universe conducting the moral government of His human creatures. God’s absolute standards are known. God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous impartially according to their works, which reveal their hearts. Since no human being—Jesus Christ excepted—can be declared righteous (justified) by God on the basis of his own merit, every human is condemned by God. At this point in Paul’s argument the way a person can secure a righteous standing before God has not yet been presented. Here the emphasis is on the justice of God’s judgment, leading to the conclusion that nobody on his own can be declared righteous by God.
C. Condemnation against unfaithful Jews (2:17-3:8).
1. condemnation because of their hypocrisy (2:17-24).
2:17-20. Paul undoubtedly had the Jews as well as moral Gentiles in mind in the group he addressed as “you who pass judgment on someone else” (v. 1). But there he did not refer to them by name as he did here—if you call yourself a Jew (lit., “if you are named a Jew”). In Greek this is a first-class conditional sentence in which the conditional statement is assumed to be true. Paul was addressing individuals who were truly called Jews and who, in fact, gloried in that name. This fact is followed by a list of eight other moral and religious details in which the Jews gloried in their sense of superiority to the Gentiles, all of these included as part of the “if” clause (vv. 17-21a).
The verbs used in this list are all in the present tense or have the force of the present, which emphasizes the habitual nature of the action: (1) The Jews rely on the Law; they put their confidence in the fact that God gave it to them. (2) The Jews brag about their relationship to God (lit., “boast in God”; cf. v. 23), which means they glory in their covenantal ties with God. As a result of these two things the Jews (3) know His will (they have an awareness of God’s desires and plan) and they (4) approve of (dokimazeis, “to test and approve what passes the test”) what is superior (diapheronta, “the things that differ and as a result excel”; the same Gr. word in Phil. 1:10 is trans. “what is best”). They have a concern for spiritually superior standards. These abilities of Jews exist because they (5) are instructed (lit., “are being instructed”) by the Law. Their catechetical lessons as youths and the regular reading of the Law in the synagogues provided this continuing instruction.
Though the next verb (in Rom. 2:19) continues the first-class conditional structure begun in verse 17, it also marks a transition of thought. It is the perfect tense of a verb which means “to seek to persuade,” in which tense it has the meaning “to believe.” (6) Many Jews were convinced and as a result believed certain things about themselves in relationship to Gentiles. Paul listed four of these: a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor (paideuten, “one who disciplines, a trainer”) of the foolish, and a teacher of infants. (7) This belief by Jews rested in their having in the Law the embodiment (morphosin, “outline, semblance”; used elsewhere in the NT only in 2 Tim. 3:5) of knowledge and truth (the Gr. has the definite article “the” with both nouns: “the knowledge and the truth”).
2:21-24. 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?”
2. condemnation because of their trust in rites (2:25-29).
The Jews trusted not only in the Law of Moses, as the preceding paragraph shows (vv. 17-24), but also in circumcision as the sign of their special covenantal relationship with God. But Paul argued that trust in the rite itself was meaningless and was a basis for God’s judgment.
2:25-27. Circumcision has value if you observe (“are practicing”) the Law. Conversely, if you break the Law (and they did), you have become as though you had not been circumcised. In the Greek this second part of verse 25 is interesting: “If you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become a foreskin.” In other words a Jewish lawbreaker is just like a Gentile lawbreaker; the Jews’ rite of circumcision counts for nothing.
The opposite is also true. If those who are not circumcised (lit., “if the foreskin,” a word used by Jews as a slang expression for a Gentile; cf. the comments on v. 25) keep (phyllase, “guard” and therefore “keep” or “observe”; cf. 1 Tim. 5:21) the Law’s requirements (and apparently some Gentiles did), will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? Paul concluded that a Gentile who obeys (“fulfills”) the Law judges a Jew who, despite his having the written code and circumcision, is a lawbreaker. A Gentile who obeys what the Law requires, even though he does not know the Law (Rom. 2:14) is in God’s sight similar to a circumcised Jew. This thought would be revolutionary for Jews who considered themselves far superior to Gentiles (cf. vv. 17-21).
2:28-29. These verses form the conclusion to the entire section that begins with verse 17. Being a true or genuine Jew is not a matter of outward or external things (such as wearing phylacteries, paying tithes, or being circumcised). Genuine circumcision is not the physical rite itself. Rather, a genuine Jew is one inwardly and true circumcision is . . . of the heart and by the Spirit. The NIV has rendered the Greek words “in spirit” as “by the Spirit,” as though they refer to the Holy Spirit. However, it is better to understand this verse as saying that circumcision of heart fulfills “the spirit” of God’s Law instead of mere outward conformity to the Law. Some Jews followed the Law’s regulation outwardly, but their hearts were not right with God (Isa. 29:13). A circumcised heart is one that is “separated” from the world and dedicated to God. The true Jew receives his praise . . . not from men (as did the Pharisees) but from God, who sees people’s inward natures (cf. Matt. 6:4, 6) and discerns their hearts (cf. Heb. 4:12).
Excerpt from:
Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985).
The Bible knowledge commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures.
Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
