Romans
Chapter 2
God’s Judgment
For in judging your neighbor, you condemn yourself, because you practice what you judge.
Therefore, you have no excuse, no matter who you are, if you can judge others. We know that God’s condemnation will justly come upon those who commit these acts,
and do you think that by condemning others, you will escape God’s judgment, you who are doing the same?
This would be taking advantage of God and his infinite goodness, patience, and understanding, and not recognizing that his goodness is meant to lead you to conversion.
If your heart becomes hardened and you refuse to change, then you are storing up a great punishment for yourself on the day of judgment, when God will appear as the just judge.
He will reward each person appropriately based on their deeds.
He will grant everlasting life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality, and who persevere in doing good.
But anger and revenge will be the fate of those who do not serve the truth but rather injustice.
There will be suffering and anguish for anyone who commits evil, first the Jew, then the Greek.
But God will give glory, honor, and peace to everyone who does good, first the Jew, then the Greek,
because everyone is equal before God.
Those who sin without knowing the law will perish without the law; and those who sin knowing the law will be judged by that law.
What makes us righteous before God is not just hearing the law, but obeying it.
When non-Jews who don’t have the law naturally follow what the law commands, they are essentially creating their own law,
showing that the commandments are written in their hearts. Their conscience also demonstrates this when they judge their actions as right or wrong.
The same will happen on the day when God, according to my gospel, will judge people’s secret actions in the person of Jesus Christ.
Jews and the Law
But suppose you call yourself a Jew: you have the law as your foundation and feel proud of your God.
You know God’s will, and the law teaches you to distinguish what is better,
and so you believe you are the guide for the blind, a light in darkness,
a corrector of the foolish, and the instructor of the ignorant because you possess the true knowledge contained in the law.
Well then, you who teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? If you say that one must not steal, why do you steal?
You say one must not commit adultery, yet you do it! You say you hate idols, but you sneak into their temples!
You feel proud of the law, but you do not obey it, and you dishonor your God.
In fact, as scripture says, the other nations despise the name of God because of you.
Circumcision benefits you only if you follow the law; but if you don’t, it is as if you weren’t circumcised.
On the other hand, if those who are uncircumcised obey the commandments of the law, don’t you think that, despite being pagans, they are making themselves like the circumcised?
The person who obeys the law without being physically circumcised will judge you—who are circumcised and live by the law—yet do not obey it.
External appearances do not define a true Jew, nor is real circumcision simply the one marked on the body.
A Jew must be so inwardly; the heart’s circumcision belongs to the spirit and not to a written law; he who lives this way will be praised not by people but by God.
Commentaries
God’s Judgment.
Paul addresses his own people. Previously, he had spoken to the pagans in the third person; now he speaks directly to them in the second person, framing it as a debate by imagining a Jewish opponent whose objections he quotes to refute. It appears this Jew had been listening, with an air of self-confidence and approval, to Paul’s earlier condemnations of paganism. As a result, Paul tries to make this person see that he has no special privilege or advantage when it comes to God’s judgment, because everyone—pagan or Jew—will be judged according to their deeds. After all, the law that the Jews boast about is written in everyone’s heart, regardless of religion. The human conscience acts as a law (cf. Prov 6:23). The ultimate goal of the Apostle is to show that both pagan and Jew stand equally before God’s judgment, which is executed through Jesus Christ. Only by recognizing our shared sinfulness can we open ourselves to God’s saving initiative.
Jews and the Law.
Paul continues his imaginary discussion with the Jew, now addressing his claims and supposed religious privileges. The tone becomes more polemical, even aggressive. Paul mentions the three core privileges that, like protective walls against other people, made the Jews a chosen, exclusive, blameless people… The first is the privilege of race: “you who are called a Jew” (17); the second is the Law, or “the sum of the knowledge of the truth” (20); the third is the mark of exclusivity: “circumcision” (25). He then proceeds to dismantle each of these bastions of self-segregation and privilege. He does so by confronting his imaginary interlocutor with his historical past of transgressions and sins, despite the Law, circumcision, and all the religious-ideological trappings with which they have surrounded themselves. He tells them that they are just as ignorant, just as thieves, just as adulterers, and just as temple looters as the uncircumcised pagans. Moreover, he adds that there are decent and honest pagans who could serve as their judges (27). Let us replace “Jews” with all those who make their religion, the color of their skin, their race or nationality, their money, their social position, their ecclesiastical or civil office, an instrument of privilege, discrimination, or oppression, and we will understand the Apostle’s intention. To all of them, symbolized in his imaginary Jewish interlocutor, he is preaching the Gospel of God’s wrath.