Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Romans 2:1 - 2:4
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Guilt of the Jews.
Correct knowledge and judgment alone avails nothing:
v. 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
v. 2. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
v. 3. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
v. 4. Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
The apostle had uncovered the deep moral depravity of the Gentile world, a description that may well fill the reader with shuddering, horror, and loathing. But now there was danger, and the apprehension had apparently been realized, that someone, and especially a Jew, as the connection shows, seeing the unexampled moral degradation of the Gentiles, would transfer his condemnation from the sins to the sinner, while he himself stands back in smug self -satisfaction and self-conceit. But such a person forgets that the same principle on which the Gentile is condemned, that of doing evil in spite of better knowledge, condemns him as well. He therefore that judges and condemns another is himself inexcusable, is in the same condemnation. Every one that judges: Paul purposely makes the statement very general, it applies to all men of all times. For in this that thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself: By and through the act of judging the sinful act, by condemning the transgressor, a person passes sentence upon himself, for he makes a practice of committing the same sins which he is so ready to censure in others. Note that the apostle's words are directed chiefly against the uncharitable condemning of the neighbor's person, of making personal matters of the transgressions. That class of people is growing in numbers whose members are ever ready with censure and condemnation for the sins of others, but who are themselves guilty of the identical sins concerning whom their horror is so great; and St. Paul's rebuke is very timely.
To the fact that the uncharitable critics are without defense and excuse the apostle adds an emphatic reference to the coming judgment. We, that is, the apostle, together chiefly with his Jewish readers, know that the judgment of God is in accordance with the truth, it squares with the facts, and is therefore directed against those who make a practice of doing such things. Two facts here stand out: The judgment of God is certain, inevitable; it will strike the guilty ones, no matter what their position, their real or implied importance in life, their supposed superiority over others. This is brought out especially by the rhetorical questions which Paul here inserts, not without some show of irony. Is any one of the opinion that he, for his own person at least, while he is judging those that make it a practice of committing the sins enumerated above and yet is doing the same things, shall escape the righteous judgment of God? The number of paragons of virtue and morality, largely of their own imagination, that believe God will make an exception in their case, that surely their better knowledge and correct judgment will shield them from the wrath to come, has assumed alarming proportions in our days, due to the religion of works which is being proclaimed everywhere. But theirs is a vain hope; the holiness and justice of God expects much more than an imagined superiority and a haughty aloofness.
Paul presents the matter from a slightly different viewpoint. If a person cannot escape his own judgment, if his own reasoning must condemn him, does he expect to escape on the ground of the peculiar goodness of God? Does he despise the riches of God's goodness, patience, and forbearance, not understanding or comprehending the true nature and design of the goodness of God, which is to lead him to repentance? The kindness and goodness of God at the present time is merely a manifestation of His providence, Mat_5:45, and does not justify the conclusion that these blessings will continue indefinitely, nor that the self-restraint, the patient waiting of the Lord may not soon have an end. The goodness of God is rather a tender invitation and admonition to effect a complete change of heart, to work repentance in the heart of man. Note: That has ever been the attitude of the great majority of men toward the providential goodness of God: they look upon His kindness as self-evident, as their due, as an obligation which He owes them, and are highly indignant when "the world does not give them the living they expect. " Only he whom the Word of God has led to the proper understanding of God's goodness and mercy and thus to proper repentance will make use of the patience and forbearance of God to his own salvation.