==Romans 2:1:
Therefore thou are inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same thing
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To judge another is to presume that you have nothing to be judged in yourself--that attitude reveals a sinful and hardened heart. |

Those of us who participate in the self-righteous indulgence of condemning others put ourselves in peril because we condemn ourselves in doing so. It is easier to see the particle in another person’s eye than the plank in our own. Somehow we have the capacity to see things wrong in others while being blind to what is wrong in ourselves. This is unadulterated inconsistency. If we develop the attitude that, “since I don’t do what he does, this makes me better than him,” we chose to neglect what is sinful in our lives. In this, we make judgments in favor of ourselves; however, there is no favoritism in God’s court of law.
(SOURCE: Bible Exposition Commentary)
(SOURCE: Bible Exposition Commentary)
: To judge or not to judge? That question depends on the ability to appropriately judge your own heart. In these verses, Paul was responding to the self-righteous pride of the Jews. They were sinning, just like the pagans, and yet judging others. Simultaneously, they thought they were “good” because of God’s kindness, longsuffering, and patience toward them as His people. While Paul warns about judging here, we know that Christ followers should judge, admonish, and exhort other Christ followers (1 Corinthians 5:9-13; Matthew 7:1-5 (especially verse 5); 2 Timothy 2:25-26; Galatians 6:1). [SOURCE: Austin Ridge]
==Romans 2:1:
Romans 2:2:
But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. |
Paul warns that judgmental people cannot justify their own 'righteousness', for in passing judgement on others, they condemn themselves. And he continues, "and we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practise such things". Judgement falls on self-righteous, pharisaical hypocrites, because they fall far short of the perfect standard that God demands of His people. All have sinned and all fall short of God's standard. We sin because we are sinners. We are born in sin and the offspring of sinners and we ALL need a Saviour. -Daily Verse |

My reader, the only reason why you have not already been cast into Hell-fire, is because it has been the good pleasure of the Most High to stay your doom. Flee then from the wrath to come while there is yet time.
"O man, do you think that you shall escape the judgment of God?" (Romans 2:3). Did Adam escape the judgment of God? Did Cain, did Pharaoh, did Achan, did Haman? The only reason God has not "taken you away with one blow" before this, is because He endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction --Arthur Pink
"O man, do you think that you shall escape the judgment of God?" (Romans 2:3). Did Adam escape the judgment of God? Did Cain, did Pharaoh, did Achan, did Haman? The only reason God has not "taken you away with one blow" before this, is because He endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction --Arthur Pink
==romans 2:3:
So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment?
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Most people who make judgments are telling more about themselves then the thing they are judging. They usually see in others something they have in themselves. |
This perfectly pictures the error of the self–righteousness. A self-righteous person is one who considers himself righteous in his own eyes rather than through God’s eyes. They feel as if they are righteous because they vehemently accuse others of sin. They believe their self–proclaimed appointment of judge excludes them from the possibility of being judged, the accused.
Paul cleverly challenges this deep–rooted argument by treating their ability to judge as a convincing testimony of their being held accountable to a certain standard. They cannot say they did not know. They will be held to the same standards they use in their judgment of others. If they know it is wrong for a person to do something wrong, and judge that person, will they not be held to that standard too? They then will be more harshly condemned if they are found to violate that same law with which they judged others.
In a sense, they judge themselves. They define the law, set the penalty and pass the sentence. The only problem is that they exclude themselves from the accused. They believe their special relationship with God puts them in a better light. The converse is true. [SOURCE: Foundations for Freedom]
Paul cleverly challenges this deep–rooted argument by treating their ability to judge as a convincing testimony of their being held accountable to a certain standard. They cannot say they did not know. They will be held to the same standards they use in their judgment of others. If they know it is wrong for a person to do something wrong, and judge that person, will they not be held to that standard too? They then will be more harshly condemned if they are found to violate that same law with which they judged others.
In a sense, they judge themselves. They define the law, set the penalty and pass the sentence. The only problem is that they exclude themselves from the accused. They believe their special relationship with God puts them in a better light. The converse is true. [SOURCE: Foundations for Freedom]
Romans 2:4:
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering: but knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? |
God postpones punishment in order that his kindness will lead people to repentance. Paul reminds them that Gods kindness is also meant to lead them to repentance. |

This verse teaches us that God’s compassionate acts toward us in circumstances and in blessings are designed to move us from sin to repentance, to turn around and go back toward Him. The gifts we receive from God’s goodness are designed to embarrass us in our sinful states. “Repent!” has always been the message of God through His prophets to a people going their own way. And it was still the message of Jesus in Matthew 4:17, when He cried, “Repent, (come back), for the Kingdom of God is near.” Why has this message of repentance remained the same over thousands of years? Because we are prideful children who want to live our lives our own way. So today we need to stop again and carefully look at and realize the kindness and grace that God lavishes on each of us. -Pastor Ed Rea
==Romans 2:5-6:
But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life
7. to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. |
Paul began with the word, “but” which is a disassociation conjunction that means what is about to be written takes precedence over what was just stated “after your hardness” or “after Paul’s reader’s obstinacy and stubbornness” “and impenitent” which means “admitting no change of mind and unrepentant” “heart” which refers to “the soul or mind as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes and endeavours ” “treasure up” or “gather, store, lay up, heap up and accumulate” “unto yourself” which means “to their own selves” “wrath” or “anger, temper, indignation, and agitation of the soul”. Paul shared how these who judge others and were guilty themselves “stored up” the “indignation” of God through their “stubborn and unrepentant” souls. [SOURCE: Ray Hanselman] |
“Glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last” --CS Lewis
==Romans 2:7-11:
7. to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
8but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. |
Christian orthodoxy exclaims that no person can work their way to heaven, but rather is justified by faith through grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, works are the fruit of one’s faith. Therefore, Paul is not saying that obedience leads to salvation, but rather that salvation leads to a life of well-doing (good). Obedience is the result of true, life transforming, faith in the gospel. A person’s works reveal the reality of their faith. Paul’s commentary regarding those who practice obedience to unrighteousness is that they will also experience tribulation and distress for eternity. But those who live obediently by faith as a result of God’s saving, resurrection power will experience peace for eternity [SOURCE: Austin Ridge} |
Romans 2:12:
All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law |
Gentiles will be judged on the basis of the knowledge available to them. They won't be condemned for failing to conform to a code of laws they knew nothing about. They will not perish because they didn't have the Jewish law; they will perish because they have sinned.
Prior to the cross of Christ only Jews were under the law. They were judged by its rigid demands. Gentiles were apart from the law yet judged by what Paul calls, Laws written in their hearts (Romans 2:15). In this way God holds the entire world accountable for their sins, and their is no partiality (Romans 3:6,3:19) |
Romans 2:13:
(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; |
Jesus is seen as not only having taken our punishment upon himself, but also having fulfilled "“ or kept "“ God´s law on our behalf, and as a result of Christ´s actions being credited to our account, we are declared "righteous," that is, we are viewed as if we had perfectly kept God´s law.
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Romans 2:14-16:
for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) 16in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. |
Sin is not natural. It is contrary to nature. The more you sin, the more you mess up your body. Sin is insanity. Sin is living contrary to your design. The law has been added as part of mans genetic code in creation. Becoming Holy is a part of who each of us really is.
The Bible makes it clear that God is fair in that he takes into account what people know in his dealings with us (Luke 12:47-48; 1 Timothy 1:13). It also teaches that God will judge us according to how we have responded to Jesus (John 3:36; Hebrews 10:29), and to the ethical laws we instinctively know to be right (Romans 2:14-16; Revelation 20:12). -Nick Hawkes |
There are two principal parts of the light which still remain in corrupt nature: first, the seed of religion that is planted in all men; second, the distinction between good and evil that is engraved on their consciences.
-John Calvin
-John Calvin

Indulge me as I take this to a deeper theological-philosophical level, one that justices like Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, both products of Catholic education and likely admirers of Pope John Paul II, ought to be able to appreciate.
The late pope for decades was one of the world’s leading voices on conscience. He stressed the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of the free will that the Creator bestowed on all human beings. In his August 1993 Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), he wrote: “The relationship between man’s freedom and God’s law is most deeply lived out in the ‘heart’ of the person, in his moral conscience.” Citing the Second Vatican Council, he noted that in the depths of our conscience, we detect a law which we do not impose on ourselves, but which nonetheless holds us to obedience. This is a law written into the heart of all men and women by God, telling us “do this, shun that.” To obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged (Romans 2:14-16).
The pope brought that message directly to our shores, telling Americans in Miami in September 1987: “The only true freedom, the only freedom that can truly satisfy, is the freedom to do what we ought as human beings created by God according to his plan.” -Paul G Kengor
The late pope for decades was one of the world’s leading voices on conscience. He stressed the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of the free will that the Creator bestowed on all human beings. In his August 1993 Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), he wrote: “The relationship between man’s freedom and God’s law is most deeply lived out in the ‘heart’ of the person, in his moral conscience.” Citing the Second Vatican Council, he noted that in the depths of our conscience, we detect a law which we do not impose on ourselves, but which nonetheless holds us to obedience. This is a law written into the heart of all men and women by God, telling us “do this, shun that.” To obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged (Romans 2:14-16).
The pope brought that message directly to our shores, telling Americans in Miami in September 1987: “The only true freedom, the only freedom that can truly satisfy, is the freedom to do what we ought as human beings created by God according to his plan.” -Paul G Kengor
Romans 2:17-23:
Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, 18and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. 21You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 22You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? |
The Greek word that is interpreted “rob Tembles” is hierosuleo. and is translated “Commit sacrilege.” This is the only place in the Bible this word appears. "Theft" is basic to the word, and sacrilege is theft directed against God. The idea of sacrilege is present throughout Scripture. in Malachi 3:7-12, God accuses the people of sacrilege, of robbing Him of His tithes and offerings. The laws of the first fruits, the tithes, and much else are related to the idea: they forbid sacrilege.
The concept of sacrilege rests on God's sovereignty and the fact that He has an absolute ownership over all things: men and the universe are God's property. The covenant people are doubly God's property. First, by virtue of His creation, and, second, by virtue of his redemption. For this reason, sin is more than personal and more than man-centered. It is a theological offense. As Paul wrote on the subject of fornication (I Cor 6:19-20), it is a sin against ones own being (and a transgression with another person), it is also a sin against God. The Berkley Version renders it: "You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you commit sacrilege?" To detest idolatry does not make us godly in and of itself; godliness is more than the avoidance of certain offenses: it is active obedience to God. Certainly to rob God is the epitome of sin, and hence the seriousness of sacrilege. ![]() The Jew boasted that he knew the truth, because God has given him the Law. This was something the Gentiles didn't have. Ultimately, it caused them to become very self-righteous, and judge others. When a Jew read the first chapter, he might have said, "That’s right, the Gentiles are sinners, they are without excuse."
But now Paul turns right around and declares to the Jew, "Wait a minute, you are not excused just because you know the truth, just because you have the law. "You are equally as guilty." Why were they equally as guilty? Because they also suppressed the truth. The Gentiles suppressed the truth of creation, which revealed God’s existence, but the Jews suppressed the truth, by not obeying it. [SOURCE: Covenant Keepers] |
Localizing sin in a class, group, or people leads to Phariseeism. It becomes not a problem of Christ vs. fallen humanity, but us against their evil world. Moreover, too often false views of the world’s problems have us study evil as an outside or alien problem, us against them. Our Lord warns against the study of “the depths of Satan,” or “the deep things of Satan,” so the study of conspiracies is off limits for Christians. The law-word of God, the bible, not Satanic conspiracies, must be our study. We win by God’s grace, not by the knowledge of evil. Too many people who call themselves Christians can tell you more about conspiracies than about the word of God; this is evil. We need to have a biblical perspective on good and evil lest we become evil ourselves.
Romans 2:25-27:
For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? |
In Romans 2 Paul lays out an argument against those who are Jews and are holding on to some level of spiritual superiority simply because they were circumcised. Paul is making a clear distinction between religious tradition which doesn’t save, and circumcision of the heart which does. Following religious ceremony and holding up all the outward appearances mean absolutely nothing if there is no change in the heart. Paul then says these words in the same chapter. - Clarence Haynes Jr |
Romans 2:28-29:
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God |
The apostle removes the plea in favour of the Jews, taken from their name and privilege, by distinguishing between a Jew and a Jew, and between circumcision and circumcision: "he is not a Jew which is one outwardly"; by mere name, nature, nation, religion, and profession: neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; which takes away the flesh of the foreskin, but not the carnality of the heart; leaves a mark upon the flesh, but no impression on the mind. This is nothing, is not the true, solid, substantial, spiritual circumcision, which only avails in the sight of God. |
"that faith does not depend upon circumcision, but upon the heart: he that believes not as he should, circumcision does not make him a Jew; and he that believes as he ought, he indeed is a Jew, though he is not circumcised.''
And circumcision is that of the heart; which God requires, and he himself promises to give, Deu_10:16, upon which last passage, a very noted Jew (g) has this observation, זאת היא מלת הלב, "this is the circumcision of the heart"; the very phrase the apostle here uses: circumcision of the flesh was typical of this, which lies in a godly sorrow for sin, in a putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, and in renouncing a man's own righteousness in the business of justification. The ancient Jews had some notion of this typical use of circumcision. So Philo the Jew says (h), that circumcision taught ηδονων και παθων παντων εκτομην, "the cutting off of all pleasures and affections": and elsewhere he says (i): it is a symbol of two things particularly; the one is the cutting off of pleasures, as before; and the other is the removal of arrogancy, that grievous disease of the soul: and in another place (k) he calls purity, or chastity, περιτομης περιτομην, "the circumcision of circumcision". Now this our apostle says is
in the spirit; meaning either the spirit or soul of man, which is the seat and subject of it; or the Spirit of God, who is the author of it: the Ethiopic version reads it, "by the Holy Ghost":
and not in the letter; or "by the letter" of the law; but the Holy Ghost produces this spiritual work instrumentally, by the preaching of the Gospel. To which the apostle adds,
whose praise is not of men, but of God; referring not to circumcision immediately spoken of before, but to the Jew who is one inwardly: and alludes to the name Judah, from whence the Jews are called, which comes from the word ידה, which signifies to "praise"; and intimates here, that such persons must not expect praise from men, who are only taken, with outward things, but from God, who searches and knows the heart.
And circumcision is that of the heart; which God requires, and he himself promises to give, Deu_10:16, upon which last passage, a very noted Jew (g) has this observation, זאת היא מלת הלב, "this is the circumcision of the heart"; the very phrase the apostle here uses: circumcision of the flesh was typical of this, which lies in a godly sorrow for sin, in a putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, and in renouncing a man's own righteousness in the business of justification. The ancient Jews had some notion of this typical use of circumcision. So Philo the Jew says (h), that circumcision taught ηδονων και παθων παντων εκτομην, "the cutting off of all pleasures and affections": and elsewhere he says (i): it is a symbol of two things particularly; the one is the cutting off of pleasures, as before; and the other is the removal of arrogancy, that grievous disease of the soul: and in another place (k) he calls purity, or chastity, περιτομης περιτομην, "the circumcision of circumcision". Now this our apostle says is
in the spirit; meaning either the spirit or soul of man, which is the seat and subject of it; or the Spirit of God, who is the author of it: the Ethiopic version reads it, "by the Holy Ghost":
and not in the letter; or "by the letter" of the law; but the Holy Ghost produces this spiritual work instrumentally, by the preaching of the Gospel. To which the apostle adds,
whose praise is not of men, but of God; referring not to circumcision immediately spoken of before, but to the Jew who is one inwardly: and alludes to the name Judah, from whence the Jews are called, which comes from the word ידה, which signifies to "praise"; and intimates here, that such persons must not expect praise from men, who are only taken, with outward things, but from God, who searches and knows the heart.