Applied NT Bible Commentary by Tom Hale

Author:Tom Hale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Applied New Testament: Bible Study Tools
ISBN: 978-0-781448-65
Publisher: David C. Cook
Published: 1996-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER 2

God’s Righteous Judgment (2:1-16)

1 Paul here gives a great warning to all men: do not judge others. How eager we are to judge others! We suppose that we ourselves are righteous, and that we are therefore qualified to judge. We see the sins and errors of others, but we do not see our own. All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart (Proverbs 21:2). We ought to be so busy concentrating on our own sins that we have no time left over to look at other people’s sins!

We must confess to our shame that even among Christians this habit of judging one another is very common. Let us remember the words of Jesus: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (see Matthew 7:1-5; Romans 14:10 and comments).

Even though the warning in verse 1 is for all men, Paul is here speaking especially to his own people, the Jews. More than other races, the Jews had the habit of judging other people; they especially judged non-Jews, that is, Gentiles. The Jews were proud; they considered themselves righteous. Why was this?

To understand the answer to this question, it is necessary to look at the Jews’ history. In the beginning, all men worshiped idols and lived in sin. God desired to establish a nation of people who would honor and obey Him. Therefore, about two thousand years before Christ’s time, God called a man named Abraham (or Abram) to found a new nation, the Jewish nation (Genesis 12:1-3). God chose the Jews to be His own people. After that, God gave the Jews His law, the main part of which was the ten commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).

Then, because they had been especially chosen by God and had received His law, the Jews began to think that they must be more righteous than other people. Therefore, they began to despise all Gentiles (non-Jews). They considered the Gentiles to be godless and sinful.

But Paul here tells the Jews that, even though they are God’s chosen people and have received His law, they do not obey God’s law inwardly in their hearts. Instead, they obey it only outwardly. Their hearts are just as sinful as the hearts of the Gentiles. In a way, the Jews were more guilty of sin than the Gentiles, because the Jews knew exactly what God’s commandments were. Nevertheless, they didn’t recognize their own sin.

2 In this verse, the words such things refer to the various sins listed in Romans 1:29-31. God will render JUDGMENT against all those who do such things. God’s judgment will be based on truth. He will judge fairly and without partiality. He will judge us not only according to our deeds but also according to what is in our hearts (Ecclesi-astes 12:14; Revelation 2:23).

3 Those people (in particular, the Jews) who consider themselves righteous but continue to do these sins will not escape the judgment of God. Even though the Jews were God’s chosen people, and even

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